Between late night honkytonks and cruddy internet connections I have not been able to document my adventures for the last three days so here comes a long one...
Day 6:
So, Texarkana, TX is where I left off I believe. We made our way to the Perot Theatre in downtown Texarkana for our two morning shows. It was really old and BEAUTIFUL! The first show went well...I felt a tad rusty since it had been a few days since our last performance. We had about an hour inbetween shows so I decided to do some exploring in downtown Texarkana. It was VERY quiet. I wandered past some old Victorian style house that was shaped like a club (as in the card suit). It had been turned in to to a museum. It was the biggest thing in town. No one was there. BUT the downtown was really cool! Very old, but most of the storefronts were deserted. Some of the display windows still had moldy displays left in them...it almost looked like everyone just up and walked out one day. The local who was working backstage at the Perot said they are trying to make the downtown into an arts district to revamp it. I hope they do, because it has some really cool architecture down there. I ended up making my way to a small local coffee shop and got a green tea. It happened to be right next to the Arkansas/Texas state lines! I actually sat with one cheek in TX and one cheek in AR, sipping my tea, eating a half peanut butter sandwich I smuggled from the hotel's free breakfast. I called my granddad and left him a message because I thought he would appreciate the novelty. My hour of me-time was almost up so I headed back to the venue to get ready for show #2. When the show started the kids went CRAZY. We might as well have been the Jonas brothers, because it took them a good 2 minutes once the show started to stop screaming. It was awesome. After that rush it was back to the hotel to pack up, grab a quick lunch (soup and salad!) at Olive Garden then hit the open road yet again. The drive wasn't terribly long and we made it to Fort Worth around 8:30 PM. The awesome thing about this day was that I got my own hotel room!!!! I imediatly allowed my suitcase to explode all over the room as soon as soon as I entered. We had learned earlier on our drive that Fort Worth was home to the LARGEST honkytonk in the WORLD! So obviously we had to check it out. We got all gussied up and left around 10. It was awesome. And they weren't kidding when they said it was big. It had a huge live music venue, plus a rodeo ring, plus a huge giftshop, plus a million bars, AND a huge dance floor! We hit the gift shop first then decided we needed some food. I ordered my usual crap food...a delish corndog with yellow mustard. We eventually made our way over to the dance floor and tapped our toes on the sidelines. We kept wishing someone would come over and ask us to dance and low and behold...they did! This very nice and respectable cowboy (don't worry Matthew) asked me to dance and I told him I didn't know how to two-step, but he was a great teacher! He was not sketchy at all and really knew what he was doing! He asked me what we were doing there and I told him all about our show and then said when our dance was done that he had to dance with the 5 other gals that were with me...and he did! His name was Jarad, and he was a total doll...he took our whole group under his wing and taught us the two step basics...it was so fun! Some of the other couples were REALLY good dancers. I almost felt like I was back in time. These young people (and older people too) came to the honkytonk JUST to dance! It wasn't about getting a girl or guy to take home...it was about sweating and dancing and just having a good time...it was sooooooooooooo much fun! We ended up staying until last call (it took a while for Jarad to swing each of us around the dance floor) then we headed back to our hotel. It was nighty night for me....long day of driving ahead.
Day 7:
Day 7 was DRIVING, with a capitol D, day. We had 500 or so miles from Fort Worth to Van Horn to go so we started early. The first part of the drive was slightly dull geographically. Very flat, very dry. We did stop at a Dairy Queen to take a potty break and they had a full on Jesus (say it like the locals..."hey-seuss") alter in the store. You know you are in TX when...
I could tell we were definitly heading west because the terrain was much more like the desert. I even saw a cactus at a gas station! We finaly made it to Van Horn around 7-is PM. Kip, the only guy actor in our show, is a photographer as well as an actor and insisted we have a girly photo shoot with the TX mountains and sunset in the background. We call him Kiperattzi. After the truck arrived with our luggage we took the van to Chuy's Mexican Restaraunt. John Madden is a huge fan of the restaraunt apparently because they had pictures of him EVERYWHERE. They even had a chair with his name on it...
Van Horn was teensy. It was almost creepy. When we came out after dinner there was a full on wind/sand storm happening outside. I was actually a little creeped out sleeping in a room by myself that night becsause the wind was howling so much. But I woke up to a beautiful TX morning and got ready for...
DAY 8!
SO, finally caught up to the present!
Today I woke up in Van Horn to a beautiful but chilly morning. I had horrible dreams last night, but I am sure it was a combination of eating mexican food late at night and the howling wind. We started driving west, again, heading toward New Mexico. The scenery started to get GOURGEOUS. We were surrounded by red rock mountains and huge cactus (cacti?). It was a perfect day. There was no civilization for miles...just skeletons of road side stops of old. It was beautiful. I did end up taking a small but wonderful van nap because I was slated to drive later in the day. When my driving time came I was prepped with my Diet Dr. Pepper and a great iPod mix to get me through. It was really windy, so the big ol van was a little hard to handle at first, but I got her under control quickly. The scenery through New Mexico and Arizona was just breath taking. So different from anything I have ever seen. Its funny to think one country can have such diverse topography. I brought us safely into Gilbert AZ around 5 PM (we are now in Mountain Time Zone). My room is awesome! HUGE bed...HUGE shower! The gals ordered pizza and salad and then it was hot tub time! My back has been hurting in the lower region...I think because of all the riding time, so the hot tub was a blessing!
I am totally relaxed and we have a day off tomorrow so I have already put out my "do not disturb" sign on my door. I need to do some major sleeping and laundry tomorrow...I am running out of skivvies!
XOXOXOXO! (wine!)
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