Dear Diary,
Oh, what fun this trip has been! So much fun that we have neglected you, dear diary, but a moment of respite in Chapel Hill has returned us to you. We will start back in Tucson...
After a delightful Greek dinner with Shara's aunt, uncle and cousin, we stayed in a lovely AirBnb and then woke early to meet our fellow travelers, Teddy S. and his friend, Nathan, for breakfast. We ate at ye' ol' Welcome Diner and caught up on life and stuff. Good luck on your move, Nathan! Then, we parted ways for the last time...or so we thought.
Literally, one hour later, we stopped to see The Thing, a weird roadside attraction. And who pulls in right after us but Teddy S. and Nathan?! The four of us, a happy gang once again, toured the strange little museum and then we said, ENOUGH. THIS IS OUR ROAD TRIP. That was the last we've seen of Teddy S. and Nathan. We hope you're well.
A day of driving through the desert of west Texas, during which we may have hit a tumbleweed or two, we arrived in Marfa. This small town has attracted a community of artists and cool people, and is now the subject of a new TV show with the inimitable Kathryn Hahn, I Love Dick. But now you know we were there first, diary! Before all the hype that's coming! We stayed at El Cosmico, a hip campsite, that Shara's friend Suzy works at and woke to the sunrise above.
Suzy S. also hooked us up with the Marfa West Texas Talk public radio team for an 8am interview about improv and clowning. If you missed the scheduled show on 93.5, you can now listen, diary, at West Texas Talk online. We played an improv game with our hosts, Diana N. and Zoe K. Pretty sure it's entertaining AF.
From Marfa, we drove to Austin where Anakin, this beautiful black lab, was gracious enough to let us crash in his bonus room. He set up the trundle bed and everything and introduced us to his humans, John and Holly. Both very lovely humans! They allowed us to crash their Mother's Day brunch, which was a delight. Thanks for a great stay, Anakin!
In Austin, we performed our first two shows and taught our inaugural workshop at The Hideout Theatre! And diary, this theater had a great space, which included a cafe/bar. What a fresh idea! The shows were a blast, and Shara's brother came to both despite the fact that his normal bedtime is 9:30pm. He particularly liked a scene where Mona played a flock of four or five chickens. You da best, Chris.
On Sunday morning, Anakin fed us a hearty meal of crepes and omelettes and then we barged through a few states heading towards Knoxville, Tennessee. As you know, dear diary, Knoxville is Shara's hometown and this was the first time she's been back in about three years so she was PRETTY EXCITED. There was a lot of relaxing at the pool in Knoxville, but we also led an Intro to Improv workshop for Shara's parents and their friends and co-workers. Diary, it was pretty magical to have kids and adults in the same workshop. Might work on that concept more when we get back. We also had drinks with one of the 2.5 improv groups in Knoxville called Full Disclosure. Go check 'em out if you live in K-town.
We also, of course, stopped by Shara's childhood home and checked up on her room. Hanging on the wall was a poster she got when she graduated from her college improv team and if you zoom in, diary, you will see that Mona commented on the poster. (Mona also designed and printed all the posters for the seniors--BELATED THANK YOU!) And who would have thought that six years later, we have now actually become improv twins? Eh, it was probably obvious.
Rejuvenated, we left Knoxville and headed to Atlanta for ONE NIGHT ONLY. We stayed with Shara's high school friends, Tommy W. and Rebecca N. and their two cats. Diary, did you know that Shara is allergic cats? And did you know that a lot of people really love cats? Hm. Despite the dander, Shara had a great time catching up with Tommy and Rebecca and we both had an AWESOME time at the Dad's Garage improv theater. Everyone was so welcoming and lovely performers, and Shara made it into the top 3 of their 12 improviser Elimination Challenge. REPRESENT.
Now, we are in Chapel Hill, NC doing a couple shows and a workshop. Look at all the states we had to drive through to get there! Sorry, South Carolina, we weren't paying attention when we got to you. And diary, can you guess the blurry state sign? It's in between Louisiana and Alabama. We really tried our best.
Tomorrow, we continue our journey to the nation's capital and beyond! Don't worry, diary, we'll check back in soon.
See ya on the flipside.