California to Arizona

Today we had quite a busy day traveling. Who knew there were so many landscapes to see between San Diego, CA and a teensy place called Heber, AZ? We climbed up and down two mountains, saw a desert oasis and crawled through the fog behind a snow plow. It was bananas to say the least.

The cast sleeps a lot on the drive. Actors' Equity rules call for us to take a 10 minute driving break every hour and 20 minutes. That allows for the 10 people in the van to have pretty much every bathroom need to be taken care of as needed. On all day drives those breaks can get annoying because the majority of us are sleeping and we just want to get where we're going. Sometimes we just stay in the van during the break while the potty-ers take a break.

Tonight, we made our final stop in a place called Heber, a small town at the bottom of some mountain. We're at a Best Western for the night and there's no food around. We are snacking on stuff from the vending machine and I may break into my oatmeal stash. I've been saving it for emergency stomach issues, but right now I'm just plain hungry. I'm watching National Treasure on tv. It's one of those movies I have to watch every time it comes on. I have a double bed in this room, but I don't room with anyone. It's nice to have my own space and relax, especially after a full day of driving with people all around me.

When we signed our contracts, we had the opportunity to choose if we wanted to have single or double occupancy rooms as we travel. We get a bigger amount in our per diem check if we room with someone, but none of the girls opted for that! The boys did, but there are 3 of them, so they take turns letting one boy have a single room. The boys, or I should say "men", in the cast all did the show last year at the Kennedy Center, so they already knew each other for this trip. The girls are all new. We all think it's better to just get less money in our per diem for the sake of not sharing a mirror, talking on the phone and Skype whatever hour of the day or night, and not scheduling shower routines. I think it's worth it.

We're heading for Albuquerque tomorrow and then we have a day off. We definitely want to plan something fun on our day off, so hopefully the weather will cooperate. After the shows, I'm headed home to NYC, so I am really looking forward to that! This is the longest amount of time I've ever been away from Shawn, but we're both hanging in there.

We've been planning our Texas move, but I haven't been able to make any real plans as far as booking movers, flights, and such because my schedule has been so funky. We'll get it worked out when we're finally together in a few days!

And I'm excited to see my puppy and kitty!!!!