Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska

From Mom: Well, this blog is pitifully incomplete, but we have decided not to be slaves to it, but hope to go back and fill in blanks as we can. Pictures? We have thousands of them, but that is Allison's dept. and she likes to do whatever the gang is doing at night. Maybe I will learn how while we are at home, or even how to put albums on Facebook in time, but we have gazillions of pictures of flowers (if you know Allison) and also gazillions of blurry pics while riding in the van, trying to get that perfect view w/out a truck going by (lorry if you are Mr. Payne) or w/out the hill going up and obliterating the scene. This country is beautiful. BEAUTIFUL!! Just the ride on the interstate is such an adventure. There is no shortage of land, miles and miles and miles of it with no house to be seen, in every state we have been in. I feel like we should go back and narrate the states properly, so for now I will just fill you in on recent happenings. After doing shows in Kalispell and Missoula, Montana, we moved down to Salt Lake City, Utah. The city is settled between mountains, some snow-capped and some not, but certainly the place for winter skiing. Attendance has been low for this last round of shows, but we always give it our best and I think the folks there really enjoy it. The show is very tight, of course, by now, and the only new things are how to cope with new stages, where to enter and exit the curtain, which set pieces are being used this time, etc., and then there's the occasional "how did you end up over there?" and "sorry, I hit you too hard" or "sorry, my wand got caught in my costume", or "my horn got tangled in your costume"! Always funny and I'm sure the audience never knows it. This church fed us like royalty in a jungle room painted like a rain forest for the children complete with trees (God's Reign Forest). We were served breaded chicken, rice, veggies, salad, bread, and potato soup on glass plates (not the soup) and with glass goblets! Strawberry shortcake for dessert! It was such a shot in the arm! We have eaten at a Subway or Taco Bell in every state, practically. Much gratitude expressed! We didn't actually see the Great Salt Lake (did you know it has more salt than the ocean?), but saw a part of it (a bay?) from the interstate. The mountains surrounding the road out of town were breath-taking. Then we started out for 2 days of travel. We drove all across Wyoming. We saw more wildlife than ever before. We saw bison, cows and horses, and antelope were just randomly in the fields all along the way. We stopped at a rest stop and there was a whole village of prairie dogs who were obviously used to being watched and fed by humans, so they popped in and out of their holes and posed for our cameras, much to our delight. They make this funny little sound that is sort of like a loud cricket, and you can see their little belly go in and out. The sign there said that sagebrush is the plant that keeps the Wyoming wildlife alive, as it is very hardy and plentiful and the snow blows off of it in the winter. There were the strangest wooden fences propped up like picture frames placed all along the interstate in what looked like random formations, but I was told that they are there to keep the snow drifts off the interstate, which ends up being closed due to snow at times. Some of it looked sort of like desert and I couldn't imagine snow being piled up that much there. Today we drove across Nebraska, the cornhusker state. It is mostly farmland and more corn is grown there than anywhere else in the US. This was the first state where after we had driven a little while, you could sleep without missing anything new. The terrain, while lovely, didn't have much variety. We have finally come in to summer. Since Phoenix, it has been cool, breezy and sometimes cold. Today we opened the van door to 100 degrees and muggy! Nashville weather, here we come! Tonight we are in a Guest House Inn, where they have a pool indoors and the hotel is built around this recreation area. The kids had a nice swim. Mr. Payne says get your hotels through Hotwire for great prices. Tomorrow we head to Overland Park, Kansas for what may be our best attended show. If you are following the Jeff Roberts site for our dates, it's not very complete. It looks like we will be home a little longer than expected in July, to keep up from having a date in Maine and nothing else for 5 days. I don't know all the dates, but new locations are coming in. We will have 2 dates in Arkansas, one in Spartanburg, SC (mom and dad, send this blog to our family--I will get exact dates and time eventually), Brunswick GA, and Cocoa Beach and Tallahassee, FL (Mike and Carol?). Right now it sounds exhausting, but after a tank up at home, maybe we'll be ready. (Lexie, William, Scott and Daddy, we can't wait to see you!!) Alice, I was getting my phone out to return your call the next day (my vibrate went off in the sound booth--I thought it was funny) when I realized I didn't have it. Bummer! We miss you guys! Spring--I hope you are well again! We'll be home in less than a week. The countdown is on!! Love you.