July 21st

Well, yesterday morning we were at the house in NJ. The night before the wonderful lady whose house we were staying at had offered us her bikes for a ride to the boardwalk, which was about 1 block away. Of course, mom wanted to go, and Elizabeth went with her. She didn’t tell me what time she was going to be back, so we didn’t know they were lost until about 10:05, because we had to leave at 10:15 and I didn’t think she was going to come back much later than 10:00. I didn’t really know they weren’t coming until 10:10, and then we just had to get all our stuff in the car and the lady went ahead and took the 3 of us to the church. (well, it wasn’t really a church, it was more of a Christian event center, but I’ll call it a church for now.) A few minutes after we got there Elizabeth came around the corner, followed by mom, and mom asked me where her phone was and why I didn’t answer it. We had left her suitcase at the house because she had said she was going to change clothes before we left and we weren’t sure if she had everything packed. So, I didn’t have her phone. She left the room and I assumed she was going back to the house to get her things. We were tearing down and loading out that morning, so there was enough time to go back to the house, which was about 8-10 minutes away. Mom doesn’t really do tear down, and a only a little load in/out, so it was okay for her to go. Apparently they had met a lady on the street outside her own house and she had driven them to the church, and she was going to drive mom back to the house we had stayed at, but someone from the church told her everything was fine and she could go. So mom had to wait for the lady we had stayed with to come get her, which I heard took a while. Mom had a box of doughnuts when she got in the van, so we think she went by and got them on her way to get mom. Anyhow, we had loaded out and got all our stuff in the vans and prayed with the people from the church and Mr. Payne said to get in…and mom still wasn’t there. I had called her when we all were going to the bathroom before getting in and told the girls that she was coming, but hadn’t left the house yet. I didn’t know how to tell Mr. Payne, so Gee told him for me (thank you Gee!), and he said never mind about getting in, because we couldn’t leave until mom got there. I was pretty much a nervous/embarrassed wreck, because I hadn’t known what to do when mom & Liz hadn’t shown up, and apparently had not done the right thing by leaving mom’s stuff behind. So, eventually mom did get there and we hit the road. We drove about 2 ½ hours to Elverson, PA. We got to drive through Philly, where Jonathan, Mom and I have been on NCC tour before, so that was cool. We saw the museum where they filmed Rocky on the steps, which is one of the places we went on the choir tour. That was pretty cool. We got the church in Elverson and had lunch…which was this amazing chicken and vegetables and rolls with sweet tea and fantastic pastries. The pastries were those little puff things with cream in the middle, and there were plain ones and chocolate covered ones and ones what were oval shaped with chocolate on top. I wanted the whole tray. After lunch we loaded in set up and ran tech. We used EVERYTHING. It was a good show…I heard there were about 600 people in the audience, and they were fantabulous. Lots of kids, some of which talked a bit, but not so bad. I don’t know of anything that went wrong, other than a few small things, which I won’t bother you with, other than this one…There is a scene change when the wardrobe and lamppost come off and the trees move back and the beaver dam and table with benches comes on. I have to unplug the lamppost as soon as I get off stage, as nothing can happen until it is off. I had to run off, unplug the lamppost, go back and get the lamppost off stage, go back again and get a tree off, then go help move the beaver dam on. So, I had unplugged the lamppost, done back for it, and turned around to go get the tree, when I rammed into something really hard and jagged on the edge. DUH, the beaver table, which I knew had to go out and was going to be moving right there. Katie D and Chris were taking it on and I just turned around and ran smack into it. Katie asked if I was okay and I said yes and she started laughing at me. (that all happened in about 3 seconds) It really did hurt for just a minute, but it was okay. I did get the tree off and over to the dam in time. After the show and load out we went to our host home, which was a beautiful big house. I didn’t know until the morning how beautiful the land was…the had a great big yard with some lovely trees and there was a gorgeous pond and horses across the street. They were so nice, and they made us an amazing breakfast…Eggs, potatoes, bacon and waffles, some of which were shaped like Mickey mouse!! There were also strawberries and whipped cream for the waffles. Yes, it was insanely fantabulous. I wish I could live in a place like that. So, I think that’s it for yesterday. As I am writing this we are in the van on the way home. We were making great time and now we are going slower than I can walk. I have no idea what it causing all the traffic, but we’ve been mostly sitting still for 30 minutes now. Oh well, we’ll get there eventually. :)