In Which We Bid Farewell

Earlier this evening, around midnight, Sammy and I had to take Murray back to the bus station so that he could go back home. We have so enjoyed working with him and talking to him. He is a dear man. He's good at what he does. I think a lot of him. When we begin rehearsing for The Magic Story in earnest we hope to bring him back.

For those who have not heard, Sammy and I will be going to the Northern-most Dakota tonight. We have an engagement at a club until around 11pm and then we will be hitting the road. We are a part of a local attraction that draws around 1,000 people a night. We will be performing a 20 minute routine 7 days a week for 3 weeks. I have no idea what to expect. According to one website, there are 7 museums in the town and a permanent population of 100. Not 100,000. No. 100 people. I am not overly hopeful of interesting society or entertaining diversions of any kind. I'm sure you can look forward to painfully regular updates on this blog.

I'll be honest: I do not relish the idea of being 23 hours away from my loved ones for 3 weeks. We will be quite far. I'll be not 1, but 2 time zones away. 5 hours' drive seems downright close when compared to what we'll do tomorrow. But this is good. I'm going places and seeing things. On a schedule. I will be back, god willing and the crik don't rise. (I'm brushing up on my Southernese for the Northerners.)

Sammy said, "I feel like I'm packing to go on the Oregon Trail." I laughingly agreed. That was a computer game when he and I were in elementary school. I think my wagon always caught the bubonic plague or something- I never made it to Oregon. Before he said that though, I had been thinking about The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet where Chuck and David bring enormous bags of food to go on a 2 hour space ship ride because they didn't want to "starve to death in the middle of outer space." That's how I felt packing up my own brown paper bag. There are all manner of edible odds and ends in there. Hopefully we won't waste away on the road.