The Land of Enchantment

We sadly left Colorado Springs and headed for a one-off in Farmington, New Mexico. The drive was kind of long and this was one of those days where we had a show that night. We drove through the Continental Divide and it was beautiful! The aspen tree leaves were all gold so there was a mix of those and evergreen.

Farmington itself left much to be desired. It was a civic center that sat about 600 people which is WAY less than we are used to but the space was decent. We had a fairly good show and headed back to our super seedy motel where we all had problems. I quite enjoyed the random stranger's pubes on my bathroom floor. National tours, for those who don't know, often have nicknames so you know which tour you are speaking of. If there are two Les Mis tours out, for example, one may be called the Marius tour and the other the Eponine tour. We are calling this the Meth and Bail Bonds tour as we have enjoyed playing places that seem to have drug problems and often our motels are near bail bondsmen. Charming. So the hotel sucked there and then we went to Denny's after the show, because everything else was closed. We got this waiter that was the biggest idiot EVER. Everything was wrong or late and Michelle's food was dropped on the floor. The crew encountered problems with the locals at the venue as most of them only spoke a Native American tongue, and then one of the lighting rails was dropped on our electricians injuring them. So needless to say we were ready to go to Albuquerque.

The trip to Albuquerque was only about 4 hours and was also pretty. The thing about New Mexico is they really enjoy a monochromatic life. Every building, every house, is the color of sand. I find this disconcerting but that's just me. The Sandia mountains overlook the "ABQ" and are lovely. We stayed at the Barcelona Suites which prompted us all to sing "Barcelona" from Company being the theatre geeks we are. They were decent and anything was better than the motel in Farmington! We were performing at the lovely Popejoy Hall at the University of New Mexico campus. We had a very busy schedule just like in Reno. We had Friday night, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. My dresser, Baron, was cool. I never did quite figure out which time he played for. He made me autograph his program. This is a pic of us. Cute huh!? There was a lot to do by the theatre so we did some shopping where I picked up a rockin' brown knit cap with gold threads at a place called the Buffalo Exchange. We also enjoyed a Starbucks-rivaling latte at Satellite Coffee. The pumpkin chai was to DIE for! Saturday morning we tried to get us and go to the Balloon Fiesta to no avail. Albuquerque is well know for hosting this event where hundreds of hot air balloonists from all over come and exhibit and they have these massive launches at 7:00 in the morning. Our visit happened to coincide with the event so me, Matt and the kids and parents got up early early EARLY Saturday morning to try to go see the first "mass ascent". Well we waited forever for a bus only to find out we had been given wrong information and the first bus wasn't until 8:00. So thank you to the ABQ transit morons we had three sad little boys on our hands. Saturday night Erin and Will hosted a toga party in their room. We hadn't seen rain since we left NYC so we were surprised when we were hit with a deluge of epic proportions! On the way down the outdoor terrazzo staircase in flip flops I slipped and fell halfway down the stairs. Will saw me through the open door to their room and tried to come help but was too late. I caught myself and was okay except for having a kind of wet and dirty toga! It was the next few days when I found out how bad a had wrenched the whole right side of my body. Thank god for hot tubs at hotels because they have helped soothe my muscles.

Sunday morning I managed to snap a photo of a few hot air balloons rising over the city but still not the view we had wanted. We closed out the weekend and went to bed for the trip to Ruidoso Monday.

The drive to Ruidoso, NM where we were staying that night wasn't bad at all and the White Mountains there were quite beautiful. The town reminded me of New England or at least what I saw of it. Andrew and I opted to do some laundry before the show. We headed over to this little Mom and Pop place for lunch and it was awesome. Then we actually found a Starbucks nearby and enjoyed lattes.

Monday night we played the Spencer Theatre in Alto, NM. This theatre sits up on a mountain all by itself but is as modern as can be. It was built by this rich old lady who lamented there not being a theatre nearby so she built one herself and it now attracts all kinds of big acts and tours. I was excited to tell my dad I signed the wall next to the Smothers Brothers :) Just look at the pics of this place. It's small but beautiful! We had a nice full crowd and an appreciative one at that.

That's it for New Mexico! Now I owe you guys the Montana-Wyoming leg blog and boy is it a doozy! Let's just say dive bars, roller skating, handcuffs and shriners. Hope to get it up in the next couple of days.