Wartburg College brought us in for Family Weekend entertainment on 10/10, and the show was delightful! Before the show, the Activities Board (or whatever they're called at Wartburg) took us out to eat at the local pizza place, and I had the special Octoberfest Pizza, which had bratwurst and sauerkraut on it- which was amazing and delicious! We learned that Wartburg was a castle that Martin Luther holed up in after refusing to recant at "the diet of Worms", (which is not what you think).
In the morning, we drove our rental SUV back to the airport and headed off for some much needed time at home. The SUV we had rented all week is worth talking about: the Toyota Seqoia is even larger than our past behemouth GMC Sienna. We had dubbed the Sienna "the GMC Elephant", and we are dubbing the Seqoia "the Toyota Aircraft Carrier". We think that it actually had another car located inside rather than a spare tire. The thing had two cupholders in every door, and three more in the center console. Also in the center console was a compartment large enough to store a small child, or at least both of our laptop computers. There were literally 8 compartments in which to keep your sunglasses, and two glove boxes. At 16 miles per gallon, it was 20% less fuel efficient than the GMC, and didn't have as many nice luxury features, like heated seats, a gate that went up in the back... the Toyota just wasn't as nice.
On the morning of 9/26 we dropped off our amazing GMC Elephant at the Minneapolis airport, flew to Columbus, Ohio, and picked up a vastly inferior Kia Sportage. I'm all jaded now; no rental car will ever impress me again.
Marrieta is in Ohio right on the border of West Virginia, and we arrived with no problems for Parents' Weekend. The problem occurred during set-up: I noticed I was missing the receiving end of the wireless presenter remote I use to advance the slides in the show. The school didn't have one, so I had to go out in search of a new one for purchase. I went to Wal-Mart. Nope. None at Radio Shack, either. I drove over the river, into West Virgina, where I went to the Office Depot, the mall Radio Shack, and a different Office Depot, where I bought something that wasn't billed as being compatible with my system. I bought it anyway.
The venue, which looked as though it had been a grocery store once upon a time, (and was called the Gathering Spot, known as the G Spot of the student body), had an amazing mural that was straight out of the '80s, and in the main rec room, where we were performing, was a Ms. Pac Man machine that Jonathan totally forgot to play, despite the organizers having given him a quarter. We went out to eat Mexican food with girls from the Activities Council, and allowed them to feed us- and by 'us', I mean 'me'- many many Margaritas. The things we'll do for our art.
Oh, and five minutes after we took our final bows, and were packing up our gear, guess what I found?
Right. You knew already that that's when I'd find it.
Our show at Saint Mary's University on 9/17 went exceptionally well. We were told that the turnout probably would have been better if it weren't for the fact that the season premiere of "The Office" was airing later that night. This is frustrating to us due to the fact that you can easily watch the show online later, for free, with fewer commercials at the NBC website. Oh well, what can we do? Even so, we were really happy with the people who did come out to see the show, and we all had a really amazing time, so those "Office" geeks just missed out!
I want to talk about the rental vehicle that we will be driving for the next two weeks of our tour. It's the GMC Elephant (which is actually named 'Sienna' by the auto company), and it's HUGE. I have never been behind the wheel of a vehicle this big before in my entire life, and I have to say it's pretty amazing. With three rows of seating, you can comfortably fit one tabloid reality TV show family and still have room for an Iditarod team of sled dogs in the cargo hold. You might have to put the sled on the roof, but it had cupholders for a dozen or more Big Gulps. Getting in and out of parking spaces is a serious challenge in this clumsy beast, but once you're on the highway, this baby opens up whole new worlds of power and class because driving this monster feels like piloting a slick space ship. Sitting comfortably in the command chair of this class SUV starship you are no longer effected by the gusty winds of nearby cargo freighters or area storms. There is no need to swerve in efforts of avoiding running over the inevitable graveyard of highway road kill, just power through it. You may faintly hear carcass parts thump briefly in the wheel well before disintegration, but the glass of ice water that the onboard robot poured you won't even ripple on the surface because the ride quality is just that smooth. Dual zone cimate control gave Jonathan and me the ability to put the passenger into a cryogenic freeze while the driver basked in perfect tropical temperatures while receiving a relaxing massage from a tiny personal shiatsu therapist seat warmer in the back of the chair. I think there are even individual climate controls for the people in the back seats!
Anyway, the car's pretty comfortable. If you need to reach Jonathan or me, the butler will bring the phone to us in the hot tub. If we can get the sled dogs out of it.
