Heather Goes a Long Way to the Theatre 05

I apologize for not blogging yesterday, but afterall, we weren't on the road. We were in Iowa visiting relatives. Lots of relatives, and after a day of running around with small children, catching locusts and playing volleyball, I was thinking less about blogging and more about crashing. Here are some photographs I could not upload on Aunt Maryjoe's Iowa backwoods computer.
Today, Dad and I were back on the road! We gave Maryjoe a hug goodbye and took off across Iowa. The scenery was lovely, but both of us were happy to be making progress again on the highway. A few hours later we crossed into Illinois right over, get this, the Mississippi River. I had never seen the Mississippi in person before, and having been excited about it for days, I made Dad stop for a picnic lunch on the Illinois side looking it over. I'm a fan of Mark Twain, and looking at the river that Tom Sawyer and his friends swam across to their island and Huckleberry Finn road down on a raft with Jim, the escaped slave, made me feel much closer to the author. The last photo I included in this post is the view we had of the Mississippi over lunch.
We must have been well-rested from the day before because Dad and I breezed quickly through Indiana as well, skirting around the Indianapolis beltway. We had full intentions of just pressing on and reaching Athens, Ohio, our final destination, tonight, a day early. Upon calling my landlord, however, we discovered that he has been painting my floor with a sealant today and that we would die of fume inhalation if we stayed in the house tonight. So we scrapped that idea.
Instead Dad and I are staying in a very nice hotel between Dayton and Columbus, Ohio. We'll only have about two hours to drive tomorrow and then I will finally be at my new home! I'm so excited to begin unpacking and getting myself in gear for my MFA in acting! Of course, it is a little bitter sweet to end such a fun road trip, and I have also really enjoyed blogging my experience. Thank you all for reading. Soon, probably tomorrow, I will write and tell you all about Athens!

Heather Goes a Long Way to the Theatre 04

Alright, this is frustrating. I have so many beautiful photos from today, but I am unable to share them with you tonight because I am at my Aunt Maryjoe's farmhouse in Iowa using their painfully slow country computer. We're an hour outside Omaha, Nebraska and the internet just isn't hopping out here. Oh well, I promise I'll post the photos of today at my earliest convenience.
Today our trip across the United States took us all the way through Nebraska, the home of Arbor Day, or so we were informed by the welcome sign crossing the border. Strange that a state with what I, as an Oregonian, would call relatively few trees created a holiday dedicated to celebrating trees.
Well, they may not have pine forests, but they do have thousands of miles of corn fields. Corn, corn, corn, stretching as far as you can see. Often we'd see a big old red barn out in a field, but again, our view of it was obstructed by corn. Sometimes we'd see a break in the crops and a lone dirt road would stretch out with absolutely nothing on it until it either disapeared over a rolling hill or simply faded into the horizon.
Something that I've found fascinating about this area is the overwhelming amount of grasshoppers. When walking along the edge of a field they all jump away just as I put my foot down as though I was splashing water as I stepped. Their hum and buzz is deafening. I've found that if I stand quietly for a few moments I can hear the chirping and whispering of trillions of grasshoppers that inhabit hundreds of miles of field and farm. It is a unique and lovely sound. I am convinced I have never heard anything like it.
Upon stopping at one rest area, Dad and I became very preoccupied with catching and photographing the grasshoppers (I'll have to share the photos with you at a later date). I was fascinated with the different kinds and sizes I could catch. We were, in fact, so interested in our endeavor that I began to wonder how we would explain to our relatives in Iowa that we were delayed because we stopped to take pictures of bugs.
Anyway, now we are at Maryjoe's country house in Iowa, and we're taking a break from driving tomorrow to stay here and visit with a bunch of the relatives on my father's side of the family. My father's family, by the way, grew up in a fairly rural area of Michigan. There were seven children in the household, and I am excited to say that after twenty-two years of life, today after meeting Maryjoe and tomorrow after meeting Uncle John, I will finally have met all six of Dad's siblings.
I think that Iowa is breathtakingly beautiful. So far there are just as many farms and corn crops as in Nebraska, but the landscape is a little more varied as upon reaching Omaha, the terrain became far more hilly than flat. It feels strange to be so centralized in the United States. I feel as though I am the farthest away I could be from any ocean. I am landlocked.
One more happy thing I'll mention before I sign off, Dad and I crossed the Rocky mountains yesterday, if you'll remember. That means lots of different animal species that never got to the west coast. I was taking a walk this evening in a corn field, and began to see several of a specific little creature that is a favorite of mine. Fireflies. Silently lighting up and then quickly fading again as though people were standing among the corn stalks lighting matches and blowing them out over and over again. Wonderful.
I'll post pictures as soon as I can. Goodnight, from middle America.

Heather Goes a Long Way to the Theatre 03

Today Dad promised me a shorter drive, and it was shorter, by an hour. Ten and a half hours all the way across Utah and Wyoming. We're staying with friends for the night near the Wyoming border in a lovely little Colorado town called Milliken.
My morning started out great. I went jogging in Wendover, very early (6:00am at the hotel and 5:00am a block away over the Utah/Nevada state line). It was so early, in fact, that the sun was just coming up over the desert. The sky was bright orange and I could see the towering silhouettes of rock formations in the distance. Simply breathtaking. It was only too bad that the artificial lights from the casinos were still flashing like mad.
Not to pass too blatant a judgment, but I-80 Utah is gorgeous. Especially having spent so many hours the previous day driving through Nevada. Gross. I saw the Great Salt Lake this morning for the first time, and I was surprised to see that at this time of year it isn't really much of a lake. There are some pretty wet, marshy areas, but most of the hundred miles we drove over it we just saw big sparkling salt flats, and high mounds of the stuff in places where it was being harvested.
The landscapes today were beautiful. Utah had big red rocks and lovely little towns. As we crossed the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming there were swooping hills, hay bails, and large patches of yellow daisies. It was magical.
Here's a note for the state of Wyoming, though; not enough rest areas on I-80! Dad and I drove for two hours searching for one. We were tired, achy, dehydrated, and above all, hungry. Lunch was very necessary. Luckily when we finally found one, it was clean and beautiful. There was even an antelope to watch while we ate. I added a picture of him, if you look closely you can see him standing out in the sage brush.
We're going through Nebraska tomorrow. Dad promises it will be a shorter day.

Heather Goes a Long Way to the Theatre 02

Dad and I left my hometown of Medford, Oregon at 7:30 this morning. Eleven and a half hours and 640 miles later we arrived at our first night's destination, Wendover, Utah.
One of the most exciting parts of the whole day was when we were skirting along the brush, dry landscape of the Oregon/Nevada border and came across a large amount of wild burros. They were lovely, and unmistakable proof that Nevada has wild ass.
The Nevada desert was absolutely beautiful, and virtually desolate. There were several times along the road that I thought to myself, a) no wonder the government hides aliens out here, and b) this would be the saddest place to live on earth. In fact, upon passing by one town, Dad exclaimed, "What's this placed called? Depressedville?" Right then we drove by a sign that said Welcome to Devil's Gate.
After settling into our hotel here in Wendover, I gained two brand new experiences. The first was seeing my first cockroach, which Dad caught and brought to the front desk to inform them of their pest problem. I suppose, as I am only 1/8 of a mile into Utah I can count that as my first wildlife sighting in this state. The second new experience was gambling in a casino. Dad and I walked about a block to get back over the state line into Nevada and went to the Nugget where Dad played about four minutes of craps earning him six dollars, and I played about two minutes at the slot machine promptly loosing one of the six dollars Dad had earned. Needless to say, we were fine with returning to the hotel after that.

Heather Goes a Long Way to the Theatre 01

Tomorrow, life as I know it will be over.
I am leaving Oregon! Leaving lovely Rogue Valley where I grew up, and leaving the home state of my beloved city, Portland, where I spent the last four years completing my undergraduate degree and soaking in enormous amounts of great Oregon theatre. Yes, I am leaving all of it behind to get my Masters of Fine Arts in acting at the reputable Ohio University. For the next three years I will live, dare I say it...in the Midwest.
First, though, I have to get there.
My father and I will be spending the next five days squeezed tightly in my little GMC pick-up truck which is currently piled high with all my stuff. Oh boy.
Shopping for road food with Dad today was definitely the most amusing part of the afternoon. He got Doritos, I got Soy Crisps. He got Dr. Pepper, I got Hanson's root beer. He got a box of cookies, I got a bunch of Odwalla bars. He got cheese and crackers, I got hummus and carrots. About the only thing we'll be sharing is fruit. It should be an interesting ride. We did make sure to get a bottle of organic red wine and a cork screw.
He's also made sure to remind me that he wants to stop at every "Welcome To..." sign, and also the "Leaving Oregon" sign. I sat quietly for a while and then told him I could not express my excitement in words.
I'll keep updating the blog. So feel free to tune in! Ohio or bust!

The Bullet Round

I'm back in Portland now, but it's very temporary. I'll only be here nine more days, and then I'll be off on my big grad school road trip. As I will be traveling to theatre school, I feel that it counts as a 'Heather Goes to the Theatre" adventure. So I am planning to blog the details.
Tonight I saw The Bullet Round by The David Mamet School for Boys. No, it's not an actual school for boys. It's a theatre company who is "dedicated to producing work that challenges conventional playwrighting." I strongly suggest checking it out.
The Bullet Round, written by Steven Drukman and directed by Megan Kate Ward, was very engaging. I thought that relationship development among the characters was one of its strongest assets.
It's playing through the 23rd at Theater! Theatre! So if you can, check it out.

Don Quixote at OSF

It's been a couple weeks since I have blogged, and I am excusing that behavior by saying that after JAW I needed a little relaxation. Believe me, though, I am still buzzing with the joy of that experience.
Anyway, the break is over and I am back where I should be, recalling my most recent theatre encounter behind the safety of my little white Mac. My most recent theatre encounter, by the way, was Don Quixote a la Oregon Shakespeare Festival. As I am down here in Southern Oregon visiting my parents, I felt it would be a shame not to dedicate one evening to the theatre.
And what an evening it was! The show is really fun! One of my favorite elements was the multi-media. Specifically the puppets! I really enjoyed seeing the horses, donkeys, sheep, geese, owls, vultures and doves come to life! The design element of using so many found objects to create the props was also really cool. I was fond of the usage of bicycle parts and potato bags among other things. It was so fun and funny. I really enjoyed watching Josiah Phillips as Sancho Panza. It was a great way to come out of hiding and go back to the theatre.