Getting there

A quick inventory of observations as we launch our wild ride through Bakersfield and the Netherlands (how's that for geographical incongruity?):

-- A strange travel day yesterday. It was (I think) my first experience of the surreal Las Vegas airport, which is where I caught a puddle-jumper to Bakersfield. By a delightful coincidence I ended up on the same flight as Jill. (She was at it again: flying in from the east coast to play with this damned group. How does she do it?!)

-- We (i.e., all forty or so people on the PJ flight) had to endure the musical stylings of a steward-from-heck (note that I distinguish him from a hypothetical steward-from-hell because he seemed like a well-meaning enough fellow), who must have, at one time, aspired to a performance career (who knows, maybe he is still aspiring). Comedy, singing, repartee, this guy did it all. Except that it was after midnight and most everyone on the plane seemed beat.

-- My puddle-jumper experience may have been negatively affected by the fact that I was seated next to a somewhat obese woman who kept falling asleep and letting her entire body slide over into the legroom area of my seat.

-- We made it to Bakersfield safely, where we procured the services of the most insane cabbie I have ever known. Pegging 90 MPH, blowing through stop signs, driving with one hand: this guy did it all. All at 1 AM in the morning. He gave us his card, in case we wanted to call him again. Yeeeaaaahhhhh, right.

-- Today Jill and I will spend a little time hanging out with KT (we have the express privilege of getting to meet his beautiful kid!) and then head over to the festival to meet up with the rest of the crew, who is arriving from around CA. We go on just before 7 PM. I'm told the audience will be in the thousands. Egads!

-- Tomorrow I catch an early morning flight outta Burbank so's I can get back to Port-town in time to celebrate my beautiful kid's birthday. And then Tuesday it's off to the Netherlands (I'll try to have an after-the-fact post about our Bakersfield hit before then).

-- Yee-haw. And again, I say, yee-haw.