Great Theater, Great Friends

but first an update on the wetness.  Had a dry sunny day in Crescent City, CA at Village Camper Inn.  Please note that did not last 24 hours.  I got up on the roof and caulked everything in sight, again, with a fresh tube of caulk.  Then I determined that we had a lot of humidity in the coach from showering and cooking, Carol has been making some wonderful soups!  We have not been venting thoroughly.  Added some vigorous ventilation to our program and the carpet is drying out. 

Slow forward  a week (we do nothing very fast here) and I set up at the Elks RV Park in Florence, OR only to find that the satellite would not work.  After a lengthy discussion it was determined that the LNB must have given up the ghost to weather and vibration and needs to be replaced.  Now all I have to do is figure out what an LNB is and install or have installed a new one.

Enough!  After our day with Jerry and Anna Lee in Sacramento they were able to get tickets for us to join them at Ashland Shakespeare Festival.  We reserved an adjacent RV camping spot and met them on Friday, the 25th of March.  Their journey over the mountains was moderately more harrowing than ours as they had to delay a day to avoid 70 mph winds and snow in the passes.  We just crept in from the coast.  There are stories to be told but I will save them.

Friday night we went with Anna Lee and Jerry and their long time friends Ann and Jerry (you are not seeing double) to The Oregon Cabaret Theater to a performance of “The ‘Daly’ News”  the story of a father’s weekly newsletter throughout World War II to his 4 sons serving in various branches of the military.  The music was written by Gregg Coffin who has written many things we have seen performed at GEVA Theater in Rochester.   It was a wonderful performance and foretold great theater to come. 

Saturday, after a wonderful brunch of Challa French Toast prepared by Jerry on their coach –hmm brunch for 6, that must violate some RVing rule someplace – because it was raining we sat around and shared stories with Jerry and Jerry and Ann and Anna Lee, of course by now Ann Carol was using her full name just to be part of the pattern.  Nothing to be done with “Paul”.  Jerry and Ann left late morning for home.  No one needed lunch so we went off to a 1:30 performance of “Language Archive.”  This is a wonderful play and the performances were superb.  The theater, a relatively new theater, has a thrust stage with audience on three sides.  The staging and lighting were really well done and furniture seemed to appear and disappear without distracting.  Dinner was the four of us at Arbor House in Talent, that is a town about half way between Ashland and where we were staying in Phoenix, OR.  OMG, I seldom use that expression, but in this case it is needed.  Each item was beautifully prepared and flavored.  Carol and I ordered curry dishes and they brought out samplers so we could adjust the level of spice to our desire!  None of us had ever seen that before.

Sunday the Braunsteins were off to brunch with local friends they had met on a cruise so Carol and I waited out the rain and headed into Ashland for a light lunch and some light shopping, before settling into the large theater for “To Kill a Mocking Bird” performed from the only stage version approved by Harper Lee.  The stage was practically bare and yet it was very dynamic.  Shadows on a scrim gave us Boo’s house and the mad dog and other visitations and they changed in perspective as the actors approached or retreated.  The cast was excellent the three children were really very good.  It was hard to believe that the boy playing Dill was only 9 years old.  Because of the children the performances are only during the day and only 40, so seats were at a premium.

After a lovely ethnic dinner at Sesame with the Braunsteins and their friends we returned to the theater to find it transformed for a modern day version of “Measure for Measure”.  The lines were pure Shakespeare, even those in Spanish and the mariachi band of three women certainly brought a different approach to the play.  The standing ovation at the end was certainly well deserved.  Well entertained and exhausted, we returned to our coach for a good nights sleep to the sound of rain on the roof.

As we set up for departure it was not raining, yet.  As near as I can figure it has rained on us some part of every day from March 8 to today, March 29.  Rain is forecast for tomorrow, the 30th, as well.  I am not complaining but the moss on my head will need trimming soon.