Day 2, Dublin, OH

Well the first show of the season is behind us and by all accounts, we set a mark on the wall--the performance was a crowd-pleaser and the corps maintained their concentration to lay down an outstanding first effort.

In the afternoon, about an hour or so before the scheduled ESL time, a fairly intense line of thunderstorms moved from West to East over northern Ohio and SE Michigan. It rained very hard for about an hour and then let-up enough to complete loading. The meal was served in a school hallway adjacent to the kitchen truck. There was some question about whether the show would go on or not.

As we left for Toledo, about a one hour ride North, it was still raining but stopped just prior to our pulling in to the lot at Witmer HS. The weather got clear, cool, and dry for the first of the show and held to be very pleasant for the rest of the nite.

I could sense the excitement and tension in the kids faces before the show and saw the satisfaction and performance high afterward.

The crowd literally jumped to a standing ovation as Conquest brought the show to a close--it is an extremely satisfying show to see and hear. It never lets up--just when you think it might be easing off, it slaps you in the face, grabs you by the throat, and gets stronger--right to the end.

Those that had seen the last part of the winter camps or early run throughs have been stunned.
So, we are housed at a beautiful site at Jerome HS in Dublin, OH and only about two miles from the show-site. We depart at 6:30 for our 9:30 performance tonite. Many of the volunteers are resting prior to dinner and load.

This is the first day of the regular travel and sleep schedule so everyone's daily routine needs to get re-calibrated.

The support crew and trucks arrived this morning at about 3:00AM and we got to bed at about 4:00--wake up for the kitchen staff is 6 so they stayed on the U3 till breakfast. Drivers hit the floor in the school--I got up in time for lunch at 12 but will nap a liitle before leaving--its about 4 hours up to Port Huron and we are leaving at midnite--so another late nite. The sleep schedule will settle in in a couple more days.

More pix from the show tonite I hope--

From the road,

Curt