Tomorrow, I leave from Raleigh-Durham International Airport and head to Vancouver for five weeks to work as an associate instructor at Canada's National Voice Intensive. My bags are packed, my bike is stowed and my cat is secured. My flight leaves RDU at 10:14am and including travel to the airport, I can look forward to approximately 16 hours of travel time.
Considering that 150 years ago it took 16 months of travel to cross North America, I don't think I have much about which I can complain.
Tonight though, I leave you with DJ Honda and Mos Def for company. Consider it my theme music for tomorrow's journey. And to quote I'm Gonna Git You Sucka...:)
Tomorrow I embark on an almost two-month journey to Vancouver and Canada's National Voice Intensive. First, my cat Mo and I will be driving from Philadelphia to Richmond, VA to visit my brother and his family for a couple of days. I'm look forward to seeing my niece and nephew, Cassidy and Tavon. They're always a bunch of fun, and since I'm a professional at playing pretend I usually fit right in.
After that all of us will be heading down to our home on the coast of North Carolina to visit my parents for about a week. The hope is that my brother and I can take our motorcycles down with us and so that he, my dad, and I can all ride together for the first time. That would be mighty nice!
Then on May 4th I will fly out to Seattle then take a bus across the border to Vancouver, where I'll be living and working until June 11th. I'm back in Philly on the 12th, then attending the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia auditions on the 13th. Whew!
In a way, I sort of turn off the rest of the world when I'm preparing to travel. There are a lot of things I have to think about and remember in order to feel comfortable and prepared. Just today I've had to do laundry, call the airline to inquire about baggage, pick up the trailer to tow my bike, audition for a wonderful acting opportunity at the National Constitution Center, and obviously pack my stuff. Tomorrow, there's even more to do, including the trip itself.
So allow me to apologize in advance for any lackluster discussion or observation in the next couple of days. Things will pick up, I promise. Vancouver always brings a lot of stuff out of me. You'll see.
Until then, I give you the song I sing to myself every time I travel more than 200 miles in a car. It never fails getting stuck in my head for at least 20 miles.
One of these days, I'll do a real Bandit run to somewhere; hopefully with less involvement from law enforcement. That would be bad.
I've give a travel update tomorrow. Let's hope all goes well!
