Time Zone: Eastern
Today's Weather: 62ºF, gray skies
Length of Tour Stop: 6 days/7 nights
Next move: tomorrow morning
First up was a three-day visit from D Scott Ferguson, an old Cats buddy of Jonathan's who's seen us not only through Phantom but also the vaudeville in Vegas, and keeps coming back for more. As any normal friends who see each other only rarely and have but a small amount of time to share would do, Jonathan and D Scott said hello for about ten minutes and then started building a portable deck. After all, what are visits for if not carpentry?
To be fair to the smaller cities, there's one more limitation: there are only a few cities in which the company rents cars, so usually the dancers have to be able to walk from their hotel, or use public transportation, to get to the studio. There were a few cities where this ruled class out entirely, to the point that I didn't even make a call to ask about fees. Encountering this obstacle was completely expected.
What I didn't expect was how absolutely shut out we'd be of the arts communities in the bigger cities that did have ballet facilities, and in fact had AMAZING ballet facilities, within walking distance of the theater or hotel. So many regional ballet companies would only give us "standard rental" rates, $75 or $100 an hour (class takes 1.5 hours). With only five or six dancers able to split that cost, one class is over $20 a person. Not affordable on a non-equity dancer's salary.
But it does exist, and North Carolina Dance Theater is one place where it seems to thrive. I sent them my usual query and they were extremely supportive, giving us more help than I'd asked for and treating us respectfully in every way. And so for an hour and a half on Friday I felt like a dancer again in a studio filled with light and energy.
There was no time to rest on Saturday morning; the "a lot" of Charlotte wasn't over. My New Orleans Ballet Theater colleague Trey Mauldwin, himself a Charlotte native, invited me to take class with his advanced girls at Charlotte School of Ballet and I wasn't going to miss it, at least as much for the chance to catch up with him as for the chance to watch myself fall out of pirouettes and fail to point my feet.
On Monday when we arrived there were approximately 40 RVs scattered across this giant campground, which at full capacity holds 462 units. On Saturday night, owing to the nearby auto show featuring 50 classic car clubs and 9500 vendors, every last campsite was full. Over a thousand people, with their children, dogs, scooters, motorcycles, golf carts, and mobile grills, had flooded into the park. The spring weather had rolled in with them and everyone was out of doors. This is another remarkable thing about RV living: even when you don't move locations, your location changes. What was desolate on Monday is a carnival on Saturday.
Walking the dogs felt like perusing a gallery of RV lifestyles. There were ancient RVs surrounded by beer drinking men in brightly colored camp chairs. There were top-of-the-line spanking new motor coaches towing car-carrying trailers with matching swirls of custom body paint. There was a camper that had an awning with black and white check like a racing flag, and a green RV bus that had the back window painted as a jungle scene featuring two white tigers. Many awnings were hung with colored party lights, and every third or fourth site had some type of portable fire pit around which chairs, or in one case, Hoverounds, were gathered. There was a birthday party for a dog and a family reunion taking place at side by side sites. As I walked the dogs I found myself singing the "Museum Song" from Barnum: "Run around the block and see a new show start!"
When we woke up this morning it had all vanished and as I walked the dogs through the empty sites, remembering, "This is where the Hoverounds gathered," and "This spot had the checkered awning," I missed them all as though they were family that was gone and never coming back. I wondered where they all went; do any of them travel for a living like us? Where is home, where is school? What else can I know about them? Why are they gone? It seems like a very silly question to ask and I find myself asking it, and wishing it wasn't so. Obviously nobody stays here forever and we ourselves are leaving tomorrow, so what does it matter?
But tonight while it's quiet and I'm still here, I want them back. D Scott, Stephanie, Trey, the white tigers. My mother, my sisters, my family and my Phantom company, my childhood friends and myself from the days of ballet class and flashlight tag. I wish we could all be together. But that's a lot to ask, even for Charlotte, which has a lot.
Miles Driven with RV: 4020.5 miles
Days Lived in RV: 68 days
Camps Overnighted in RV: 10 RV parks, 1 Walmart
States Camped in RV: 7 (TX, AL, TN, IN, KY, IL, NC)