Aberdeen, South Dakota 9/14/10

Aberdeen, South Dakota is a place of many wonders. Rolling hills, sunny skies, dirty underwear. Although we were supposed to stay another night in the White House Inn, we checked out this morning after Mrs. Wooley awakened to find a particularly gross piece of apparel seemingly left behind by a previous occupant. We called Penny from West Lake to inform her of our situation and she got to work booking another location. Because of this, we were temporarily vagabonds! Needing to waste a few hours till a new living space was discovered, we headed over to the magical country of Storybook Land.

    Energy levels a little down due to the immediate evacuation of the White House, we arrived at Storybook Land. It did not take long for our spirits to rekindle as he took the yellow brick road down into a park filled with life size figurines of countless fairytales. Not often are you given the opportunity to venture through the land of Oz, climb a beanstalk, ride a pirate ship, and meet Yogi Bear. We all had an incredible time. We left in Wizard style; arm in arm, with Reed as the scarecrow, Lauren as the lion, myself as the Tinman, and Grace as Dorothy.

    To satisfy our hunger, we stopped in at a nearby Perkins. It was here that we received a call from Penny telling us that our new home for the night would be the Ramada, where the previous caravan had lodged last year.  Appearing to compensate for our awkward night at the “the hotel who must not be named”, our new rooms were flipping fliptastic. Flat screen TVs, an extravagant pool, and clean beds were a welcome luxury for our team. While we would have liked to stay and take in all our blessings, we quickly headed over to our next show.

    Our third performance certainly proved to be the most difficult space wise. While the show still went off without difficulty (aside from the cloud falling apart), we had much less space to work with. Even so, we pulled through and put on an excellent show for around three hundred people! Afterward, we recorded videos on Reed’s iPod to send to loved ones (Alissa and Dan, I hope you enjoyed), and signed autographs. We met a couple interesting characters during signing, including identical twins, and a three year old boy who could pretty much only say “Yes, I did.”
“Did you like the show?”
“Yes I did.”
“Did you have a favorite part?”
“Yes I did.”
“What was it?”
…And then he ran away. After a record teardown, we headed over to Wal-Mart and Taco Bell to stock up on food for the night. Minneapolis airport, three-hour lay over and Saunders field. Hooray. On the way there, we discussed that fact that we have the four of us now have only two moods: really tired or really hyper. This is most likely due to our constant moving, hard work, and varying sleep schedule. I kind of like it.

After meeting a kind old man from Sioux City in the Wal-Mart parking lot and a playful Taco Bellman, we headed back to the Ramada. At the brilliant suggestion from Grace Rowan Rants, we gathered up our dirty clothes and took a walk a few blocks to the nearest Laundromat. While we had a fun walk with one another, we arrived at our destination to discover it was closed. We headed back to our dwelling defeated and somewhat delighted at our misfortune.

    We arrived back at the Ramada, and watched The Office and the VMA’s in the girl’s room. After a round of talks and jolly ranchers, we yielded to fatigue, set our alarms to ten, and let our heads hit our CLEAN pillows. Thank you Ramada for the stay, Penny for the room, and you for reading. Tomorrow, we continue to Rapid City,

Hugs and kisses to the Mrs.,

                Jackson Gregory O’Brien.