Adventure Day 28 & 29: Final Day Off & End of Episode 3

So yesterday was my last day off for a while in the forseeable future. It mostly consisted of lazing about, wathcing Daria and MST3K, playing Pokemon and trying to find some food for under twenty bucks. Sadly there is just not that much to do in Dallas but the rest time was great and very well needed.

Today was our final segment for Episode Three. We started off the day with getting some more MOS done and getting some landmark shots of different areas of Dallas. I did pass the book depository where JFK was shot, they keep the window that Oswald fired from open at all times. I gotta say it was really cool and sort of chilling. After or pick ups we had lunch and the made our way to our big segment. Today’s segment revolved aorund a cat, abox, and some travel. It lasted a little long but I think it came out well in the end. Also the owner makes chiropractic equipment and we all got these awesome supports to help rest your lower back. Score free swag!

With that done we just got a shot of the Dallas sky line as the sun was setting on the top of our Hotel. And that folks is a wrap on Episode Three. Crazy that now one more is done. I now only have two more episodes left before I am back home on the North East. Its crazy how much time feels has past. The stuff I did in Seattle almost seem like months ago. I guess its just been the constant shooting all the time. I am doing so much that time just seems to blur together. Tonight is my last night in Texas, and really I think my time in Texas as a whole was not that terrible. Ok there were some moments that confused me and also made me go WTF. But really at least the people I worked with were very friendly and not bad. I will not be sad to leave this Texas heat and humidity it is supposed to be over 100 degrees on Thursday, very glad I will be out of here by that time.

So what is on the docket for Episode Four? Well no details on what we are shooting but I can tell you where I am going. Tomorrow we make our way to Arkansa. I am there for a little bit and then we go down to Mississippi. We are only there for one shoot however. Once that is done we actually back pedal a little and go back west! I will be driving back towards Kansas for a few shoots and then back even still to Colorado! Episode Four is going to be JAM packed with things to do and allot of ground to cover. But still the adventure still goes strong!

So another episode done and another section of this huge country seen. I can’t wait to see the rest.

Adventure Day 25, 26 & 27: Days Off and City of the Dead

Its been a busy few days even though one of them was a actually a day off and I am coming to a close to my time in Texas.

On Friday Morning I said goodbye to the interesting city of Austin and began our trip into Dallas. We left a little bit around 9:30 and continued our sojourn into the giant state that is Texas. Honestly the drive was nothing special. We made good time, ate at a Chilis and made it to our shoot a little early. Along the way I polished off a few podcasts and continued my audio book on the Lord John series.

Today’s segment was the final part of our three part big segment on animal health and obesity. We learned more about different options owners can take when dealing with obesity. The shoot went very well but there was a critical shot we needed. There was this interesting way a particular cat ate its food and we really wanted to get it on camera. However as the famous quote goes “Never work with children and animals” we know that with animals things may not work out the way you want, esspecially with cats. So after waiting around for close two hours we realized that our special cat would not be eating the way we want him too. We finished up the shoot and headed to our hotel in Dallas. It was a long day but it was really productive and the time was for rest because the next day was another day off for yours truly.

So yesterday I got to do my favorite activity and that was sleeping in. Its funny how I have gotten used to my erratic wake up times so I have to sort of train myself to actually sleep in past nine or so. After sleeping in I went off to get some errands done. Along the way I went into Best Buy and I found my win object of the day. It was the complete Daria Boxed DVD set. The 8th grade and Highschooler in me jumped with happiness! This is a show I watched over and over again and pretty much was saved on our old Tivo forever. Needless to say I’m very happy that this is now out on DVD and is the perfect thing I can watch if the cable sucks at any hotels I go to in the future. After some errands I was on my way to laundry when I saw this.

That’s right folks it took three weeks but I have finally passed over 10,000 miles on the ole van. I’m more then confident that I will pass over 20,000 by the time I get back to New England.  So with the errands out of the way I finally decided to check out Downtown Dallas. And what I have learned by walking around is this…..there is nothing in downtown Dallas, and barely anyone there too. I have heard that Dallas is a big convention town and when no convention is happening no real locals hang around. But seriously I think I might have seen only over one hundred people on the entire walk from my Hotel to the downtown area. It was incredibly eeire, like a scene out of some zombie survival story, where there is only a handful of survivors and everyone else is just gone. So walking around there is just not that much to do. They have a aquarium, a JFK memorial and a few museums but not that much. Oh also they had this in there gift shop…

And just like that it all becomes very clear to me that I am most certainly not home anymore and things are very different where I am. I am sure its not like this for all people but still the fact that there are people who do believe this and I am in there major territory makes me feel a little weird not going to lie. So after the fun walk and uh interesting discoveries I returned to my room and was attacked by a nap.

After the surprise nap I was finally able to watch one of the movies I had around it was “Kick Ass”. As a comic book reader I though I might enjoy this movie more but honestly I wasn’t amazed by it. In some ways I really feel like it would have been more interesting if they removed the Kick Ass character entirely and focused the entire movie on Hit Girl and Big Daddy I enjoyed there sub plot more then the entire movie. With my movie done it was time to pack it in because we had a new day of shooting the next day.

So today we had two segments to shoot today, the main problem was it was going to be record heat in Dallas and Fortworth today. It was over 95 by the time we got to our first segment at around 10 am. We did allot of MOS and some intro pieces. All very good stuff just very tireing in this heat. After some lunch we headed to our final piece which deals with cats and fashion. This one you will just have to see to believe it was crazy but also really interesting. We spent allot of time there and the people were very nice to us for taking over there space for a few hours. Finally things were all wrapped up and now I am currently back in our very nice hotel.

It was a long and hot day but once again I feel good with what we did, were very close to be done with Episode Three and were still going strong! Tonight is just food and MST3K and tomorrow I have a nice relaxing Memorial Day off.

Adventure Day 24: Day Off Special Report

So today was a first real day off I have had in a real long time. The first thing I did was also something I haven’t done in a real long time and that was sleep in! I purposely slept in till 10:30 just because I could and it felt great! I dedicated the entire day to nothing and relaxing. I took a walk around downtown just seeing the different stores and shops and seeing what was around. I walked over to the Capitol building which is really gorgeous I gotta say.

I decided to help avoid the heat I would duck in and see a movie. However the movie theater was about 45 minutes away. I don’t mind long walks at all however long walks in +90 degrees and humidity made it a little more interesting. However the movie theatre I went too was awesome! It was called “The Alamo Draft House” Its one of these movies that is very chichi.

See what I mean?

Also what was really cool is this is a movie theatre that makes you lunch or dinner and beer. I know these places exist but I have never been in one before now. I was able to have really good food and a beer and then see Iron Man 2. I know people have had mixed reviews about the movie, but I thought it wasn’t that bad. Once again Robert Downey Jr did a great job again as Tony Stark. The geek in me was very happy with the references to Avengers, Captain America, and even Thor. But really the thing I was really impressed with was how they played off Black Widow. Scarlet Johansson did a great job not just with looks but with the character. The thing I was impressed with is they did a great job of transforming a comic book character into a somewhat believable real character. Even her fight scenes were spot on with how she is like in the comics. And best of all her costume is pretty spot on with the comic but also believable and not horribly crazy.

After the movie I headed back to the hotel, I quickly picked up the car to resupply for tomorrow and refuel but that only took a hour or so. I came back and took a nice quick power nap before heading out for one last time. I took one last walk around in the evening Austin is actually quite pleasant and not too hot. Also there is a full moon out tonight which rising was really orange and cool looking.

So it was a great day off, not having to really think and just take in all that was around me. Tomorrow we leave Austin for our last city in Texas, Dallas. “Cue Dallas Theme Song”

Alright Adventures back to our regular scheduled cat show tomorrow!

Adventure Day 22 & 23: Austin City Lights

So the adventure of Episode 3 continues! Yesterday was our last day in San Antonio but it was filled with thunder and lighting and storms! The first part of the morning was just driving to one of our segments but the rain was coming down so hard that visibility was a fun issue. Although on a random fun note. While driving down the highway with huge amounts of rain coming on me “Duel of Fates” from Episode I came on and while still really tough to drive through it did make it a little more epic and a little bit more awesome. However like on cue when we made it to our segment the sky parted and the sun greeted us….and also the muggy humidity greeted us as well and we were not as happy with that greeting. Our segment was the first in a 3 part bigger segment dealing with animals and health issues, and obesity. I learned allot of interesting health facts and saw allot of adorable fat cats. It reminded me allot of our old cat Sean. The sweetest fat cat that ever lived and any of you reading this who were lucky enough to meet him knew how awesome he was. twenty five pounds of awesome!

After the segment was over it was time to say goodbye to San Antonio and make our way to Austin. After an hour and a half drive I was in the city of Austin. I went on ahead to give a ride to our talent for one of segments for the following day. A guy who is a street performer who uses animals and a cat. Sadly with all the driving I did not make it back to the hotel till fairly late, however our hotel is awesome! Were staying at the Omni one of those really big hotels right in the city.

I have no idea why but for whatever reason I am on the sixteenth floor in what they call “The Executive Suite”. I think its because I came in later and this was just one of the only rooms available but I gotta say its amazing I mean I have a balcony, a jacuzzi and a freaking walk in closet! This is the look from my window!

I unpacked quickly checked out the digs then passed out because I had to get up early for a epic long day of shooting.

So today was a full day of two different segments. The first one was that street performer I mentioned earlier. We went to this really cool Bed & Breakfast out of the city. There unique because they are a Bed and Breakfast specifically for Dog Lovers. Each person gets there own cabin that has a huge enclosed yard for there dogs to play in and even an agility course for them to run on! The people there who own it are extremely nice and even made us breakfast in the morning. We haven’t had a home cooked meal in forever so it was really just the best. Our first segment went over and we were all ready to get back to the city.

We then made our way to our second segment of the day. This was the second part of our three part big segment on animal health. We went to a program that is really trying to help people educate and help people with obese animals. There program is very unique and I think will do allot of good helping out animals. The anime nerd inside of me was giggling because there was one fat female cat there named Kagome. If you know where the name is from then you know why its funny.

Lastly we had to get our street performer back for one last part of our segment. We actually did some taping near the Capital building which looks really impressive. We finished up with him and that was a wrap for a very long but extremely productive day.

Now that were all done I am now just relaxing here in the hotel. I’m very excited about tomorrow because tomorrow is a day off! Its been a great long run but the idea of just having a day to do whatever I want and sleep in makes me almost giddy not going to lie. I”m totally going to check out more of Austin tomorrow because it looks like a really interesting city and allot of people have recommended it. We leave the city on Friday and then make our way to Huston.

Time for some hardcore relaxing!

So I think my GPS tried to lead me to my doom

So this just happened only an hour ago. I wanted to get some food and decided I wanted something that was not just regular fast food. I had a giant craving for a Turkey Burger. So I look up a restaurant that looks to be fairly close. I call them up and order a nice turkey burger and a salad and they say its about ten minutes. I find the address and plug it into my GPS. I start driving out and then my GPS is like oh wait its actually about 25 minutes away I’m thinking “ok that’s annoying but whatever it will be good food” So I am driving for 25 mins or  so. I drive into San Antonia metro area….then I start driving out of the metro area. As I start getting closer to my “destination” I notice I am in fact getting farther away from all forms of civilization. No tall buildings…no houses….no street lamps. Realizing that this is probably not my destination I decided to just drive on so I can turn around. I hit my “destination” and it was actually just a black grassland area no lights no signs pretty much no where. Now this could be the result of Texas being so big that this address could be in fact “correct” but just in a different area and my GPS picked the wrong one….Orrrrrrr my GPS could have some vendetta against me and felt the need to leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere Texas never to be heard from again. I was able to get back to my hotel with out incident but I had now lost an hour out of my night and sadly no Turkey Burger.

Not the worst thing out there really and it doesn’t ruin my night, but it was just oh hey GPS why are you trying to send me out into the dark wilderness?!?!

Oh well at least I have Ice Cream.

Adventure Day 20 & 21: Off to the Big state of Texas

So yesterday was just a travel day into the big big did I mention big state of Texas. We left New Mexico a little past 9:30 and started our eight hour journey. We stopped here and there to get some cool shots. We have one of our host dirving into Texas past the welcome sign. It’s sort of eerie/cool on how quiet and desolate this stretch of highway was. Were in the middle of th edesert no cars anywhere everything is so still and quietl all there is the wecome to Texas sign and a burned dow gas station.

Its totally one of those memories that’s going to stick out when I think back about this trip. For the most of it Texas is quite pretty. Lots of nice valleys and hills and plains. Not as hot as New Mexico , but VERY humid. We wound up having lunch in this town that was so small you could drive through it in about five minutes. The rest of the day was just making our way too San Antonio. We finally arrived at our hotel at around 8 PM. Had just enough time to refuel, restock and get some food and crash, our next shoot was going to start before six am.

Today’s shoot was at none other then the historic Alamo. The first thing I have learned when arriving was that the Alamo is not in some desert or plains but is actually pretty much smack dab in the middle of the city. The entire shoot revolved around this cat that is at the Alamo and is part of a tradition. Everyone working there were amazing nice and cooperative. Halfway through shooting it struck me that I was not just at a shoot but a really amazing piece of history, that I may not really see again so I spent some time just looking around the grounds. The workers we spoke with were very knowledgeable and tuned us all in on some really unique piece of history. For every segement we do our host will write a song about it. Today’s song was really well done, plus he was wearing a reanactment costume so it realy added just another layer to the whole shoot. I am personally pleased with this particular segment because back when I was researching stories for episode three, I found the article that was written about the cat at the Alamo. It was also really nice meeting the people I had spoken too on the phone. All and all a very well done piece that I think is going to look great when its all done.

So our first two segments are done and I really think its a good start to a good episode. Now to rest up tomorrow is another day, we leave San Antonio and then we head out to Austin.