Themes

Any of you poor souls that followed my scribbling on tour last year may recall my references to "A Streetcar Named Desire" the famous play by Tennessee Williams and, in particular the character Blanche Dubois and her assertions that -

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers"

Welcome to the Pink Heals Tour version 2013

This year's theme is apparently "National Lampoon's Not For Profit Organization"

We had to reschedule an event we (read I) originally set up for yesterday due to logistics/scheduling/housekeeping issues.  Once those items were squared away, we had some idle time.

Enter John and Vickkkkkki.

And a large, Arkansas-based, super mega global, "if you need to buy it we've got it here", look out below small business owners (no endorsement opportunities needed) shopping experience.

This adventure started in McHenry.  Vickkkki and I took John to the local large, Arkansas-based, blah, blah, blah so he could look for copies of "his" movie to buy so he can sign them and give them to people. 

For real.

So, the nice ladies there, after about an hour (an hour which btw included Vickkkki and I digging through the $5 DVD bin looking for copies of said movie sigh), ordered 16 copies of the DVD "Twister" and donated 8 more copies and had them shipped to another of their stores down by here.

And so we enter the "National Lampoon" portion of our show...

Four and a half hours later, they came back.  With tales of purchases and subsequent returns, trafic jams stretching as far as the eye can see, wrong turns and missed turns.

And 24 copies of the movie "Twister"

I think we need to schedule a screening. 

Quick PHT factoid - at one time, our guy, John Rhyne, was the highest paid actor working in Oklahoma. 

Let that one sink in for a bit.

I'm not making any of this stuff up either. 

I think tomorrow I'm going to dust off "Meet Your 2013 Pink Heals Tour Drivers".  Tere should be plenty of ammo, I mean info by then. 

Depending on how the morning goes, I think I'm taking the kids on a field trip downtown today...

Wish me luck...

Pink Heals!

Peace

Aaaand we're slowing down...

Maintenance day yesterday.

June, the pink SUV (she's new to the tour this year) needed some minor stuff done to her (don't we all?) so Vickki (that's NOT misspelled, she really spells her name that way) took her to a local (for real, that's how she spells it) Ford dealer that (I know, right?  Too many "k's") one of our contacts (she's from south Texas, that's all I'm gonna say about that) hooked us up with.  If I knew who it was I'd thank him.

So, before we left McHenry (once home to the #1 arm-wrestler in the world, and I'm not even making that up) we needed to secure lodging for three nights before we set up our base camp for the first two weeks of August (more to come on that later) which meant we hung out at the hotel for a couple more hours.  Along with several Little League teams from various parts of the globe. 

Like these guys, from Puerto Rico, here demonstrating what they think of both the Pink Heals Tour and how they'll finish their tournament.  Loud, but polite kids.

So after multiple phone calls, texts and emails we found a place to land thanks to some friends of the program.  One, a local elected official who shall remain nameless because I didn't seek permission to use said person's info yet and two, Becky Nelson from the Downers Grove Chamber of Commerce.  Becky, I told you this yesterday on the phone and I'll tell you here today on the interwebz... YOU RAWK!!!  A couple semi-frantic phone calls on my part to these two people resulted in three rooms for three nights at the Marriott Suites in Downers.  Simply amazing!

So, while Vickki (I swear it's right) sat at the Ford shop, John, Dave and I shuttled the girls down from McHenry to Downers Grove (birthplace of such dignitaries as Emo Phillips and Randy "MACHO MAN" Savage) and we managed to do it without utilizing the wonderful Illinois Toll Road System.  Instead, by using state roads we not only saved $20 in tolls, we got free kidney massages driving through numerous construction zones. Hooray us!

Now, don't get me wrong.  I love the town I work in.  I genuinely do.  I recognize what it has allowed me to do for my family and the support I've received over the years in my various projects.  But I've never, NEVER, been happier to pull into DG than I was yesterday.  Holy moley I don't think my butt will ever recover...

And then, after our trip in, John was in need of a little TLC.  He's been fighting migraines the last couple days.  Since I know people here, I escorted him over to our local Level 1 Trauma Center and had him checked out.  I told him I wouldn't take any embarassing pictures...

I lied.

 

We spent three hours of quality time in the ER, John got a reasonably clean bill of health (it's naaaht a tumah) and after Vickkkkkkki (OK, that might be a few too many k's) picked us up, I took those two out for dinner.  Chicago-style hot dogs woohoo!!!

 

Cultural dining, it's what I do.

 

Still no edition of "Meet Your Pink Heals Tour Driver" I'm banking stories...

 

Pink Heals

 

Peace