Road trip to the NC Theater Conference competition

Always ready for a road trip, this weekend saw a busload (and three carloads of various sizes) of students, teachers and parents from Carolina Day School head for the NCTC one act play competition in Boiling Springs.  Most people left school at 7 a.m. Friday but I stuck around until after lunch as I had a full morning teaching and was driving on my own - there's always a nagging doubt that I'll get halfway somewhere and decide I've gone far enough which would not be a good plan if I had half the cast in tow.
Friday was an unspeakably lovely day here - the sun was out, the sky a deep blue and, had I not had Fleeetwood Mac and John Mayall playing just a touch too loud, I could probably also remark that the birds were singing.  I had all afternoon to do the hour and a half drive so, just to piss off my GPS, I took the country route, navigating by compass until I figured I was about 30 miles from Boiling Springs when I finally let the GPS have its own way.  I headed out through Lake Lure, taking my eyes off the road from time to time to admire the fall foliage.  The weather is positively summery this weekend so I had the roof and all the windows open (and the seat warmer on).
By the time I arrived, I had missed a couple of plays, one of which - about autism - was already getting the mumble as the one that would sweep the board.  To my uneducated eyes the standard all round was remarkably high and the variety of plays so great that I didn't envy the adjudicators their job.  I was also impressed by the long, detailed review that each adjudicator gave to each play immediately after it finished: I learned a lot about how these things work.
The CDS play - Middletown - was the last performance, starting at 6:15 on Friday evening so it was pretty late by the time we got to El Acapulco for dinner.  That's the cast, crew & director David Dvorscak in the picture below.

I was starving and felt only minorly guilty wolfing down a huge dish of fajitas while a couple of the more delicate cast members didn't eat anything for dinner at all (yes, I did offer several times - I'm not that horrible).  Our room at the AmericInn (owner's kid must have come up with that name) was large, quiet, dark and comfortable so I slept like a log: Susan was less lucky.

Saturday saw a few more plays which appealed to me in greater or lesser degrees and ran the gamut from "What a corny plot" to "Blimey, this one's weird - I wonder what's going on." 

I was pretty much done in by about 7 pm on Saturday but had to stick around for the awards which woke me up - those theatrical kids know how to be noisy, enthusiastic and, best of all perhaps, supportive towards each other.  Each award was greeted with loud applause from the other teams.
The CDS troop scored a top director award (David D), an outstanding female actor award for Eva Peterson and an acting excellence award for Sam.  Truly a performance to be proud of and I can't wait to see it again at school.  Eva also won my personal "Grace Under Fire" award for avoiding being wiped out by a low-flying astronaut.
The drive back in the dark was a bit unpleasant - only a bit - as I was very conscious of being tired.  I had the windows and roof open yet again and I think I may have damaged the speakers in my car stereo - if I ever buy another Subaru (which I might well), I'm going to check the stereo out first as, considering this one was a several hundred dollar upgrade, it is pretty crappy.
OK - it's Sunday, we've put the clocks back, I'm feeling mildly energetic and Susan, who has been my brain, arms and legs for the last several months, has finally succumbed to a rotten cold.  Sleep well, Sweetie - I'm going to creep off downstairs so I don't accidentally make a noise.