Greetings from Tennessee...

First order of business: Doug Bowser, friend and star of "Welcome To Hell" and sub player for "Schmicked" read my reviews and felt as though I was expecting these shows to be bad. I sent him a note in which I had to clarify that I thought "Welcome To Hell" and "Schmicked" both WOULD be pretty good (based on the casts), and I was pleasantly surprised to find the shows were even better than those expectations. : )

NOTE TO SELF: Don't review Fringe shows next year. I always get too busy and never follow through after the first couple of days, and I always forget there ARE shows that I don't like and would rather not criticize publicly.

But overall, it was a great Fringe wasn't it? I felt the show quality was as good if not better than last year. Only a handful of shows that were real clunkers. And for me personally I got to do my first double-duty Fringe. That was a BLAST learning and performing a role in a week with 3 rehearsals. It was nice to have the time to be able to do that.

We've spent one full day here up at Roan Mountain, and it has been rainy but glorious. We hiked down the mountain from the cabin, went for a drive, lunched at this cute little sandwich shop that also has a kitsch-tastic country themed knick knack / decor shop attached. The chicken salad was lovely.

For dinner Steve cooked us some chicken with amazingly seasoned veggies and mac & cheese on the side. We then 'exercised' by heading to the visitor center where we played ping pong and pool, then just sat on the rocking chairs and enjoyed the serenity of the sunset, looking at the different levels and vistas before us (good god I'd forgotten how flat Central Florida is).

The cabin is quite high up and the driveway has a ridiculously steep grade to it. I attempted to drive it, but my car is just a little too heavy and with 4 people and only 2-wheel drive, we had to abort. Maybe if I were alone and could get a good running start (and didn't mind driving 80 mph around hairpin turns on a cliff) it might happen. But we decided to rough it and walk up. Even with using the stair climber / escalator thingee at the gym, good lord was that a strain.

It's very weird to not have phone service...  There is wifi at the cabin, so I can still do everything else on my phone (just no texting, phone, or GPS). And having down time is kind of wonderful. I've read a play "Full Gallop" and I'm about to start another. I lost myself for hours cleaning up my iTunes library. And I'm REALLY enjoying the company of my friends... so nice to have them all to myself for these few days.

I got a good night's sleep last night. We're hiking 7 miles today, let's hope it's a little dryer out there and the trails aren't too slippery.