Putin' on the Ritz

We had a day off today but spent most of the time on the bus. We left Toronto last night at 2am and arrived in St. Louis at 5pm.  Our border crossing happened around 6am which I tried to stay up, but didn't happen. Stephan on our bus was the only survivor.  At the crossing you're at the mercy of the people in charge at the time.  And these guys were serious about their job.  We all had to get off the bus and wait in the lobby. So one of our crew didn't wake up and come in and these guys were becoming impatient.  The taller fellow finally yelled "Regulate."  And the short stocky guy said under his breath "I hoped you would say that."  From there he went on the bus and looked for the last guy.  When he came back in, he said "Unfortunately everything looks ok.  Nobody else is on the bus."  Our driver had to go back on and fetch Rob.  Funny once everyone was in the holding room, they scanned our passports and gave them back to us one by one.  We were free to go.  

So they put us up at a Ritz Carlton tonight.  Hence the title.  I think five different people opened doors and welcomed me on the way to the elevator.  Nice hotel.

I hate to say it but so far overall I think Montreal was my favorite place and Toronto was a close second.  Montreal had a lot of stuff to do and see near by.  The people were very nice and the stagehands were unbelievable.  They were very polite, didn't complain once, didn't suggest they had a better way to do something, and still knew what they were doing.  For those of you who don't know stagehands, this is unheard of.  

Arena guys, here's a project for you.  The loading docks were just under the seating here in Montreal's Bell Centre.  So they have made a hydraulic door out of the seating for load-in and load-out.  Here our dept. had just finished load-out.  BTW this was our first arena of the tour and it was great.  Record time.

The venue at Toronto's amphitheater was really spectacular.  You can't see it, but to the right there was a harbor full of small yachts.  We sat out on the deck for meals.   Really good food and great weather while we were there.

 Still in Toronto our bus was across the water.  This is me waiting after load-out to cross.  The bridge was so narrow we didn't feel comfortable crossing while all the trucks were going the other way.

Well St. Louis tomorrow and I hope to see some of you in Cincinnati on Sunday.  Just text me when you get there.  Show starts at 7, but I usually have free time from 6-7.