Journey to Poplar Bluff, chapter two

The journey is ending. It was a hectic weekend and I was left with little time to blog. I'm back in the Charlotte NC airport (Greatest Airport in America, actually it's more like a mall that airplanes park at!) where I wrote my last entry 3 days ago. That unnamed chinese restuarant is called ManchuWok, just ate there again. And I'm feeling oddly disconnected from this weekend.

After landing in St Louis is was surprised that the boss had upgraded my rental and I was in a Chrysler 300. LOVED IT! Add the greatest collection of music ever assembled by man (located on my Ipod) and some GPS navigation, and that 3 hour drive through southern Missouri was almost fun. After visiting a Wal-Mart at midnight in Poplar Bluff, I think the 90 something Beauty Pageant contestants and their families raised the hotness level of that town by 3000% over the weekend. It was a hectic shoot, a lot of trouble shooting right up until show-time, and i was directing this weekend, which I love, but it means more headaches. As such (therefore) I had limited contact with the beauties. I didn't shoot the backstage footage, didn't ask them questions for interviews, and directed from the second level of a coliseum. I really didn't have any favorites going into the finals, but the winners were obvious. Add to that isolation a great book I just finished (The Man Who Heard Voices) and my laptop + Civilization IV, and I kinda kept my head down this weekend. I took a break to watch the Saints, what a waste. I'm blah.

BUT i did score aa awesome souvenir. Poplar Bluff high's mascot is THE MULES, and I found this great t-shirt at previously mentioned Wal-Mart! I now honor all my past fantasy football champion Trusty Mules teams!

AND St Louis Lambert Airport serves Boudin! At Josey Maroni's Sausage Kingdom! You think once I saw the name of that place on the airport map, that I didn't run there!

After spellchecking, I just realized I've been misspelling Missouri all weekend when labeling tapes.

Just picked up a new book at the airport, The Great Deluge (nonfic, of course, about Hurricane Katrina) by Douglas Brinkley. I met Brinkley once when I worked at C-Span, and worked an interview with him about a book he wrote on John Kerry. I was impressed by the man, and hold his work in high esteem.

Anyway, next weekend is off to Charleston South Carolina, a beautiful city that I barely see beacuse the airport, hotel and theater are within a mile of each other. Til then, thanks for your readership. I'll try to do better once I'm out of the Blahs. I think seeing my faminly tonight just might do it.