The day’s drive was painlessly short, only two hours from Richmond, Virginia to Carrboro, North Carolina, a suburb of Chapel Hill. As we left, it felt like springtime, and I happily ditched my jacket in the back storage of the RV.
North Carolina is beautiful and I was happy to be there, but I couldn’t help but be nervous about a few things. Some relatives had mentioned they might come out to the show, and I worried they’d be offended, or I’ll just look like an idiot with no real job. The theater was in the back of a strip mall in a beautiful neighborhood, which also meant I could buy supplies I’d forgotten, like toothpaste (up until now I’d used whatever I found wherever we stayed). But first, the band had a mission: busking for change around Chapel Hill, in an effort to raise money for generator repairs.
We got dropped off downtown, in costume, setting up in front of an empty storefront. After a few minutes we get restless, and started going mobile, at one point walking out into the middle of the street, and then on a public bus. We made a few bucks, and headed back to the theater so I could eat, run errands for myself, and call friends.
Half an hour before the show, my Aunt and Uncle showed up. I was much more nervous, but the show went well. All the bits went over great; Riley’s allowed to do his character, Vacation Jason for the first time, and he kills. Afterward, my Aunt and Uncle tell me they had a great time, and I’m glad I got to see them.
We hung out for a little bit with everyone before we have to leave. From there, we drove an hour to meet up with some kids who offer us a tour of “Acid Park,” which is a bit of local legend in North Carolina. As story goes, a high school girl and her boyfriend took acid, then crashed their car into her father’s property, who proceeded to go insane, and attempt to build large sculptures depicting what they would have seen.
The “park” was located on a fairly remote road in the middle of nowhere, and takes up a few large open fields, that are filled with large, crudely built windmills, and other odd sculptures. The truth is that in reality, this is probably more the work of an eccentric artist, but it’s the middle of the night, and pitch black out, so there’s an element of creepiness to it. We walked around for a while, looking at everything best we can, and headed back on our way.
At that point it was so late and we had nowhere to stay, so we found a Wal Mart to park at for the night, scraping up against a light post as we parked. I laid out some cushions on the floor, and went to sleep.
Next up: The crew discovers (and gets chased out of) Zorb.
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