Legally Blonde - The Musical travels Pt. 2

First of all, I want to thank all for reading this blog as well as the last one.  As some of you know, Art is the main love of my life.  Travel is a newer found love, but a love never the less. But enough of that, time to get back to the reason why you came here.


St. Charles MO, a cute little town that could have a lot of things going for it, if it wasn't one of the most outter suburbs of St. Louis.  It seems like a nice enough city with a little unknown college located there (the college name I couldn't tell you as I don't remember from a month ago) but it is cute and I'd visit there again.  The Country Inn and Suites is a nice little place, each room with a kitchen and within walking distance of a grocery store, restaurants, police and a some other things.  I would say stay there, rates are good and the staff is friendly.

The next city I would be more than happy to go through and talk about is Albany NY, the capital of NY.  It is an interesting city that boasts signs that this neighborhood was voted the best neighborhood in this year or that year, but now, some hardly more than 10 years later, those same neighborhoods have become run down and according to one cop that I talked to, some of the worst for crime in the entire city. These neighborhoods are located not more a block up to a mile away from the downtown district and the Palace Theatre. This theatre is a beautiful building, that once you walk in reminds you of the theatrical days of yesterday.  The paintings on the interior are beautiful and it really makes one remember how good Theater could be, or maybe was.  However, where I stayed, the Ramada Inn about a mile or so north of the Palace, was something that I would not recommend to anyone.  The hotel was a combo of I think two or maybe three building put into one, the hotel staff was a little standoffish, the bed was a little stiff, but the the breakfast in the morning was okay. Driving around in the city is rather easy too, with major exits off of Highway 90 to basically any where you want to go to in and if you want to get back on 88 to go anywhere in the state basically without a toll involved (either 88 to go East to West or 87 North or South) Albany is your point, and you don't have to pay the part of I-90 that you have to drive on to get from 88 to 87 either, at least I didn't, when I was going through a couple days later from Binghampton (talked about in the last blog) and Burlington VT.

That brings me to my next city of Burlington VT.  This is a picture perfect city, really.  Vermont itself is so beautiful.  Going into Burlington, I came in on 7, and that is one of the most beautiful drives I've ever had.  When I arrived at the Sheraton Hotel off of 89 Highway and Williston Rd/Main St.  The Flynn Center of the preforming arts is okay, yet the security staff doesn't know their ass from their elbow, but I am not blaming that on anything but them.  The University of Vermont is located there and is a very pretty campus.  The night that I was there, December 13th, it started to snow.  The downtown area of Burlington is a like a photograph, and that with the campus mixed with the snow coming down, really was like a Norman Rockwell Christmas painting.  It made me really not want to leave. But alas, the life on the road demanded that I go.  I really want to go back soon.

Let's now talk about Elmira and Corning New York at once.  Elmira is a nice city, the preforming arts center there is rather nice. but there is not a lot of parking close by.  That is really all I can say about Elmira.  However, Corning is a different story.  The downtown district in Corning is amazing.  I was able to go to a couple of places while I was there that were either really nice, good food and fun times.  Now, myself being from Kansas.  I was amazed to see that Corning had a western museum there.  The Rockwell Museum of Western Art is a really cool place, even if you are not that much into Western things.  The building itself is three stories tall, and I am very sad to say that they had the 3rd story closed when I was there, but I will say that the second story of the Museum was really nice.  I liked their display of guns from the 1800s and what I like to call the Real western art, which is located in the Remington & Russell Lodge.  I was also able to go through, and since it was getting close to Christmas, was able to get gifts for my parents and had a rather enjoyable time. Who would have thought that a Western Museum was that far EAST of the Mississippi.
A couple of the cast members of Legally Blonde and I ate at the Sonora's Authentic Mexican Restaurant, and I must say that the food that I got, which was a large plate of Nachos, was rather good, and more than I could go through and eat in one sitting.  It was very reasonable priced and the wait staff was more than helpful.  Later on in the night, I went through and experience some of the night life around.  I was disappointed to see that almost every one of the bars and pubs were closed by 11pm, that is, except for the Glory Hole Pub and Eatery.  The place seems no different really than any other local little dive bar that you would feel more than comfortable going into, however the bartender there was a really fun and outgoing lad who really went out of his way to make sure that everyone there had an enjoyable time and so that people would want to come back.  I know that yes, he was working for tips as well, but when a blowup doll (thank you to my friend Jim Keen), the bartender didn't have to start dancing with it and actually having a good time, yet he did.  That will be most likely one of the most memorable night of the whole tour, even if the Radisson that I stayed at had no where to park anything bigger than a truck.

Well that is it for now.  More to come later I suppose from the road.