AT Day 7 – Pure Theatre

Since I can afford to shed (more than) a few pounds, I started my day on the treadmill while the rest of the band enjoyed their PT-less morning. I really need to get back into the habit of early morning exercise sessions anyway. I’ll probably have a few more chances to work on re-establishing that good habit over the next week.

Since I had been at the Arneson River Theatre the day before, I volunteered to accompany the Jazz Band leader in going down a few minutes early just to make sure everything would be ready when the rest of the crew and band arrived. We used a construction area to park (nobody was working there on Saturday), walked up the Riverwalk and found that the theater was LOCKED. A security guard just happened to be coming out of the adjacent building, but said he couldn’t open it up for us. He did help us track down the area’s maintenance man, who did come down and open up the gates.

The Theatre is basically a wooden platform on the inside part of a bend in the canal, with a historic backdrop of a set of bells (I’ll find out what their significance is when I take the boat tour) and a small building that is sometimes used as changing rooms. There is a stone-arch walkway over the river to the seating area on the opposite bank, arranged as an amphitheater. (According to the boat guides, the arched walkway played a role in the movie “Miss Congeniality” if anyone has seen that show.)

Not too much later the setup crew arrived and they started hauling equipment up to the stage. During setup the weather was warm, but the stage itself was still in the shade. From a temperature standpoint it would have been nice to play during the morning hours instead of noon. At the time I figured the later time would give us a better chance at gaining a larger audience, since there weren’t really that many people on the Riverwalk yet. However, by noon the sun was blazing down so even though quite a few people walked or floated by, not that many actually stayed.

Before the performance I made a quick search for a hat shop since my “oopsie” haricut left the top of my head with very little protection from the sun. Another Platoon Sergeant, Shannon Michael, accompanied me since she had been through the mall on a previous day. Good thing too, since she ended up being the one to pick out the hat (I really don’t like shopping) and it seemed to get positive reviews from other band members. Oh, and my head didn’t get sunburned. :+)

The Jazz Band did very well, ESPECIALLY considering how hot and bright it must have been for them. In more ways than one that band was HOT! Packing up went well and our system of shuttle vans got people back to the hotel air conditioning ASAP. Our original plan was to round up a crew to unload all the band equipment and put seats back into the van so it could be used tomorrow. We finally changed our minds and decided to just leave the gear in that van since we also had a rental van, and most of the band was planning to go to the large water park up the road on Sunday anyway. That change was being put out when the shuttle driver found three of us on the sidewalk, and we picked up another four on the way to the hotel. Being from the Pacific Northwest we’re such wimps when the sun comes out.

After lunch I had planned to ride back to the PX with the 1SG to pick up some supplies. Instead I got called into an ad-hoc meeting with the 1SG and SFC Tuggy, who wanted to know the details of why we (I) had decided not to unload the van, how transportation was going to work on Sunday, etc. While we were making sure all details had been covered, SFC Michael joined in to ask about getting her uniform altered before Monday’s job. Since it was already Saturday afternoon and our next performance is on Monday morning, options were limited. By that time a group of golfers had taken the rental van, so we were left with the GSA that was still packed to the gills with instruments. Since I also needed to get new rank sewn onto my jacket, I offered to drive the two of us to see if we could find someone to do the alterations on short notice. We also got tasked to drop off Mr. Alexander’s blues jacket for some minor sewing reinforcement.

SFC had talked with “Al’s Laundry,” had been told they would be open until 5pm on Saturday, and they could get it done for her by Monday morning. Unfortunately she couldn’t get them to answer their phone at 3:30. Instead she wanted to try the on-post clothing shop, which worked out for me too, since I needed to purchase the new rank. We found the alteration shop and were pleased to see it was still open. We weren’t so pleased when they said they could have everything done for us by NEXT FRIDAY. As we were about to leave they offered to do a “rush job” and get it ready by Monday afternoon. While that would have worked fine for the two jackets, the pants were needed earlier.

Right next door was the place to purchase rank. Thankfully it was right up front and easy to find. I was about to head to the checkout stand when I took a closer look. “Does this look blue to you?” When I held up the E-7 rank next to the other ranks hanging on the wall, the trim DID look blue, even though all the others were definitely green. Then I noticed the fine print on the package: GLD/BLU. The others were GLD/GRN. Oops, someone had apparently placed rank for blues jackets with all the rank for the A’s. I started going through the hanger of rank and found GLD/BLU after GLD/BLU. I was about to give up when the VERY LAST PACKAGE showed GLD/GRN. Yay! When talking about it later, we think that was probably because the Army is doing away with the green A’s uniform and going to a new color scheme for which they will use the blue rank. Other Soldiers are also reporting problems finding uniform parts. In fact, after this week we may never wear the green uniform ever again! But we were on a mission by this point.

The ladies in the on-post alteration shop suggested we try Kim’s which was located “just outside the main gate.” Since we had only ever used one gate we asked if that was the one, but we were told that wasn’t it. Instead of turning left at the light we needed to keep going. When we followed that direction we did end up at another gate, but it definitely did not look like a MAIN gate at all. In fact, it looked much smaller than the one we had been using all week. After driving off the post we found ourselves in a residential area. A few blocks away we came to a more industrial part of town, but driving up and down that street we couldn’t find any place called Kim’s. I figured we were west of the post, so I found a road along the south edge until we came to “New Braunfels.” It definitely used to be a gate on and off the post, but was currently barricaded off. We did find a couple of closed laundry and alterations shops in the immediate vicinity, and our hopes went up when we found one that was still open and promised same-day alterations. Unfortunately they were scheduled to close within the hour, and the seamstress said she was currently working on an alteration that needed to be done that day. Anything else would be done no earlier than Monday mid-day, too late for SFC Michael.

We still had time to drive to Al’s before their purported closing time, so SFC Michael plugged the address into her iPhone and off we went. We passed run-down places, abandoned buildings, a whole row of bail bonds businesses, and were not feeling that great about even being in that part of town until we found Al’s! Too bad the sign on the door said their Saturday hours were 8-3, not 10-5 like she had been told on the phone.

One last try: SFC Michael called the next place on her Googled list. She actually talked to someone, and asked if they were still open. Then she asked if they could do a same-day alteration. Then she explained the change. Then she asked me if we could get there in the next 15 minutes (I had no idea where we were going yet). Success! When we got to the correct address (back on “New Braufels” again), we pulled into the parking lot for a transmission service / alterations place. The “shop” was a single room with a lovely older Mexican lady who was ready to make the changes. They were VERY nice to let us come so late on a Saturday and still make the change while we waited. Interesting thing while we were there … a young man came in to pick up a pair of black jeans that he had left to have heavy starch added. The lady at the checkout apologized that this pair didn’t take the starch as well as other pants had, but he seemed OK with that. After he left, she came over to show us the tag she had clipped off of his pants, a price tag that said $920! She told us she was scared to even TOUCH the jeans, much less try to add heavy starch!

The next adventure was a trip with the 1SG back to the PX. He wasn’t able to complete his purchase because they were completely out of the one thing he really wanted to buy. After getting a semi-interesting life story of the salesman I mentioned that the 1SG just has “one of those faces that people trust” and feel like they can open up and talk to him about anything. I think he mentioned it’s actually more of a curse sometimes …

We made a quick stop at the band hall to drop off some personal instruments so they wouldn’t be in the baking-hot van all day, then a quick stop at the commissary for my introduction to unpronounceable meats and cheeses at the deli.

After all that I still got back to the hotel in time to walk back to the theater on the Riverwalk for the Noche Fiesta program. The local Kiwanis Club has some involvement in this fundraiser for local kids’ support groups or charities (can’t remember … that’s bad of me). The program itself is billed as a variety show, but mostly was music and dance from Spain, Venezuela, southern US, Mexico, etc. There were a few vocals, some “dance lessons” involving some audience members, and a really good Mariachi band. The dancing was great, the costumes INCREDIBLE, music was top-notch. Overall, a VERY good $10 ticket for 1.5 hours of great music and entertainment.