It has been a challenge to find rehearsal space this year but we are fortunate that we have had many of our American friends helping us out and this resulted in finding a fantastic gym space in Kentucky but it did mean a two hour drive with lots of traffic.
We arrived by 10am (later than expected due to diversions because of mud slides) and were met by Scott (thank you Scott!!!) who showed us around the gym and left us to it. The gym enabled us to get up top and so we could focus on drill and getting the members comfortable performing on the larger tarp.
Everyone was in great spirits, if a little tired (jet lag definitely kicked in) and we had a great 6 hour rehearsal and the best run of the year in the final rehearsal performance.
We then left and started making our way back to Dayton, with a stop for something to eat at Applebees and then continued the journey back to Centreville to perform in the exhibition show. It's always great to get our first public performance in the USA under our belts before prelims and in year's past, our performance at Centreville has never been great so we were delighted when the guard broke this curse and had by far the best performance to a very appreciative crowd ending with a standing ovation.
It was also an opportunity for staff and members to reconnect with friends they haven't seen for a long time, including many Mayflower alumni members going back to 2010. After reloading the vans we headed back to the hotel for some downtime.
Tomorrow is prelims day and since we don't perform til 8.30pm we have a late start. So the day looks like the staff checking in at the arena and doing sound check. The guard eating brunch at Crackerbarell and a short rehearsal block from 1-4pm before changing and heading the arena to watch some guards before our prelims prep begins and our prelims performance at 8.30pm (1.30am UK time).
Everyone is in great spirits and everything has run like clockwork so far. We couldn't do this without the supoort of many people both sides of the atlantic and we are very grateful for that.
Until tomorrow.....
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