The six month spring 2005 Boyne tour ended with a bang down in the Wild West. We finished up in Austin and then Grand Prairie, Texas.
Austin is to rock lovers what Nashville is to country music lovers, in other words there is live rock music all over the town, all the time. It was impossible to wander down the street at almost any time of the day and not hear a catchy tune coming from somewhere. The route our bus took home from the theatre in the evening went right down the main drag and it was a great way to see which places were the busiest and had the best crowd each night. It was also fun to people-watch from the inside of our tinted windows. I have to wonder what the locals thought as a big tour bus came barreling down the street at 10:30pm. In this town, though, they probably figured it was some famous rock group getting ready for a gig that night!

Austin is also home to a rather unusual, but well known, nightly natural phenomenon. Hundreds of thousands of bats congregate during the day under one of the main bridges in the city and in a cave just next to it. You can walk by in the daylight and hear them all chattering under the bridge and if you're lucky enough to be there at dusk (or, like in our case, if the locals tell you it's a must-see and not to be missed) you can witness them all flocking out into the open air and flying down the river. Once the first bats start to take off the others follow in a steady stream that lasts about 10 minutes. It is truly one of the most amazing things to see as the moving black cloud seems to float down the river. No one is quite sure where they go to at night, possibly out hunting. But by morning time they are back under the bridge. The city of Austin is so proud of this unique occurrence that several years ago they actually rebuilt the bridge that is home to the bats so that it was more shock absorbent (so as not to rattle them while they slept) and quieter for the bats when cars passed overhead.

David Bellwood, Aislinn Ryan, Emily Endean and Kevin Horton look for bats from the bridge

The cast had been looking forward to our visit to Austin because we found out ahead of time that it was about an hour's drive away from the biggest water park in America - Schlitterban Water Park. On the Thursday of our week there a large group rented a bus which drove us to and from the park. The array of water slides, rafting rides and wave pools/rivers was almost too much for one day. We all had a great time racing around from one ride to another trying to fit in as much as we could before heading back to Austin to do the show that night.

Our group at the Schlitterban Water Park

The last week of tour was spent in Grand Prairie, Texas which is about 20 miles from Dallas but almost more importantly, about 2 miles from a Six Flags theme park. Never a group to be satisfied with just one theme park in a week most of the cast headed off to test the thrill rides and roller coasters of Six Flags immediately upon arrival on Monday. There was lots of screaming, nervousness and laughing as they tried out ride after ride. Some were even adventurous enough to do the sky diving one where you are hoisted up in a harness, high above the park, and then released to swing down at a frightening speed and buzz the crowd below.

Company Manager Jesse White and Wardrobe "mom" Kate Walters at the closing party

The Riverdancers learn Line Dancing

Our closing party for this tour was in Grand Prairie and, appropriately enough, had a Hoe-Down theme. We rented out a private area at one of the honky tonk bars in town and everyone came dressed to party in their cowboy hats, boots, jeans and big belts. They had a mechanical bull there which several people tried out to the delight of the rest of us. It's hard to look anything but comical when you're being tossed around on a bull and then thrown off into a pile of mats. We all enjoyed the country music and food and one of the waitresses even dragged a bunch of us out on the dance floor to teach us a country line dance.

Getting in the Wild West spirit

I think everyone would agree that we had a fabulous spring tour.
Although it was hard to say goodbye to each other for the summer we are looking forward to going home and catching up with friends and family. Besides, before we know it we'll be back together for the fall tour starting in September in Boston. Until then…have a great summer!