greetings from the road
Hello friends!
Feels like it’s been two years since I last newslettered.
As I draft this, I’m riding in the back of a passenger van on my way from Clarksdale, MS, to Nashville, TN. I’m script suping on a road movie, and our core crew of ten—plus actors and dogs and dog trainers and misc cycling in and out—has been driving the whole trajectory of the story, from Ludlow, CA (pop: 10) to Williams, AZ (pop: Wild West) to the Grand Canyon to the Canyonlands to Colorado to Missouri and all the way down south.
We’ve done desert and mountains and the swampy swampy Mississippi Delta, we’ve seen sun and rain and rainbows and meteor showers, and temps ranging from 52 to 110. We’ve spotted a teenage bear, a rutting elk, jackrabbits, mule deer, baby raccoons, dead possums, cicadas, stag beetles, so many butterflies, and ugggh soooo many mosquitos. (Hot Tip: Our Mississippi makeup artist gave us Skin So Soft towelettes, which proved to be more effective mosquito repellent than Deet.)
We went white-water rafting, we “borrowed” a hot tub and got caught, we borrowed a police cruiser (with permission), we saw an old blues guy play a Clarksdale juke joint, we hung out in the mayor's pool, we harbored a lost Yorkiehuahua named Master Hugh Hefner, we shut down a highway to shoot an accident scene…
And we’re not done. After a day off in Nashville, we’ll drive up the East Coast, through NYC, and wind up in New England for the last stretch of shooting.
I feel like I’ve lived six months in the past 24 days. In a good way. In a really good way. But I have to admit, I’m ready to get home to my own tiny house.
*****
This month in tacos: In Denver, we went to Tacos Tequila Whiskey (aka Pinche Tacos, which translates to “Fuckin’ Tacos” 😁 ). After several days of bad road food, we were over the moon. The pork belly, the asada, the griddled cotija cheese, the salsa selection! The serrano margarita! I sort of doubted Colorado could pull off spicy, but she proved me wrong.
This month in ribs: An hour or two out of Kansas City, a few of us stopped at Sugarfoot BBQ, where I bought maybe the best ribs I’ve ever had. I ate em right out of the styrofoam container, with a side of fries and a side of pickles. That basically sums up the Southern gluten-free diet.
This month in coffee: Boy has my coffee consumption increased. I’ve been drinking nasty motel coffee, nasty truck stop coffee, nasty French Vanilla Dunkin Donuts Keurig coffee, and lots of strong-ass cold brew, sometimes with milk and sugar and plenty of ice, and sometimes straight out of a whiskey bottle on a freeway overpass in the middle of the night. You do what you have to do.
This month on Netflix: Has anyone seen Winona Ryder’s new series?? I haven’t.
*****
xoxo,
Laramie
Feels like it’s been two years since I last newslettered.
As I draft this, I’m riding in the back of a passenger van on my way from Clarksdale, MS, to Nashville, TN. I’m script suping on a road movie, and our core crew of ten—plus actors and dogs and dog trainers and misc cycling in and out—has been driving the whole trajectory of the story, from Ludlow, CA (pop: 10) to Williams, AZ (pop: Wild West) to the Grand Canyon to the Canyonlands to Colorado to Missouri and all the way down south.
We’ve done desert and mountains and the swampy swampy Mississippi Delta, we’ve seen sun and rain and rainbows and meteor showers, and temps ranging from 52 to 110. We’ve spotted a teenage bear, a rutting elk, jackrabbits, mule deer, baby raccoons, dead possums, cicadas, stag beetles, so many butterflies, and ugggh soooo many mosquitos. (Hot Tip: Our Mississippi makeup artist gave us Skin So Soft towelettes, which proved to be more effective mosquito repellent than Deet.)
We went white-water rafting, we “borrowed” a hot tub and got caught, we borrowed a police cruiser (with permission), we saw an old blues guy play a Clarksdale juke joint, we hung out in the mayor's pool, we harbored a lost Yorkiehuahua named Master Hugh Hefner, we shut down a highway to shoot an accident scene…
And we’re not done. After a day off in Nashville, we’ll drive up the East Coast, through NYC, and wind up in New England for the last stretch of shooting.
I feel like I’ve lived six months in the past 24 days. In a good way. In a really good way. But I have to admit, I’m ready to get home to my own tiny house.
*****
This month in tacos: In Denver, we went to Tacos Tequila Whiskey (aka Pinche Tacos, which translates to “Fuckin’ Tacos” 😁 ). After several days of bad road food, we were over the moon. The pork belly, the asada, the griddled cotija cheese, the salsa selection! The serrano margarita! I sort of doubted Colorado could pull off spicy, but she proved me wrong.
This month in ribs: An hour or two out of Kansas City, a few of us stopped at Sugarfoot BBQ, where I bought maybe the best ribs I’ve ever had. I ate em right out of the styrofoam container, with a side of fries and a side of pickles. That basically sums up the Southern gluten-free diet.
This month in coffee: Boy has my coffee consumption increased. I’ve been drinking nasty motel coffee, nasty truck stop coffee, nasty French Vanilla Dunkin Donuts Keurig coffee, and lots of strong-ass cold brew, sometimes with milk and sugar and plenty of ice, and sometimes straight out of a whiskey bottle on a freeway overpass in the middle of the night. You do what you have to do.
This month on Netflix: Has anyone seen Winona Ryder’s new series?? I haven’t.
*****
xoxo,
Laramie
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