Chapter 11: Friday, Week One

Our flight left LAX at 6:15am Friday morning. That meant we had to be at the airport at 4:15am. That time of day, it was about an hour from the house so we had to leave at 3:15am, which meant I set my alarm for 2:30am. Heather set hers for 2:00am. After I finished taking care of Heather’s last request, I had about four hours to sleep.

“Oh well,” I thought. “Guess I can always sleep on the plane.”

Unbeknownst to Heather, I had withdrawn some money from my estate account and had dad upgrade our tickets to First Class. With the time change, our flight time was almost seven hours, with an hour and a half layover in Atlanta. There was no way I was flying in coach that long.

We were scheduled to arrive in Knoxville, Tennessee around four in the afternoon with the time change.

Like I said, we were in for a long day!

We dragged out of bed, piled in the car, and were off. Dad was taking us so we wouldn’t have to leave our car at the airport for three weeks. Traffic wasn’t too bad and we made it to the airport, and to our gate by 4:40am. That meant we had an hour before boarding, so we looked for the closest Starbucks.

Heather didn’t realize we were flying first class until we boarded the plane. “I might have to help you join the mile-high club for this!” she said as she grinned.

But the plane appeared to be mostly full. Even though we had those cocoon style seats, there really wasn’t enough room. Or privacy. And we’d hate to be kicked off. So we settled for a movie and a nap.

It was a boring flight, thank goodness. And we landed almost on time in Atlanta. After a short hike, we found the gate for our next leg and then went in search of food. I don’t know why. I wasn’t all that hungry. But it just seemed what everybody else was doing, so we found a small bar and I had a beer while Heather had wine. Mine was not bad. Heather’s was not good.

The flight up to Knoxville was an hour and twenty minutes and the first class seats couldn’t have been that much better than coach. However, we got to be some of the first to de-plane.

As we waited for our luggage at the baggage carousel, I looked around and quickly spotted a girl in shorts and hiking boots holding a sign for ‘Studio Boot Camp’. After claiming our bags, which had somehow made the trip intact, we walked over and introduced ourselves. She said her name was Anne and directed us outside to a small bus.

“Put your bags with the others in the back of the bus and grab a seat. I’ve got two more due to arrive in less than ten minutes.” We did as instructed and found four more people already on the twenty-four seat mini-bus. So there were plenty of seats.

Nobody said anything at first, so I broke the ice, so to speak, by introducing myself to the two guys on the seat behind us.

“Hi! I’m Ryan and this is Heather and we’re from California,” I told them.

They were Patrick and Knoshi, from Miami. Patrick was a sound engineer and Knoshi was a lighting technician. They seemed nice, but didn’t say much. The others were Honey, her real name, and Francine. They were from New York and both in that late-twenties-early thirties age slot that I couldn’t judge well. Honey was a camera operator and Francine was a film engineer (film editor). They both settled in talking to Heather while I looked around.

It turns out that the Knoxville airport wasn’t actually in Knoxville, but in a town twenty-four miles away called Alcoa, like the aluminum foil. But it was actually closer to our ultimate destination in Townsend, Tennessee.

When the final two campers joined us, I knew at once they were performers. She had on too much makeup and he had a full tattoo down one arm. I didn’t have the chance to speak to them because Anne climbed on board, sat down in the driver’s seat, and closed the door.

After expertly maneuvering us out of the airport and onto the highway, she picked up the mic clipped to the dash and began her spiel.

“Good afternoon, Campers! My name is Anne and in addition to driving the bus, I’ll be one of your instructors for this camp session. We currently hold eleven sessions per year, with approximately sixty campers in each session. We also hold two special advanced sessions that are mostly technically orientated and also by invitation only. We hope that you realize how special you are for your employer to have sent you here. For this session, we’ll have approximately twenty staff members/instructors for a student-to-staff ratio of three-to-one.

“The camp itself is HUGE! And beautiful, as you’ll soon see. And you can go anywhere inside the camp except certain rooms and areas marked private. Those are usually the instructor’s rooms. However, some rules before we get there.

No going barefoot! There are four species of poisonous snakes in America and they are all found right here. I’d personally recommend boots if you have them.