Hot times in Scottsdale

Arizona is full of remarkable scenery, desert vistas and air conditioning. It is HOT. This season of WBTC was outside, in the shade of the Arts Centre, next to a lovely park. Even with the expected lower temperatures (hint, they weren’t) and lots of water, we sweated our way through the season. Litres of water, cool towels, kids making shaded areas with the boxes, lots of breaks into the air-conditioned foyer, these helped but….we steamed. The middle picture is a behind the scenes look at our post-show wind down. Lying down, sitting very still, letting the AC cool us back down. Sure it was hot, but it was also a lot of fun and we had families spending a lot of time in the city making very elaborate structures. A pyramid, houses with multiple rooms and pools that kept on extending, as always it’s the participants that lift any season and make the whole thing special.
Another one of the great things about touring is that we get days off between shows, and after baking ourselves in the city for a few days we had the chance to go on a horse riding tour with a real cowboy through some Arizona landscape, complete with cactii and real Roadrunners scooting across our path. It was terrific, from builders to cowboys and then onward to the next destination!

• Mischa Long
  Scottsdale, AZ, USA