Day 7: Lightning storm, a broken down car, and mad dash to get dinner on time

Yesterday on set was supposed to be our "quiet day" after a long intense week. It started off well. Becca, our Unit Production Manager and our craft services QUEEN allowed her Toyota Camry to be used in the scene where Jamie teaches Anja how to relearn how to drive again.

The Toyota had to be started, gunned, reversed, gunned, stopped, and lurched.

The poor thing was an '06 and didn't like all its rough treatment so decided to have a tantrum once Becca brought it down the road to Lincoln Country Store. Then, it died. We tried to revive it with dry gas and jump the cables to no avail. Meanwhile, it's now 6 p.m. a lightning storm has cruised into the area, clearing the entire crew out from the open front yard where we'd been camping out while the actors filmed.

Oh...and Becca is responsible for getting the crew dinner on time at precisely 7 p.m. Plan A for the evening was to grill out hotdogs and hamburgers, but now, under the pouring rain, that was out of the question. Plan B? Order 28 portions of take out to be delivered in exactly one hour. This is Maine, remember. NOT HAPPENING.

Plan C: I told Becca "We're gonna get a Ploughman's Lunch at Hannaford--meats, crusty baguettes, crackers, assortment of cheeses, fruits, nuts, pickles, hummus, salads, sushi. Everybody can have as much or as little as they want. We've got 20 minutes to fly to Hannaford, 20 minutes to shop, and 20 minutes to fly back."

So, we did. We ran through that store like we were on Supermarket Sweep.

At one point I was frantically checking where the rotisserie chickens were, only  to be told, "our chicken oven has been down for a few weeks." So here we were running around the store like we were the chickens with our heads cut off. Thank you to Eli and Alber for bagging up our groceries in record time!

Photo courtesy Chris Wolf/Penobscot Bay Pilot

It's pouring like a mother on our way back--I hydroplaned--and told Becca "OK I gotta slow down; I'm not going to get into a wreck over food." We dropped into the base camp just as the rain abated and began to lay out platters of the Ploughman's Lunch.

But we got dinner on the table at exactly 7:20 p.m. The grill came out, so there were hamburgers and hotdogs after all. And a lot of people said, "This is one of the best dinners we've had so far."

I don't know what it is with cars dying on this set right when we need to use them, but after our first full week of filming, we are ready for THE WEEKEND!