WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION: Part 1

To say it's been a busy summer would likely contend for the "Most Understated Phrase of the Year" award.

It's been so busy, I haven't blogged for about three months.
It's been so busy, I haven't read any blogs for possibly more than three months.
It's been so busy, I forgot how to blog! (Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration.)

Either way, I've had a remarkable summer, to say the least. It all started with a trip to Kentucky that went horribly awry.

It was the first weekend of May. The Aca-fellas and I were scheduled to perform at a youth rally in Glasgow, KY that Saturday, then near Gulfport, MS the next day. As we drove toward Glasgow that Friday evening, the weather started getting pretty rough (cue the "Gilligan's Island" theme). Our plan was to drive to Jackson, TN, spend the night there, and go the final five-or-so hours to Glasgow the following morning. Well, we made it to Jackson, but not without some near misses.

As we got into Arkansas, we turned on the radio to hear whether we should be concerned about the weather or not. As it turned out, we should have been concerned. The weather man was talking about a tornado touching down and causing quite a bit of damage about an hour ahead of us. We decided to keep going. We figured if the tornado had already hit, it wouldn't come back there. A little while later, we found out there was a tornado touching down about an hour behind us. That's when we got a little nervous. We were surrounded by tornados!

By God's grace, we made it to a small motel in Jackson. It was raining pretty hard and steadily. The tornado sirens were going off ... all night long. People who know me know I don't sleep all that well on a regular basis. Heavy rain and sirens certainly didn't help matters much. The next morning we loaded up the van and started out of the parking lot. That's about as far as we got. We didn't realize how high the water in the parking lot was until we were wading through it from the van that had just been baptized (It was waist-deep.).  

After some phone calls and frustrations (and a ride on the back of a tow-truck ... inside the van), Wes got us up and running in a rental van. We made it to Glasgow about 30 minutes before we were to sing. Some of the guys had wet clothes. Some had really wet clothes. Either way, we got through the concert and loaded out when we found out that we wouldn't be going to Mississippi after all. A massive flood had struck Nashville - we had just driven through there a few hours before and were supposed to drive through there again - and we were stranded. Thanks to the kindness of Dale and Brenda Clark, we were put up for the night, worshiped with the Impact Church in Glasgow the next morning, and got on the road in the Clark's family vehicle on a northwestern route through Louisville, KY and St. Louis, MO on our way home. We made it home around 3:00 AM.

Looking back, it was only by the grace of God we made it anywhere that weekend. Interestingly enough, that was just the beginning of summer break!

How was your summer?

Next, more adventures in Arkansas.

Peace, Love, and Dark Chocolate