Whirlwind Weekend

I'm recovering from a whirlwind of a weekend. Lots of stuff can go down in four days, and did it ever! I have to take this opportunity to thank Rhonda Coleson, our booking agent, for all of her help and support. She's been awesome and we couldn't have made it through this weekend without her. So, the ten peso version of the story is: we went to Little Rock, Dallas, and Searcy, AR, leaving on Friday and returning yesterday. It was a fun trip and we are glad to be back in Nashville.

Now here's the million dollar version!

Friday, June 13th
Zach Wilson and I drive the Acappella van and trailer to Little Rock. The original plan was for us to get there around 6:00 PM and get settled into our housing for the night. Arrangements had been made for our van and trailer to be cleaned and detailed in Little Rock on Saturday while we flew to Dallas. Most of that plan happened the way it was supposed to...except for the van. It broke down again. We were driving down I-40 toward Memphis, not quite an hour out of Nashville, and it just quit running. We had to pull onto the side of the road and start making phone calls. Somehow, the van started again and we got back on the road. There were lots of prayers going up on our behalf, and they worked! We eventually made it to Little Rock around 8:00 and got the van where it needed to be. Zach stayed with our booking agent's sister and her husband, and I stayed with my best friend's brother and his wife. It was great to see them and spend a little time with them. It was a long day, but we got through it and prepared ourselves for Saturday. (by the way, it was also my late brother, Ron's, birthday. He would have been 42.)


Saturday, June 14th
Zach and I flew from Little Rock while Zac George, Allen Brantley, and our newest member, Anthony Lancaster (if that name sounds familiar, it's because he's our boss' son) flew from Nashville to Dallas. We all met there to be inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame. That's an experience I won't forget. We were inducted along with the likes of the Jordanaires (featuring one of my heroes, Ray Walker) who sang for a time with Elvis Presley, the Cathedrals, Lulu Roman from Hee-Haw, songwriter David Meece, the Imperials, Jessy Dixon, the Florida Boys, and many other pioneers in the Christian music world. There were also tributes to Larry Norman (Bebo Norman's dad and the "father of Christian rock music")and Dottie Rambo, one of the greatest gospel music songwriter who ever lived. Both Larry and Dottie died earlier this year, so it was a great night. We were honored and humbled to have been a part of it.

Sunday, June 15th
We flew back to Little Rock and were met at the airport by our freshly cleaned van and trailer, courtesy of Kevin, another brother-in-law of our booking agent. We drove our nice clean van an hour away to Searcy for the first of three concerts at Harding University for Uplift. After we checked into the hotel, Jacob and Laura, who both work for Harding, took us to lunch at the Rib Crib. That's good eatin' right there! We headed back to the auditorium and got our lights and sound set up. It was the first time we had set up lights since October, so the process was a little slower than normal, but we got it done in time. We had some dinner (Brick Oven Pizza) and went to the hotel to get ready for the concert. I finally got to call my dad and wish him a happy father's day. I hope you did too! Anyway, we had our devo time and then a 10:00 PM concert that was electric! The crowd was hyped and we just had a blast. Anthony did great, too, for his first Acappella concert. We took our equipment down and moved it to the back of the stage (because we'll be back again) and went to bed.

Monday, June 16th
We left the hotel at 7:00 AM so we could get Zac back to Nashville for work before 2:00. We got fuel and breakfast and drove about 15 miles down the road to Bald Knob (yes, that is the name of the town) and the van broke down again. This time, it didn't start again. To make a long story short(er), we had the van towed back to Searcy to be repaired, the trailer was towed to an impound lot for safe keeping, we rented a van that was a little bit too small for us and our equipment and luggage, and drove back to Nashville. I managed to get only one speeding ticket, even though I was going the same speed as everybody else. Yeah, that happened. Anyway, we got back to Nashville around 5:30 (no, Zac didn't get to work) and had just enough time to get the van unloaded and take it to the rental place five minutes before it closed (now you understand that if I hadn't been speeding, I wouldn't have gotten the van to the rental place in time and would've been charged over $300 extra. I saved the company some major money!). It was nice, though, because Anthony took me to Stephanie's parents' house just in time for my birthday party! That's what you call a happy birthday!!

Peace, Love, and Chocolate