Travels

For about 15 years, we were on the road mostly performing concerts in local churches.  The girls grew up traveling with us, meeting lots of pastor's kids, staying in hotels.  It's a life that definitely has its perks ~ getting to know new people, seeing fun places, and of course, the incredible opportunity of using our God-given talents in music ministry.  Through the last several years, our lives have taken a different road . . . we were on staff at FBC, Columbia and Dick has been on the road with Steve Green.

We now find ourselves in this new chapter of life . . . Dick is still playing for Steve, but now our phone is beginning to ring again with opportunities for the two of us to be out and about again.  We just got home from about 10 days on the road together ~ first, at the Lifeway Worship Conference in Ridgecrest, NC and from there, to the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center in Alton, NH.  Here's a little taste of our trip.

At Ridgecrest, Dennis Jernigan was one of the evening concert artists.  A fun connection with Dennis is that his wife, Melinda, and I went to high school together.  Melinda and I were both involved in women's choir, mixed choir, PR groups, piano ensembles . . . lots of music connections. Talk about a small world!

This is Dick with Dennis Jernigan, writer of MANY Christian music favorites . . .
"You Are My All in All" . . . "Who Can Satisfy" . . . 

Mel and Melinda Jernigan, high school buddies

In Alton Bay, we did a concert on the grounds at an open air church.  Talk about quaint and charming!

July 4th was a free day for us, and we tooled around Lake Winnipesaukee (remember "What About Bob?" and "On Golden Pond"?)  We stumbled on to a Fourth of July parade in the oldest resort town in the U.S. ~ Wolfeboro, NH.  Enjoy some highlights . . . 

Beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee

Loved this place for obvious reasons :)

The parade begins

Nothing says America like a Fife and Drum Corps on July 4th

Pretty fun idea!  The Flag People

Many of you know about my new love for butterflies . . . I just had to sit in this chair!

We needed this peaceful day to just take a deep breath and be together.

Little did we know that the next day, when we traveled back to Nashville, our trip would not be so relaxing.  Up at 4:15 a.m., drove an hour to the airport in Manchester, caught a 7:00 flight to Philadelphia, changed planes and flew to Charlotte, one more flight on to Asheville.  We went to pick up our car at a hotel lot and saw that the rear door had been bashed in pretty severely.  One of our suitcases didn't make it (until the next flight an hour later).  And the final blow came when Dick's travel accordion was inadvertently run over by the shuttle driver as he backed over it.  THEN, we had to drive the 5+ hours back to Nashville.

Glad to be home, but enjoyed every minute of our trip (well, except the final day . . . ).  Hope you've had happy summer travels, too!