Well, we made it through the first week. Mark Giles of Hit Radio Promo has been with me all week and that has been a great new friendship to build. He is a true servant. It has been an honor to partner with him this week. The rest of the week has not been as easy. Well, actually the visits themselves have been great. I finally visited KLOVE. I know, I know. They have been such a huge part of our ministry but I had never been to Sacramento. But I got to hang with Lisa and Eric on Monday morning and that was great. I played a few songs live, debuting the new single, Joy Unspeakable, and one other song from the new record, Did You Mean Me. Getting to Sacramento was not as easy. I left after church on Sunday, made it to Phoenix fine, and then got stuck for many hours. I should probably apologize for the Twitter onslaught that occurred while I was in the airport. Some were funny, some not. But it helped pass the time. But I finally got to CA and had a great visit. Tuesday we started in Tulsa at KXOJ. Again, they have been a huge support for us and actually added the new song the first day it was out. So that was awesome. I always love hanging out with Craig. And Heather is awesome too. Then we rushed to the plane to head to Florida. We did the Tampa scene on Spirit FM with Jamie that afternoon and I totally botched one of the new songs. Live. On air. You must be so proud. Then we actually got to go to dinner with some of the Spirit crew so that was great. Then it was off to Orlando. We started Wednesday at Z88.3 in Orlando on air with Tyler and Ellis. Played Grace and Joy live. Then I got to spend some time with the staff and played a few songs including I Need No Other from NEED. I don’t know why we’re always capitalizing NEED but we are, so I guess it has become part of the brand. Then it was back to Sarasota to see the folks at The Joy FM. They were awesome. We were doing lunch and they had suggested ordering Greek salad instead of pizza. I had my doubts but it was wonderful. I got to hang out with their whole staff and shared a bit about getting married and the story behind Joy Unspeakable, which I don’t have to tell you because you probably saw the video already. Then I did some on air stuff with Bill. We did miss Carmen and Dave, but we’ll catch them next time. Then we headed to the airport to head to NYC and here’s where it started to get sketchy. We had all kind of delays, but I chose to grant grace to my Twitter followers and not abuse them again. So we finally got in to our hotel in NJ at about 2:30, I think. We landed just hoping that the car rental place would still be open. It was. We made it to the morning show with my friend Johnny Stone on Star 99.1. I was dragging but glad to be there. It was a good morning and then we headed downtown to Beliefnet. We left that interview with the sole purpose of getting a slice of real NY pizza. We achieved our goal. It was awesome. Then we headed to the airport with no idea what lay in store. We arrived, hoping to bump up to an earlier flight to catch up on some rest. The girl’s response was “I was hoping you were going to say, ‘I’d like to go tomorrow, and get two free passes.'” We told her that wasn’t an option for us. Apparently due to the weather that almost kept us out of NY the night before, they had cancelled about half their flights and all those people were trying to get on our flights. Anyway, we had seats and it was only delayed half an hour. So we get inside and settle in to the airport hang. Charged the laptop. Read some. Listened to some book on tape (well, book on playlist) and sermons. Listened to two of my favorite new records, Derek Webb’s Stockholm Syndrome and Nathan Lee’s West Tisbury. Then I walked up to check on the flight and it had been delayed another hour. Now we would land pretty much at the exact time we were supposed to take off on our connecting flight to Minneapolis. So we waited. At the appointed time, we went to our gate. And waited. Right as we were supposed to be taking off and there still wasn’t a person at the gate, we started to wonder. Then the screen changed to say departure time was pushed back another two hours and 15 minutes. Now we definitely miss the flight. As we were standing there, I thought I noticed that the flight number was wrong. Just by one number, like it used to say 267 and now it said 237 or something like that. I pondered. Then I walked to the main screen again and sure enough our flight had moved to another gate. I run down there, digging my phone out of my pocket. I make it just in time, hand them my boarding pass and call Mark to tell him. I get to my seat. When he finally gets on, he says they had already shut the door, but let him on. We were grateful for that. So we fly to Milwaukee. When we land, I can see the other gate like 20 yards to our right. So I run over there and somehow we make the connection. So we make it to Minneapolis. We were staying right near the airport so we went in and crashed. We got to sleep a little later the next day and then went to visit KTIS. They were incredible. I don’t know how I had missed visiting them before, but they are awesome people and really do radio well. I hope they play good music. I didn’t really get to check that out. But they’re wonderful people. I really enjoyed the visit with Dave and Pam, and then getting to hang out with their whole staff. We talked about foundations from 1 Corinthians 3. Then we had lunch. They ordered pizza from this amazing place. I wish I could think of the name of it, so I could give props where they are do. But it was awesome. And I really appreciate Chaz showing me around the place; it’s really amazing. So now it’s finally time to go home. I check to see if I can catch an earlier flight but I can’t. So surprise, surprise, I’m in the airport again. I wait for my flight to Dallas. It went fine. So now I’m literally 4 hours from my house, driving time. But I just have one more flight to catch and I’ll be home. I run to TGI Friday’s there in the airport for a Santa Fe salad, quite good. Then I notice it’s getting really close to boarding time so I run down to my gate. I get there and it’s empty, always a bad sign. I find out it’s been moved 10 gates down, so I run down there to find everyone sitting down, again a bad sign. It’s been delayed an hour. Then it was delayed another hour. So our flight finally takes off at 1AM! One! It’s already the next day. But we make it. And get to Austin at 2. I grab my luggage and am glad the airport shuttle is still running to long term parking. Sam had flown to Memphis and left me a message about where he left the keys. However, apparently Sam gets driver side and passenger side mixed up. So I spend another 15-20 minutes looking for the keys. I finally get to my house at 5 minutes till 3am. Glad to be home. And now we’re doing it again this week. We’ll start here in Austin, Wednesday morning on the River. See you then.
Todd