Planes, Trains & Tour Buses

This past weekend will be one to remember. I’ll have to start from the beginning.

As you know, I’ve been out on the road with the Gloria Christmas tour, getting to VJ and make it snow on the inside of churches through the magic of projectors. Typically, a weekend’s tour will run Thursday thru Sunday night. But not this weekend… here’s what my life looked like the past four days:

- WEDNESDAY PM: drive down to Franklin, leave my car at the Kroger parking lot and jump on a tour bus…destination, North Carolina.

- THURSDAY AM: setup show at Westover Church in Greensboro, NC.

- THURSDAY PM: For the first time ever, i blend iMAG with “Names of God”. Don’t ask…it just felt right in the moment. after the show, Travis Cottrell (worship leader/artist on the tour) and I break away from the tour, jump in a rental car, and drive 3 hours to Asheville. (there was no show booked for Friday night, so the tour rolled back to Nashville for a day off, but Travis had a separate gig booked at The Cove…Billy Graham’s conference center.) We roll in at 1:30am.

- FRIDAY AM: we sleep in but are woken up by a phone call at 10am. It’s the concert promoter. The show has been cancelled b/c of the snow storm. I look outside, everything is white! 30 minutes later, we get a call and are told to get off the mountain NOW b/c the roads were going to stop being serviced. We pack and leave, heading back to Greensboro. Our show Saturday night is in Wilson, NC, where we would be meeting back up with the tour bus. …. NOT SO FAST! we get a call on our way out, the show Saturday might be cancelled, and the tour bus can’t make it from Nashville b/c of the snow storm. We didn’t know whether to book flights back to Nashvllle or … ???? we were stuck.

- FRIDAY PM: had lunch with Travis’ sister (cause he’s from NC), and we get the call that Shaun Groves, Cindy Morgan and one other would be flying in, but the bus couldn’t come. the show would still go on, but with no band or tour production (except for video… oh yeah!) … Travis and I make it to Greensboro (made it in 5 hours, but should have only taken 2.5). We go see Avatar in 3D (WOW!!! except for the Papyrus font. ) The only thing is, we had to walk half a mile in the snow to get to the theatre!

- SATURDAY AM: if you follow me on Twitter, you know what’s coming next. That’s right…the Polar Express! Apparently trains are still a legitimate mode of transportation, and Travis’ assistant booked us on a train to get to Wilson. It was everything i imagined it to be and more…a train ride through a wintery wonderland… the soundtrack: White Christmas (w/ Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney). I highly recommend it.

- SATURDAY PM: we roll into Wilson at noon. AmTrak lost my bag. yeah, the train people LOST MY BAG. Not just any bag, my VJ bag (with all the hard drives, triplehead2go, cables, etc). luckily, they found it at the next stop (failed to pull it off the train in Wilson) and I got it back in a few hours. whew. (NEVER, i mean NEVER check your VJ equipment!) We did the show acoustic style and it ended up being a powerful, memorable night. Except that Cindy Morgan came down with the stomach flu.

- SUNDAY AM: we wake up early to go to the Raleigh airport. Cindy is sick as a dog. We get to the airport an hour and a half early. We stand in line, for almost that same amount of time. Flights are cancelled, people are freaking out…it was awesome. When I go through security, all my equipment is triggering off the security alarms…somehow my laptop had something on it that TSA didn’t like. I get patted down, searched, etc. We make our flight by a matter of seconds…. actually they had already closed the door, but reopened it for us. Plan B was to fly to Nashville (only other flight out, by the way) and drive to Louisville.

- SUNDAY PM: we connect at Chicago Midway, grab some lunch, and Cindy is barely hanging on. then at 3:00pm, we land in Louisville. we had made it! We got to the church at 4pm, and the show was to start at 7pm (doors opening at 6pm). I look at the walls, and they were screaming for some Environmental Projection. I don’t know why I live for the chaos, but i ran head-first into it. 90 minutes later, it’s snowing on the walls. oh yeah! Despite the perfect storm of events leading up to tonight, we had an awesome last show of the tour.

and that leads me to now… riding the original tour bus back to Nashville. We’re just a few hours away, and I can’t wait to get home. It was an awesome weekend though…i kind of enjoyed the uncertainty & adventure, and I’m always up for some snow!

I also got to connect with some really cool worship leaders and tech guys. Most of them were at the Gurus of Tech conference last summer. That was probably my favorite part of the whole weekend (next to Avatar, of course)….getting to hear their stories and talk visual worship with them. There’s nothing like it.

And so this brings me to the end of 2009…. wow, what a year. I’m so ready for 2010. I hardly have a break in the New Year but i’m ready to get started. There’s a lot to look forward to, that’s for sure. And I hope I get to meet some of you who are reading this. Definitely touch base with me if you are going to any conferences or events that you think i might be at. And if you ever come to Nashville, then I’ll introduce you to the best pancakes and coffee on the planet!