I'm home safe and sound, and I want to detail a few things from Wednesday at the SBC. Honestly, I'm getting my days mixed up a bit since the whole week was a blur. So I'm making every effort to be sure that what happened on Wednesday was actually Wednesday. :)
Marty left us on Tuesday night, so Joe and I had to go it alone.
The day started with our hotel giving us a receipt under the door and needing to tell them that we weren't leaving until Thursday. No prob. The Sheraton was a fine place to stay but for the overpriced 
and undercooked food, the overpriced and underpowered Wi-fi, the strange propensity to leave us daily with too few of a certain size of towel, and the bar-coded piece of paper that rarely worked when trying to get in or out of the parking garage. I do have to say the king size bed was the most comfortable hotel bed ever, the view was pretty cool, the elevators were lighting fast which led Joe and I to try base jumping from inside the elevator on the way down, and the lady on the phone, who always addressed me as "Mr. McCoy" whenever we called to ask for more towels, was kind and quick to fix things.
We went to the convention to raise our ballots on a number of ho-hum issues. Then we spent some time in the exhibit hall talking with some folks and checking our email. We stopped by the Southern Seminary booth and talked with Dr. Kenneth Magnuson (ethics) and old friends and neighbors Clark and Helen Logan. Great to catch up.
We saw Chris Turner again, Lifeway guy, and we all decided to meet and eat at P.F. Chang's. Doug Walker graciously invited us to the Southern Seminary luncheon at no cost to us, but we just couldn't make it because of our lunch meeting with Chris. Joe got the orange peel chicken, Chris got the sweet and sour pork, and I got the orange peel shrimp (which is what I always get there because it's so honkin' good). Of course we also got lettuce wraps which are always phenomenal. If you haven't been to P.F. Chang's, stop reading and go eat. One of my favorite places.
We were able to hang out and meet up with so many folks from Lifeway, IMB, local pastors, state associations. Really great week of new friendships. It's hard to describe the connections and "networks" that are being built through a couple of days in Nashville.
We spent a little time in our hotel writing and working on pictures and videos. Then we left for Broadway to take pictures and videos of places we have been. We also went shopping for our kiddos. I got all four of my kids Nashville harmonicas, the boys got Sheriff badges, my daughter got some stationary and stickers with her name, and I also got them some candy and a toy wooden snake. They really love all the toys. I love my kids so much.
We spent a little time at the convention after shopping, but the business was done and we were exhausted. So we dropped by the exhibit hall one more time. We found out Craig Gross, of xxxchurch.com fame and author of The Gutter, was in town and came to the Lifeway exhibit. We missed him, but one of our new buddies at Lifeway passed on our website info and told him to check us out. Craig, shoot me an email if you stop by.
We went back to the hotel and ordered Papa John's (for the second time) and enjoyed some sausage and onion pizza. We spent a lot of time writing and working on videos and packing to go home. We also watched the live streaming video of the SBC and Bobby Welch, and were glad not to get trampled by all the "soccer fans." If that doesn't make sense to you, just move along.
We woke up Thursday, somewhat rested, and made the long drive home. We ate McDonald's for breakfast and only snacks the rest of the way because we were in a hurry. The friendships at the SBC were great, but there's nothing like coming home to our families.
Next post I'll reflect a bit and look forward a bit.
