Left my house at 7:30am to pick up Joe Thorn on our way to the Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro, NC. It rained until we got a bit South of Indianapolis, but God delivered us from the deluge.

Along the way, somewhere in Indiana, we stopped at Burger King for a couple of kids' meals (well, we weren't all that hungry but needed a shot of something before getting to Louisville, plus we got cool G.I. Joe toys!). We stopped in Louisville for a staple of mine, Stevens & Stevens Deli (the Woody Allen-pastrami, garlic roasted potatoes, cole slaw, Sobe Energy). We also hit my second staple, ear X-tacy, the world's coolest indie music store. I picked up the new Espers, Beirut, Alexi Murdoch, and Constantines. All very good, but the first two had us dropping our jaws. Fantastic. Much more fantastic than needing to stop every 6 miles for Joe's atom-sized bladder.

We made it out of Louisville, through Lexington, and onto Charleston, WV where we are now comfortably enjoying the night in a Country Inn & Suites. Sharon is behind the desk and has been very friendly and helpful. By the way, I had to break my rule to stay here (my rule states that I can't eat or sleep in a place with the word "country" or "famous" in the name, and Famous Dave's gets a pass). They have free wi-fi, which is sufficiently fast, and smoking rooms that smell like, well, smoke. There out of the fresh smelling kind.

We walked across the parking lot for a very late dinner at the Texas Steakhouse & Saloon. It was very good, we both had sirloin. And Brooke was a very fun and conversational waitress, though a little slow getting our checks taken care of. But she didn't charge us for our drinks so, we forgive you Brooke!

Now we are writing on our blogs and still fielding emails from some of you who want to meet up while in Greensboro. It's been a long but very good day. God has given us strength and kept our families in order while we are away.