My trip to Dallas for the NRB convention started in the Tupelo airport when Marvin Sanders from American Family Radio came up and said hello. He was heading to NRB also. During the flight from Memphis to Dallas, I noticed a young man sitting across the aisle who looked vaguely familiar. Marvin (who was sitting behind me) leaned forward and asked, "Ray, how many exhibits do think there are at NRB?" I said there were probably a few hundred. The young man leaned over and said, "Ray Pritchard? I’m Andy Napier." I remembered him immediately from many interviews we had done a few years ago on WMBW radio in Chattanooga. He remembered me simply from hearing my voice during those interviews, the most recent one being five or six years ago. We chatted and he ended up inviting me to come to the exhibit floor at 5:30 AM on Monday to do a live interview being broadcast back to Chattanooga and Nashville.
The NRB is meeting at a massive resort called the Gaylord Texan. If you’ve ever been to Opryland in Nashville, it’s very similar, with hundreds of rooms built around massive open areas that are really atriums joined by walkways that wind in and around and up and down. It’s like a small colony from another world fell out of the sky and landed next to Lake Grapevine, just north of DFW Airport. Tonight I ate supper with Bob Hawkins, Carolyn McCready and Terry Glaspy from Harvest House Publishers. While we were getting our food at the buffet, I saw Randy Jahns, Al Fisher and Kay Olsen from Crossway Books. That’s one of the reasons people go to NRB–to run into friends you haven’t seen in a while.

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