Sunday, March 7, 2004

9:23 AM Finished my final bike ride before our trip. Marlene is packed already—naturally I’ve not really started yet. We leave for the airport in a little over an hour. We’re flying ATA to St. Petersburg where someone from Word of Life will pick us up and drive us to the conference center in Hudson—about an hour or so north of Tampa. I’ll be speaking tonight at 7 PM. I’ve been trying to decide how many years I’ve been speaking at Word of Life. I’m not sure but I think this is my 14th consecutive year. Tom Phillips is the director of the conference center. We first met Tom and Fay over 30 years ago at Tennessee Temple University (it was a college back then) in Chattanooga. We even double-dated a few times. Tom and Fay have remained close friends over all these years. I’m sure that one night this week we’ll go out for our annual dinner together. One of the nice things about going back to a conference year after year—you see so many old friends. There are a few folks we see each year in Florida and again during the summer at Schroon Lake. It’s almost 9:30 AM. Time to start packing and head for the airport.