The Quartet was on the road again this weekend (is on the road, rather - I’m typing this from a motel in Taylorville, IL) and we got to do something that I don’t think I’ll ever do again: sing the National Anthem at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Okay, so it was just us, the rest of the tour group, and a few guys who had paid big bucks for Allison Transmissions to take them for a spin around the 2.5 mile track in a pickup, but it was still pretty cool. When the tour guide found out our identity, he had us step up in the winners’ podium (where the National Anthem is typically sung at the Indy 500) and sing for the crowd. Expect a video on YouTube sometime after we get back.

After that coolness (not to mention all the other stuff there - the IMS is really a nifty place to tour) we went to sing at a church in Dennison, IL. After the service, we stepped outside and waited for the last folks from church to leave. That left us, Bussy, and a whole slew of stars above. It was so clear and so dark that we could barely pick out constellations for all the stars that were up there. I recognized the Big Dipper and Scorpio (I think), but the really neat thing was that from horizon to horizon there was a cloudy band of stars - that, folks, is the edge of our particular arm of the galaxy. Yes - the Milky Way Galaxy was spread out above us tonight. I’d heard about that but have never seen anything quite like it before, and let me say it was absolutely stunning. To see that many stars sprinkled above the earth like that…truly God is an amazing God!

So that’s all from IL. Go Eagles, go Penn State, and go Pig Sty Esquires, my fantasy team on ESPN, who are 1-0 after solidly trouncing Davey last week. Woo hoo!

First day back to work after a 10-day “vacation.” Came in late because (after coming into Greenville late) I got four hours of sleep. No sooner (literally less than five seconds) had I sat down in my chair for the first time in who knows how long and the phone rings - it’s one of our security consultants in Atlanta wanting to go over his software that I was supposed to have been testing for the last three weeks. Let’s back up, shall we?
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Before we pull out of Moncton this morning I thought I’d take time out to write about yesterday.

I slept.
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After pulling out of Saint John yesterday afternoon for more sightseeing (let me say that the Bay of Fundy is one of the most picturesque places I’ve ever seen) we headed up to Fredericton (2 hours north [nord]) for a church service, then east (est) an hour and a half to Moncton, where we’ve got two days here. The service last night was great - lots of folks came out and (I think) were blessed by the music. Apparently folks up here just don’t get traveling groups from anywhere that we’re familiar with in the States. Whether it’s because they can’t “afford” these groups (though we don’t actually charge anything to come up) or because they’re too remote for most groups to make it worth their while, I’m not sure. But I do know that everywhere we’ve gone we’ve been gratefully received, and that’s really cool. Thanks, Canada!
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I just realized today how…well, pedantic the French language appears to be. Take English: you’ve got a noun (lane) and an adjective (right). Put them together and you have “the right lane.” The article is usually unnecessary, so we have an economy of words - two ideas, two words, off you go.

Then there’s these signs around New Brunswick: “Fin de la voite de droit.” As far as my limited understanding goes, that is the title of this post in French. “Right lane ends” as opposed to “the end of the lane of the right.” Why??
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It has been one day and a half here in the Maratimes. Not only did the Calvary Quartet sing to two packed out churches, but the Phillies set a new MLB record by losing their 10,000th game. In 126 years of franchise play, no team before this afternoon had lost that many games. Now the Phillies are in the record books…not for winning (or anything else positive, for that matter) but for losing. Appropriately enough, the Phils are the losingest team in major league sports. How’s that for fame?

So yeah, Maratimes, singing, boating, etc. etc. etc. It was a long day. Fun, but still long. The alarm is not going to be set for tomorrow morning. Sightseeing for a few hours, sure, but not before lunch. So now I can’t really keep my eyes open, and I keep typing very strange things while I’m writing this post. Not just typos, but completely different words. Very annoying. I’m going to stop now…before I type something embarrassing…

So this is it - day one (two?) of the Calvary Quartet World Tour…otherwise known as the “Canada trip.” It started Friday at 4 (eastern) with the promise of 24 hours straight driving. It was smooth skies all the way to the St. Stephen, NB, border crossing…where we met…HER.
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I’m sure most people in Greenville will hate me for this (BTW, I just misspelled that town name - in an unusual irony, it came out as “GreenVILE”) but I just saw a great sunset…from the water’s edge at Clearwater Beach on the beautiful Gulf of Mexico. Fine white sand, a nice pleasant breeze, not too salty but definitely more robust than an inland breeze…it’s great. We’re singing at Hillsdale Baptist Church in Tampa Sunday morning and afternoon, but who could miss hitting the beach for the day before singing on Sunday?
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This weekend has capped what may possibly be my busiest week since August of last year. Note: I don’t mind being busy. In fact I rather like it. It’s just when I get busy and exhausted that I get a little loopy.
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I don’t know if I’ve announced this, but the online map of which my title speaks has gone through a semi-major rewrite and is now ready for public consumption. The Map (following in such traditions as The Calendar [also being announced for the first time] and the more-well-known The List) is a neat combination of technologies and open-source hacking that allows me to enter (through a fairly kludgy process) all the Quartet’s engagements past and present on an interactive Google map. You can change which year you’re looking at; years are color-coded; pending visits are marked with little tags; and completed visits are marked with large markers. Each marker when clicked will bring up a bubble displaying the church name, address, and website (where applicable).

Along the same lines, The Calendar is another Google venture, this time simply my shared Quartet calendar listing the dates and times of services. Quite incomplete at the moment, since it only goes through May (which, incidentally, is how far my Groupwise calendar is filled), but as time goes on I’ll get more and more into that. I might even add an auto-post for each weekend that we’re out. Who knows? The future is bright at mounty’s corner. A little too, bright, actually. Someone want to kill a few of those lights?