To The Land of Lincoln

I’m heading to the land of Lincoln and Andrew Peterson today.  We’ll fly into Chicago and then drive to Lincoln Christian College for a gig tonight.

This is the first day of a five day run – a rare rare thing – a scary scary thing – for a few reasons.

1) My voice can’t last five nights, nor can my wife’s sanity last five days if the kids don’t cooperate.

2) I don’t have enough space in my backpack for the number of books it would take to occupy me for five days.

3) After five days on the road I start forgetting which state I live in and Brody‘s California speak makes more and more sense, like, you know and stuff and I’m all…

4) The temptation to caffeinate increases precipitously with every predawn wake-up call.

5) I like my bed, my wife, my kids, and my internet connection too much.

But I’ve taken steps to combat these negatives to five day travel binges:

1) This new vegan-ish way of eating and no caffeine, I think, has made my voice stronger.  Bizarre.  And, thanks to Travis, I’m sending Becky to a women’ conference thingy this weekend in Nashville for several hours. It was sold out, but, well, thanks, Travis.

2) I have a book to write, a rider to redo, a contract to rework, an e-mail blast to prepare, a newsletter to send out, a mass e-mail program to install…plenty to keep me busy.

3) Brody brought an iPod on this trip and I brought ear plugs.  This should keep the discourse between California and Texas to a minimum on those long drives.

4) We only have one very early wake-up call on this run of shows.  I think I can do that without drugs.

5) Brian gave us his old iSIght camera for Becky to use at home when I’m on the road.  We’ll try it out on this run and introduce my kids to video chatting.  And because we’re at a couple colleges I know we’ll have loads of free WiFi at our disposal.

What are your weekend plans?