Am I a Traveling Man? - Part 2

Here's February's second trip.

Tammy's parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in February with a party.  As invitee's and also a part of the family, Tammy and I boarded a Thursday evening flight to Chicago on February 26th.  We met up with Stas and Lizzy upon landing at O'Hare and arrived at the Kelly's home around 10pm where some Jimmy John's sandwiches awaited us. 

Friday morning we went through old photos to make three collage boards for the party.  A quick visit to the party venue - Whitetail Ridge Golf Club - was made in the early afternoon to check on some final preparations for the party like house music set up and a projector for a slide show Stas put together.  Tammy's aunt from KS and her cousin from MD stopped by in the evening for a visit and some catered shrimp pad thai and beef stroganoff from Noodles and Company.

Saturday was party day.  Tammy and I went to the venue around 1030am to set up the music and slide show.  Family, friends from work and church, and old neighbors started arriving around noon.  All of Tammy's living aunt and uncles from both her mom and dad's sides were in attendance as were many cousins she hadn't seen in years.  Lots of visiting took place.  The food was a buffet style of appetizers like cheese and crackers, vegetable trays, hamburger and pulled pork sliders,  turkey sandwiches, meatballs, pretzel bites with beer cheese sauce, coconut chicken strips, mac'n'cheese as well as chicken wellington bites all washed down with drinks from an open bar.  The dessert table was an assortment of goodies and an anniversary cake from Sweet Temptations Dessert Company along with decorated sugar cookies from Dough Much Love.  The party ended there at 4pm and moved straight to the Kelly's house.  There family was treated to more visiting and more vegetables, chips, cheese and sausage with crackers, pulled pork, and leftover sweets from the party.  The festivities wrapped up around 9pm with the departure of the final guests.

We relaxed on Sunday talking and doing laundry.  I tackled a few odd projects.  I put Stas's 60th anniversary slide show on Grandpa's laptop, got a stubborn weight back on the grandfather clock, and troubleshooted their tv streaming issue.   4am Monday found us on our way to O'Hare for the trip back home.

Link to photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/WFo4GUnsJWY2wJC3A

Am I a Traveling Man? - Part One

Okay, no I haven't made a lot of stops around the world, nor do I have a girl in every port; but I did have an active February of travel.  Here's trip one.

Where I work paid for all full time employees to attend the 2026 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, TN.  Five of us boarded a Southwest flight on Wednesday afternoon, February 18th and flew south.  Upon landing in Nashville, we made our way to the Grand Ole Opry Resort and Convention Center where we would be staying and attending the 3 day conference.   The place has to be seen to be believed.  After checking into our individual rooms, we had dinner at Ravello's.  The table ordered the focaccia and the meatballs for appetizers.  I and several others had the Osso Buco based on Tammy's recommendations from internet reviews.  From dinner, everyone headed to the opening session of the conference.  The highlights of the evening were a video message from the President, worship lead by Michael W Smith, a sermon from Pastor HB Charles, and a closing mini-concert by Nicole C Mullen - boy can she still sing.

Wednesday started with a plated breakfast put on by Salem Media.  The meal was really good for banquet food.  The feature of the breakfast was Dr David Jeremiah sharing his ministry's testimony.  The rest of the day was filled with sessions concerning listeners to radio, podcasting, journalism, and car radios.  Dinner was to be at the Old Hickory Steakhouse; but after I reported the menu prices,  the six of us Ubered to an Outback Steakhouse for a Bloomin Onion and much more affordable steaks. 

The following day started like the previous one with a sponsored breakfast.  It was buffet style and hosted by Moody Media.  Again, for banquet style food, it was rather good.  I especially liked the muffins.  The breakfast spotlighted Dr. Erwin Lutzer who after a time of funny stories/jokes delivered a devotional about when God doesn't answer your prayers.   The rest of the morning I attended sessions on censorship and radio listeners.  All six of us from work met at 130pm for a three hour private driving tour of the Nashville area.  The day closed with a three hour celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the United States.  The memorable moments where a speech from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a game of Pragerdy, music from Liberty University's acapella group Shine, and several closing songs by Matthew West.  It was a long evening.

Friday, I checked out of my room before walking to a local Bob Evan's for breakfast.  I attended my final two sessions - music licensing and the other on the importance of local radio.  To kill some time, I walked to a nearby mall.  At 1pm, the work group met at the Grand Ole Opry for a 50 minute tour of the famous venue.  It was then time to head back to the Nashville Airport where four of us flew American home and the other two Delta.   

A link to NRB26 photoshttps://photos.app.goo.gl/TSrj97qZHpfjk4dh7