What an awesome day in Florida!
We arrived late last night at 3 A.M. I got a few hours sleep and woke up just after 6:15 A.M. to get ready for our early load in at Celebration Baptist Church. We had to be there at 7:30 to get everything in place. Thankfully, Tommy and his son Joey were there to help.
Tommy (and his wife Jo, as well as their seven children) have been friends of ours for a VERY long time. They were members of our church for a number of years, as Tommy was the associate Pastor. In 2001, Paula and I were honored to have Tommy as the minister who performed our wedding. They moved on to Tennessee (where we got to visit and perform at their new church) and finally settled in Tallahassee, Florida. We've been fortunate to bring our show there a number of times over the years. This year, they are the Florida stop on our tour!
We got our cases unloaded and got set up in a very short time. Even though the show wasn't until 2 P.M., we had to load in and then leave by 8:30 to head across town for another mini show. The crazy scheduling of this tour only allows for one stop in each state, but we've made an exception for Florida. For the third straight year, we brought a smaller show to the Creative Child Learning Center in Tallahassee. This is a children's place but that description doesn't do it justice. They have a HUGE facility complete with classrooms, a gigantic yard, and a small water park! Today was a big summer celebration day complete with a taco truck and our show. They really do things right, and while it's a smaller show (and really the only "kiddie" show of the tour), we always look forward to coming here. Thanks again Beth and Mike!
It was back to Celebration Baptist Church to finish setting up for the 2 P.M. show. They have an amazing setup! Here's the stage while the illusions are waiting to be placed into their starting positions for the show:
We arrived late last night at 3 A.M. I got a few hours sleep and woke up just after 6:15 A.M. to get ready for our early load in at Celebration Baptist Church. We had to be there at 7:30 to get everything in place. Thankfully, Tommy and his son Joey were there to help.
Tommy (and his wife Jo, as well as their seven children) have been friends of ours for a VERY long time. They were members of our church for a number of years, as Tommy was the associate Pastor. In 2001, Paula and I were honored to have Tommy as the minister who performed our wedding. They moved on to Tennessee (where we got to visit and perform at their new church) and finally settled in Tallahassee, Florida. We've been fortunate to bring our show there a number of times over the years. This year, they are the Florida stop on our tour!
We got our cases unloaded and got set up in a very short time. Even though the show wasn't until 2 P.M., we had to load in and then leave by 8:30 to head across town for another mini show. The crazy scheduling of this tour only allows for one stop in each state, but we've made an exception for Florida. For the third straight year, we brought a smaller show to the Creative Child Learning Center in Tallahassee. This is a children's place but that description doesn't do it justice. They have a HUGE facility complete with classrooms, a gigantic yard, and a small water park! Today was a big summer celebration day complete with a taco truck and our show. They really do things right, and while it's a smaller show (and really the only "kiddie" show of the tour), we always look forward to coming here. Thanks again Beth and Mike!
It was back to Celebration Baptist Church to finish setting up for the 2 P.M. show. They have an amazing setup! Here's the stage while the illusions are waiting to be placed into their starting positions for the show:
Tommy and Jo gave us a great lunch including Domino's pizza (hadn't had Domino's yet on this trip!), sandwiches, watermelon, snacks, and a lot more! We then finished setting a few things and the show began shortly after. Jo got some great action shots during the show!
This was one amazing crowd!
Thanks again Tommy and Jo! Every time we visit these folks, our kids have a great time with each other. We have five, but they have seven- they're truly among the only people we've met who are crazier than we are!
Here's Eli visiting with Jo:
We got everything loaded up (easily, thanks to Joey's strong back!) and headed out. We were given the traditional Hendricks send-off:
When a visitor hits the road, the entire Hendricks clan comes out and waves goodbye. Thanks again Hendricks family and Celebration Baptist Church. We always love to come to Tallahassee and we look forward to when we can return!
Right now we're on the road to Mobile, Alabama. We've got a 10:30 A.M. load in so thankfully the drive isn't too long. So far, our tour has begun in Alaska and the extreme Northwest of Washington state, and zigzagged across the entire upper half of the United States. We hit Maine and came down through the New England states all the way to Florida. We're officially heading West again for the lower half of the country, to conclude in Hawaii (we know we're getting back into the west because we just crossed into a new time zone, so we gain an hour). It's been one amazing journey so far. We only hope that the rest is just as amazing. We've been blessed to take our family on the adventure of a lifetime!
Right now we're on the road to Mobile, Alabama. We've got a 10:30 A.M. load in so thankfully the drive isn't too long. So far, our tour has begun in Alaska and the extreme Northwest of Washington state, and zigzagged across the entire upper half of the United States. We hit Maine and came down through the New England states all the way to Florida. We're officially heading West again for the lower half of the country, to conclude in Hawaii (we know we're getting back into the west because we just crossed into a new time zone, so we gain an hour). It's been one amazing journey so far. We only hope that the rest is just as amazing. We've been blessed to take our family on the adventure of a lifetime!
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