Arrival

Late last night, we (Wes Moore, Kyle Valaer, who works with him, and me) arrived here in Galesburg, where we're staying.  A pastor and his wife generously opened their home to us, so that's where we're staying.  Right now we're inside the church next door, using its wireless network (the connectivity in the house isn't the greatest).


Yesterday, I woke up at around 5:30 and drove to Mebane, NC, helped Wes Moore pack his van (like a Tetris puzzle), and then we started on the trip after picking Kyle Valaer up.  For several hours we discussed apologetics, the Bible, and various other topics, and Kyle and Mr. Moore took turns driving - I went from the back seat the the front passenger seat and back and forth, but even when they were tired, the other two didn't let me drive. ;-)


When I was in the back seat and nobody was talking to me, especially when it got darker and the drivers were tired, I did a few things by myself, including watching part of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which I hadn't watched previously.  On some of the stops we made, it was kind of chilly, but not freezing.
Unfortunately, there were quite a few times we passed by something I thought would make for great photos, but I either didn't have my camera at hand, it was hard to get a shot while in a moving vehicle that was filled with stuff, the windows were kind of dirty, etc.  For instance, there was this "rock dome hill" thing in NC that I think is some kind of landmark, although I don't know its name, various mountains, hills and fields (although much of the latter will look much better in the spring when the grass turns green and trees have leaves again), and an enormous flock of birds that flew close by overhead.  


When we finally arrived at the pastor's house, it was around 12 am EST (it's CST over here), so I just unpacked my clothes and other things, took a shower and went to bed.
I got up this morning at 9 am!  OK, that's CST - it would only be 8 am over here; besides, I went to sleep at what would have been around 1 am back at home.  This morning, Kyle and I set up the booth for the convention tomorrow; Mr. Moore was busty working on his presentations.
Well, I'll try to write more later; I think we're going to go eat soon and then go watch the new Liam Neeson movie, Unknown, in a few minutes.  Here's a photo I took at one of the rest stops on the way here: