Sanctus Real

September 3, 2010, 2:54 pm

APPALACHIAN MOTORBIKE ADVENTURE 2010

Eric and I made it home from the motorcycle trip.  Without a doubt, it was everything we hoped for…4 full days of motorcycle riding under a blue sky, canopied in trees and mountains, with hardly a straight road for miles.

Day One:
Nashville, TN – Asheville, NC.

Riding St. Rt. 129 aka Tail of the Dragon – 318 curves in 11 miles. This road is insane! Eric is a veteran rider and I’d barely call myself “intermediate,” so once we began, I didn’t see him for 20 minutes when I reached the bottom. He was parked and his helmet was off, he’d been done for awhile. You can see a map of this road by looking at the last blog post.  Again, insane.

Camping in Smoky Mountain National Park – We rolled in around midnight and couldn’t see anything.  We were scared of being mulled by a bear.  We weren’t, so that was good.  In the morning Eric’s battery died. We tied a load-strap from my bike to his, and I pulled him down the road until it jump started.  Fairly ridiculous.

Day Two:

Asheville, NC to Pearisburg, VA:

Blue Ridge Parkway – This is an amazingly scenic road that runs all the way to Roanoke, VA.  Unfortunately a lot of it is under construction, and it took a long time to really get going. Once we finally did though, it was a blast. Has to be one of the most beautiful rides in the country.

Stayed at a sweet cabin – The family of our road manager’s wife owns a little cabin out in the middle of nowhere, Virginia, and they were gracious enough to let us crash there for the night. It’s an incredible spot that was very relaxing after 2 days of riding.  We slept in.

Day Three:

Pearisburg, VA to Huntington, WV

New River Gorge – Riding from Pearisburg to Huntington might have been my favorite part of the trip. There was so much to look at; farmland, mountains, valleys, canyons, and the longest arch bridge in the western hemisphere.

Day Four:

Huntington, WV to Home – After a delicious and unhealthy breakfast from the infamous Tudor’s Biscuit World, Eric and I went our separate ways. He went home to Nashville, I went up to Ohio. The Buckeye’s season opener was beginning at about the same time I was rolling through Columbus. Traffic was thick. Instead of fighting all the cars, I decided a better use of my time would be to go find a television and watch the game. I did.  The buckeyes won. Good deal.

So good times were had. I’m ready to do it again in a month when the leaves are changing color. I think I might have to go back work though…oh well. That’ll be fun too.

August 29, 2010, 11:53 pm

Adventure Is Out There

It’s been awhile since my last entry. I apologize. The Rohmans and the Prevosts both had baby girls a couple weeks ago, and the Hammitts are about to have their son in the next couple weeks. This equals a big chunk of time off for Sanctus Real, and I haven’t had much to write about. I’ve just been fixing my new used Volvo, reading new used books, and taking a stab at writing one myself. Turns out it takes a lot of work. Who knew? Oh and I had my wisdom teeth pulled out. That’s another reason why I haven’t written. I couldn’t do much of anything for a week.

I’ll have more to talk about starting tomorrow though. My friend Eric and I are taking a 4-day motorcycle trip through the Appalachian Mountains. We’re starting in Nashville and riding to Asheville, NC. In there we’re going to ride a stretch of road called, “The Tail of the Dragon,” which is 11 miles of hills and over 300 curves. It looks something like this…

From there we’re taking the Blue Ridge Parkway up towards Roanoke, VA. We’ll celebrate the end of our trip in Huntington, WV with some Tudor’s Biscuit World. Then we’ll part ways and head home. With any luck, most the roads we’ll be on will look something like the map above.

When it’s all said and done, I’ll have put nearly 1500 miles on my bike, so keep us in your prayers as we go adventuring. I’ll try to update as often as I can with photos.

August 3, 2010, 8:24 am

This Week’s Adventures in Chicago, Little Rock, Pittsburgh, Denver, Dallas, & Home

We had an adventurous little week.

It started on the way to Ignite festival in Chicago. 15 minutes from the venue, right past the downtown skyline, the freeway flooded. The interstate was a river. We could see trash floating where cars should be driving. It took us 90 minutes to snake our way through neighborhoods and shopping centers to get to the baseball field where the festival was held. No sooner did we arrive than we were on stage playing our 30 minutes of music. Then we were done.  Time to turn around and head back home.

A couple days later, we were in Little Rock, AK for FamilyLife Ministries’ staff conference.  It was an uplifting time. We led worship in the morning and played a concert in the afternoon.  Oddly enough, as long as I’ve been in the band, we’ve never actually led worship as a band.  While I believe playing Sanctus Real songs is a form of praise and worship for me, it’s an entirely different world than playing “praise & worship” music.  It was a refreshing change of pace.

During the morning session, radio host, Bob Lepine, talked with Matt about the story of “Lead Me” (you can hear the story at sanctusreal.com).  In contrast, he then asked about my story of being divorced.  This was my first time speaking publicly about it, and I felt self-conscious…especially in a room of 200+ people who work for a thriving marriage and family ministry. It was difficult, and I’m not much of a speaker, but it was good for me. It was good to vocalize it. Everyone seemed very understanding, and afterward people had many gracious things to say. It was encouraging.  You can read more about my divorce on the first blog post.

Then on our way out of town, we stopped at Chickfila, which believe it or not, you can also hear about courtesy of Lisa & Eric at the K-LOVE morning show. I have to say, I’m impressed with accuracy. Listen here & then for a different vantage point, here.

20 hours and 2 new bus tires later, we were in the great city of Pittsburgh, PA. This was a really fun show…my first in the area.  I hope to make it back there soon.

Then came the marathon. Two shows in two different states in one afternoon.  Can it be done? Somehow. The first was Heavenfest outside of Denver, CO.  We played at noon.  Honestly, we were shocked at how great the response was. It was early. It was hot.  People showed up though, and they sang along.  We really had a good experience, albeit too short.  Hopefully we’ll be back again to spend the proper amount of time.

As soon as we finished playing, we grabbed some more Chickfila from catering and headed to the airport.  The second show was at Six Flags amusement park in Dallas.  Our flight landed, and we had just over an hour to get our gear (hopefully all of it) from baggage claim, drive to the park, and soundcheck before we were up to bat.  This plan could have gone wrong in a 1000 different ways, but it didn’t. The flights were on time. The airline didn’t lose any luggage. The traffic moved right along.  It was one of those things where you absolutely know angels were on the lookout.

After us, Skillet played. They had fireworks and elevators and giant balls of fire. It was rad. I felt like a chump because we didn’t have any of that.

Oh well, maybe one day. Until then, I’ll keep getting my fireball kicks out by playing Super Mario Brothers.

The next morning we flew to Detroit, and I rode the motorbike home. It was cramped on the bike, but everything fit. I took shower and went to bed. A very exciting finale, I know ;)

The End.

August 2, 2010, 9:48 am

Bowen’s Heart

Matt and his wife, Sarah, have been keeping a blog (bowensheart.com) as a way to update everyone with news of their unborn son. He has a heart complication known as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS).  Matt recently posted a story about finding heart-shaped rocks. It’s encouraging.

Click the link below to read the story and to find out more about the Hammitt’s son, Bowen.

http://www.bowensheart.com/

July 18, 2010, 11:42 pm

Mt Rushmore

Here’s a photo of us at Mt Rushmore.  It was my first time going.  It was pretty rad.

And here’s a couple more that I took (except for the one I’m in, a family we met took it)…

Click to view slideshow.