Quinn and I met at the Grand Rapids, Michigan, airport last Thursday for a two-part adventure. The first part involved our Ben, who for the entire summer made his home on his boat. You could call him homeless, but that might make you feel sorry for him.

Ben lives for summer, which doesn’t last very long in Michigan. So when his condo’s owner needed to sell, Ben moved his stuff into storage and settled into the temporary comfort of his boat. Emphasis on temporary. With winter on the way I don’t need to worry about my homeless son; he’s already lined up a place. I guess he knew, though, that his sister and mom weren’t looking for that much adventure, so he booked us into a nearby motel. Thanks, B!

The next morning we took off on part two—a drive down to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to attend another Beth Moore conference. We had all day to get there so moseyed through our old stomping ground, which included several former residences, schools, an office, and the like. (Mauri and I were married in this college chapel.) We skipped Pinery Park this time, since I had done a thorough exposé of it on my visit last September.

But one simply cannot pass an opportunity to reexperience Marge’s Donuts. We have many stories that need revisiting.

For old time’s sake she even requested the special chocolate frosting. Yes I ate one too and yes she took a picture of me, but only one of us has mastered the let’s-look-attractive-while-we-bite-into-a-donut pose.

We enjoyed 3.5 hours of travel, enough time to have an actual conversation, which is a rarity in our busy lives. I almost hated to arrive.

Once again we managed to get the most coveted of all 11,000 seats at Beth Moore’s Living Proof Live event. Call us crazy, but if we were the first in the doors, we’d climb up all of those levels and park ourselves at the very top of the highest aisle.

This was a simulcast with a total of 190,000 participants, including friend and coworker Michelle, who was attending locally. If you want a taste of the teaching, here’s a link. Also, here’s the video recap.

During the lunch break. . . (Which one lives in Arizona?)

Beth gave us lots to talk about on the drive back to Ben’s Saturday night.

It doesn’t get much better than this.