Day 1
Our group began the tour by gathering beside the bus, in the parking lot at First Baptist. We chartered a bus to transport us to the airport in Charlotte. Several non-touring choir members joined us to pray and wish us their blessing before we departed.
We counted off in a large circle outside the bus and read our tour Creed for the first time. We pulled out about 8:40 AM. The trip to Charlotte went well and seemed to go quickly. We were greeted with huge crowds at the Douglas International Airport in Charlotte when we arrived. It didn’t take long to get our boarding passes, but it did take a long time to work out way through security. We arrived in plenty of time to enjoy lunch before boarding our flight to Boston. The flight was booked solid and our group was dispersed throughout the airplane. Since we had no luggage, it was simple to exit and reunite with our bus: the one which is left on Thursday to carry our luggage to Boston. Our bus driver, Scott Wilson, navigated the busy Boston traffic to our hotel in Cambridge. After unloading our luggage, assigning rooms, and getting our things into our rooms, we boarded the bus and headed down to the waterfront in Boston for supper. Our group dispersed and some ate Italian and some ate seafood. A small group enjoyed supper with Nick Jewell at an Italian restaurant on Hanover Street. It was a wonderful time of reconnecting with him and talking about his life in Boston as the coordinator for club sports and intramural sports at MIT. Our first devotion, based on our tour theme song, “To Love our God,“ was led by Betty Roe. The day ended beautifully and we were thankful we had made it safely to Boston.