On the Road Again....

It is good to be home after another long road trip with one of my favorite gospel music groups, the Southern Prophets. I was honored to accompany the 4-man group and members of their families to the Tennessee hometown of the band's senior member and leader, Denny Archer, during the weekend (July 17-19). Making the trip to Lafollette, Tennessee, were Denny and Marilyn Archer, Bobby and Judy Gardner, Mike Hall, Dwayne and Christy George and their sons Landon and Dillon, and me and fellow Southern Prophets "groupies" Lee and Susan Hazelwood.

We all had a wonderful time traveling together and enjoying fellowship with members of the two churches where the Southern Prophets sang Saturday night and Sunday. One of the churches was founded by Denny's brother. We were also treated to some wonderful home cooking by Denny's relatives and, of course, Marilyn kept us well fed with snacks on the way to and from our destination. I'd like to thank the group for inviting me to make the trip. I seized the opportunity to interview all four of the Southern Prophets as well as the accompanying wives and family members. Like I did two years ago when I went with the band of Ohio, I plan to edit the interviews and and use them to compile a multi-part series on this outstanding gospel group. It will require many hours of work to put together but hopefully it will be worth the wait. I consider the last series that I did on the Southern Prophets based on the Ohio trip to be one of the best of the feature reports that I've done during my broadcast career.

It was great to getaway from the everyday routine for awhile. We traveled through some beautiful country in neighboring Tennessee but we were all happy when we hit the Patrick County line on our return home Sunday evening. The Tennessee lakes (TVA project) and mountains are spectacular (the view from Clinch Mountain is breathtaking) and the people that we met were wonderful but I don't think any place on earth can compare with the beauty of Patrick County or the warmth of its people. That's why we call this wonderful county in which we live "God's Country"!

God bless the Southern Prophets and their music ministry.

Richard