I currently sit in a remarkably comfortable easy chair in a room at the Hampton Inn that I am sharing with four others here in St. Louis. A busload of us arrived here in town around noon today for Urbana. This is a conference put on every three years by Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship and they are expecting somewhere around 25,000 college students from North America and around the world.

This is a photo taken just moments ago. Do not underestimate the difficulty in taking a photo with one’s left hand.

Say what you will about McDonald’s, they are doing their best to revamp the atmosphere in their restaurants.

This is what a bus full of tired people look like after riding through the heart of America in the night.

This is Brian, a Texas native. The light you see in the vicinity of his face is an apt metaphor for the wisdom e’er emanating from his mouth.

In this photo I would like to direct your attention to two things. One, Brian is reading (which explains the sunspot above). Also, please note Dan the Bus Driver’s killer shades.

This is Beau soon after waking up.

This is a huge cross you can’t miss from the highway. Less obvious is the tiny little independent Baptist church it belongs to. Also, the van ahead of us is from Lancaster and has “Urbana or Bust” painted on the back. We spotted them by chance somewhere in Indiana or Illinois and proceeded to journey the rest of the way together.