Well since my good friend Binoy (aka Neo) is behind in his blogs, I thought I might help him out and write about our fantastic weekend. See this past Sunday Binoy attended his first everAmerican concert!!! He, along with myself and two of my very good friends saw Michael W. Smith in concert at the Peoria Civic Center. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Michael W. Smith, he is a contemporary Christian artist was has been singing and playing the piano for over 20 years. He is one of my absolute favorite musicians.

Anyway, back to the story ….. The concert was at 6:00 pm, so I picked up Binoy at 4:00. So after catching up on the latest news, Binoy and I headed for Peoria. Of course we could not begin the trip without coffee, so we made a quick stop at the local McDonalds for a cup of delicious black coffee. With coffee in hand, we made our way to Peoria. Before reaching Peoria, we had to stop in Morton, IL. My friend Robert offered to drive us the rest of way to Peoria, since neither Binoy nor myself knew how to get to the Civic Center. So we met Robert at the Wal-Mart in Morton and all piled into his small car. We then met up with Abby in Peoria and drove to the Civic Center.

We find our seats, which are super close to the stage and wait for the big event to begin. Before Michael performed, we got to hear music from Selah and Watermark. I thought both bands were great, but Binoy did not share those feelings. Finally, Michael W. Smith entered the stage with his band. That moment was incredible – there was so much energy in the arena!! Michael proceeded to sing about 15 songs – all of which were great. Michael even sang Binoy’s favorite song “Everywhere” and I swear I could see a tear come to Binoy’s eye. For the last few songs, both Selah and Watermark came back onto the stage to sing with Michael. Those songs were beautiful too. After that Michael and the band said goodbye and left the stage. The four of us were awestruck and were feeling amazing.

To top off the evening we decided to go get some dinner. Unfortunately, it was so late that our choices were limited – but we decided to eat at Denny’s. Good food was enjoyed by all, until later that night when I suddenly came down with intense stomach problems. Now I don’t want to blame Denny’s for the sickness, but I have a feeling something may have been in the eggs. After we got done eating, Abby got in her car to drive back up to Galesburg, and Robert, Binoy, and I drove back down to Morton to pick up my car. When we reached Morton, Binoy and I said goodbye to Robert. The rest of the ride back to Bloomington was a little difficult due to all the construction, but thankfully Binoy was able to keep me calm. When we finally made it back to Bloomington, I said my goodbye’s to Binoy and headed back to my apartment where I would spend the next two hours ‘hugging the toilet’ But although I got sick, the entire evening was so much fun. I could not have hoped for a better concert experience for Binoy. I can’t wait until him and I can go to another American concert. Until next time…..

Update 1: The ‘I’ in the post is Kelly. Thank you Kelly for writing this entry. One day she will have her own blog
Update 2: Some pictures from that day