The Village

M. Night Shyamalan could have benefited from a visit to Wilmore, Kentucky when setting the scene for his movie, The Village! OK it wasn't that backward, but "quaint" is certainly a word that comes to mind...

This was the "Asbury Summit" where I journeyed to Asbury to catch up with NS Richard Waugh and family. A good trip down on Southwest Airlines, I arrived in Louisville Kentucky and nearly walked past Richard and Jane who were chowing down in a cafe! We then drove to Wilmore about 1.5 hours away. Main feature of the drive: horse stables that were bigger and brighter than the houses....think Kentucky Derby.

The seminary is very impressive - what large bequests will get you. Well equipped and very modern. Richard and Jane live in this "enclave" of apartments with the other Beeson scholars. They are 3 bedroom and pretty roomy. I stayed in one of the other family's apartment as they had returned home for Christmas.

Its very small town America - about 5000 people. And of course much influenced by the seminary and the Christian college across the road (also called Asbury). We had lunch at a drugstore that made great pizza - it felt like the 1950's (the pizza tasted like it was fresh though...). I got to meet some of the other students and they all seemed like quality people. I imagine its a very stimulating environment.

The trip home became a nightmare. Mostly the weather. The plane taking me from Chicago to Detroit was 2 hours late due to "de icing". I was glad they did this however. We then sat on the runway for 1.5 hours while they (a) took people off cos they'd overbooked the flight and (b) took 5 more people off because the plane was too heavy...I didn't know how worried to be - were we that close to the limit that 400-5500kg was going to make a difference? The weather was bad however so I'm sure it was some kind of safety thing. The plan had been to drive straight home (about 1.5 hours) from the airport leaving at 8.30pm. Well it was around 1am that we finally got out of there. I had made contact from Chicago by phone to pass on the good news and the plan had been reworked so that the kids would sleep and we'd drive home early the next day. So imagine my surprise at the midnight reuniting when they all turned up.

So there was something of a contrast between the bucolic environs of Wilmore to the nearly organised chaos of the Chicago airspace. A long day but part of real life in the USA.