It’s been a minute since we checked in from the road.

A lot has happened since then.

The last couple of months have taken us through a pretty good cross-section of what this journey actually looks like — different towns, different stages, different crowds and a whole lot of miles between them.

There have been late nights in Denton, a trip back up I-35 to the Brickhouse Saloon in Shawnee, smaller rooms, outdoor stages and nights where you walk in wondering exactly what kind of crowd you’re going to find.

That uncertainty is becoming one of the things we enjoy most.

Every room asks something a little different of you.

Sometimes you have to win people over one song at a time. Sometimes the energy is there before the first note. Sometimes somebody walks up afterward and tells you they saw you somewhere six months ago. And every once in a while you look out from the stage and realize somebody is singing the words back.

Those moments matter.

Because most of this journey happens a long way from the highlight reel.

It happens loading gear.

Driving home late.

Rehearsing when everybody has other things they could be doing.

Figuring out what worked last night and what needs to be better next time.

Then getting back in the truck and doing it again.

And lately, it feels like some of those miles are beginning to lead somewhere.

THEN THE ROAD POINTED TOWARD NASHVILLE.

Earlier this month, we packed a guitar and headed east to spend a few days writing with Nashville singer, songwriter and music producer David Norris.

We really didn’t know exactly what the weekend would become.

The goal was simple: write some songs, learn something, meet some people and see what happened.

What happened was four songs.

But that probably isn’t the most important thing we brought home.

There is something different about sitting in a room with someone who has spent years doing this professionally — throwing ideas around, chasing lines that almost work, tossing out the ones that don’t, and watching a song slowly turn into something that wasn’t there a few hours earlier.

There’s no stage.

No crowd.

No applause.

Just the work.

And we liked that part a lot.

The conversations around the songs were just as valuable. Talking about music, the business, where Ty’s sound fits — and maybe more importantly, where it doesn’t need to fit — gave us a lot to think about on the drive home.

We left Nashville with four new songs in various stages of becoming what they’re going to become.

We also left with a little more confidence that the direction we’ve been heading is the right one.

Not because anything suddenly became easier.

It didn’t.

If anything, Nashville was another reminder of just how much work is still ahead.

That’s okay.

We’re getting pretty comfortable with the work.

The road keeps getting longer.

The rooms keep changing.

And somehow they all seem to be pointing in the same direction.

Next stop: Flower Mound.

A few thousand rubber ducks, a street full of people and four hours of music at Rhythms at the River Walk.

See y’all out there.