We made it!

Our journey on the road was, shall we say, not common...Well, you might say that on the outward appearance of a 26' moving truck and a minivan with a cargo bag on top was a normal site for a family travelling across the country, but that was the only "normal" thing about our trip.

It took us longer to load up the truck than normal, so we didn't leave until Thursday morning.  We had purchased 2-way radios since we didn't know when we would have good cell service to communicate back and forth.  The radios provided an easy way of carrying on a conversation, as well.  As we were about to pull out of the driveway, and with the rest of my family in our minivan, I pressed the little button on the side of the radio and prayed that we would have a blessed trip, with no incidents, good gas mileage, and thanked Abba for what He had already provided for us.  I felt like just laying my hand on the horn as we left our town of Sterling, Colorado, as if to say "goodbye".  I think if the truck had been equipped with an air horn, I probably would have.  So, with the laptop next to me, and lots of open road ahead of us, we headed for our new home in Tennessee.

Like all good road trips start, we made a family potty stop only an hour down the road.  From there, we zig-zagged through Nebraska and down into Kansas.  En route, we passed through many small towns that showed us just how Catholic the state of Kansas is, from a store with a shrine in front of it, to an entire city dedicated to Mary (St. Marys).  The other odd thing that we noticed is that no matter how big or how small, each town in Kansas had its own bowling alley.  Being a bowler myself, I had to chuckle at this.  Nearing the end of our first day's journey, we came up to Kansas City.  For some strange reason, my laptop-based GPS software had been starting to act a little...ummm...goofy.  This is because I had changed the routing from "quickest" to "shortest".  Unfortunately, the software didn't know that the road construction barricade was the mascot of Kansas City.  We had to make detour after detour, going through some not-so-safe areas of the city.  Finally, a big bright light bulb lit up the cab of the truck and I thought, "Gee...we might get there faster if we get on the freeway!"  So, we made a couple of turns and made it back to the freeway.  Within a very short distance after getting on the highway, I noticed a billboard, which said that there was some cheap gas at the same exit that the KOA was at.  So, as I said in my last message, no matter what the cause of the trip through Kansas City was, YHWH blessed us with low-cost gas.  Unfortunately, the KOA didn't allow pets, and explained that they had some bad apples that ruined their pet allowance policy.  So, we went to a nearby hotel (Days Inn) which was a little high in price, but with free WiFi, and a (relatively) small charge for the dogs, it was worth it.

The next day we hit St. Louis which was not exactly the best part of the trip.  The GPS had us going on one route, but a good portion of that was FLOODED, from the recent storm.  In fact, they had volunteers out filling sandbags to place throughout the west side of the city.  Unfortunately, they were running out of sand because most of their sand quarries were also flooded!  So, we ended up going a little north over to a parking lot of a freeway.  I got off and took side roads for a little ways to try and dodge some of the traffic, before getting back on the highway.  From there we headed south towards Kentucky.  Did you know there was a winery in the middle of the Ozarks???  If we had more time, I would have stopped.  But because of the situation in St. Louis, we were running a bit late.  We got to drive over a stretch of road that not only went over the Mississippi River, but the Ohio River at the same spot!  Driving a ten-ton truck over a skinny little bridge (ok, so it wasn't THAT skinny) made me a little uncomfortable, but not as bad as when we got to the other side and were driving only a couple of feet from a waterland area that looked a bit like a bog.

So, we got to the TN border and saw the little sign that said "Welcome to Tennessee!" in what appeared to be cursive.  I knew we still had a ways to go, but that was SUCH a sign of promise!!!  We stopped for a quick bite to eat and headed for Dickson.  We finally arrived around 10:30 CST, which made our second day of travel about twelve and a half hours.  When we arrived, I saw girls come flying out the front door in their nightgowns and Chris coming up to the truck to welcome me to Tennessee (and to their house).  As soon as I parked the truck, we got the freezer (which was full of meat and milk) plugged in, and then we all went inside.  They had a turkey dinner (including cheesecake) waiting for us.  It was just great!!!

The next morning, ALL of the kids were up almost as early as we were, even though it was after midnight by the time everyone got to bed the night before.  The kids all had breakfast and got changed, and then played games and burned off energy outside for the majority of the day.  We adults sat around talking all day.  It was one of the most-restful Shabbats that I've ever experienced.  It was as though Abba was telling us, "Here is My rest, for you have done your journey as I commanded."  It is hard to describe what I felt that day, except that it was full of peace and laughter, there was no stirring in my body to get ready for a workday (which usually happens in the late afternoon on Saturdays), and there was a comfort that I felt, being where He wanted me to be.  Teresa took a much needed nap, and Chris and Dawn switched off taking cat naps.  I just stayed awake chatting away and watching the kids have fun. 

The following morning we had breakfast, took pictures, and then headed towards our luncheon with another friend.  Ya know how I said the GPS was acting a bit goofy?  Well, even after switching it to the "quickest" route, so that we could hopefully make up some time, it wanted us to drive through the middle of Nashville.  Picture this...you're on a road coming over a small hill and in front of you are some pretty big skyscrapers that remind you of all of those movies filmed in the heart of New York City.  And there to one side is the highway.  So now you have a decision...follow the "instructions" or risk taking the freeway.  Skyscrapers....freeway....skyscrapers....freeway...???  We took the freeway.  Since there was a bit of traffic (on Resurrection Sunday, no less) and we were already running late, I was a tad nervous at taking this route.  Well, we made up quite a bit of time on that route and ended up only being about fifteen minutes late.  We ate in a little family diner that had one of the best chocolate cream pies I've ever had!  If you're ever around Lebanon, TN, and want some good fixins', look up Sunset Family Restaurant.  You won't be disappointed!

So, from there, we headed toward the new house.  Every so often, I announced, "We are now one hour away....We are now a half-hour away....We are now at the ten-mile point....five miles...." and so on until I said, "We are less than one mile away from our new home."  Teresa came on the radio and said that I was making the kids all excited.  Would I do that??  (grin)  And then we pulled into the drive of our new home at about 3:30 in the afternoon.

After calling a few people to let them know we were there, and having the owners come by and do the paperwork and talk about different things regarding the house, I saw some cars pull up.  Before I go on, I need to state that we were expecting two families to join us to unload the truck.  I had pictured eight to twelve people, including kids, total.  Weeeelllllll.....  I announced, "The crew's here!"  and then said, "Wow!  There's five cars out there."  One of the owners looked and said to me, "You'd better count again...I count seven."  By the time we walked out, there were two or three twelve/fifteen passenger vans, a minivan, an SUV, and a couple of pickups.  They were lined up in parallel parking on the yard and I just saw a crowd coming toward the house.  At the end of the day, we counted names and, including kids of all ages, and our own family, we had TWENTY-EIGHT people here, of which, all but one (infant) helped to unload, unpack, put together, etc.  Once the owners took off, we had everyone separate into families.  We had six families represented, not including our own.  We then prayed, and I took the heads of the families around to each of the three doors of the house and anointed the doors and prayed over the house and asked for blessings for those who enter within the house.  I keep telling people that I think we set a land speed record for unloading a totally packed twenty-six foot moving truck.  Teresa says that to her, it was like a scene out of the movie Witness (with Harrison Ford living in an Amish community).  I almost lost composure as we prayed before getting started.  I mean to tell you that the site of all of those brothers and sisters coming to help...WITH JOY...let me say that again...they came WITH JOY AND HAPPINESS AND GLADNESS... that even the children that were three- and four-years old asking for boxes to take off the truck...was almost overwhelming, to say the least!!!!!!!  And that's not all...they said that THE REST weren't able to make it!  Teresa and I looked at each other as if to yell out, "THERE'S MORE???"

They instructed Teresa to stay at the door and direct where things were to go, the way Mennonite communities work.  In other words, "We're here to work, you just tell us what needs done."  I can't even begin to tell everyone that's reading this the presence of the Spirit of Joy that was upon this property that day!  Not one person grumbled, not one child complained...Everyone was laughing and having FUN at unloading and helping us out.  After the unloading was done, some of us started putting beds together and two of the women disappeared to get food.  They came back with THIRTEEN large pizzas.  By the time everyone got their fill, we had one and a half left over.  We ended the day by sleeping in our own beds...ON OUR MOVE-IN DAY!  For us, that is almost unheard of!  As you read this, I truly hope you can feel the happiness and excitement of the events that took place that day!

Now, let me tell you what I have not conveyed in any of the above, nor in my previous message, the miracles and blessings that have occurred on this trip since we left our house in Colorado...

Gas prices: We prayed for, and asked other to pray for, good gas mileage and cheap gas prices.  The result -- The national average at the time we left was $3.99 for diesel.  With a 55 gallon tank, I budgeted for $200/tank.  The highest we paid was $3.93, which was for the partial tank right before dropping the truck off at the end of the the trip.  Each tank was filled at a cost of either $3.79 or $3.89/gal.  The highest full-tank fill was just over $150, with the rest being around the $120 mark.  At each tank fill up I did for the truck, Teresa would tell me that she was only at a half-tank.  She didn't even fill up at each time.  We figured that she probably filled up to the equivalent of NO MORE than TWO tank fulls!  We've driven long distances before and our minivan, when loaded to the capacity that it was, gets somewhere between 400-500 miles to the tank.  Well...we drove over 1300 miles...you do the math!

Travel: With a total of TWENTY NINE travel hours, including stops, our travel was blessed with beautiful weather, and with the SMALL exceptions of the Kansas City and St. Louis detour areas, was stress-free.  Our children were well-behaved and kept themselves busy or slept without arguments or outbursts.  (( For those of you who have ever travelled long distances with children know that that is a miracle in itself! ... lol ))

Time: This is one that can only be described as "being carried on angels' wings," and somewhat goes with the previous item.  Time for us was nearly absent.  Driving along these roads for the length of time that we were, it seemed as though we were driving down the road to friend's house.  To give you an example...driving from Dickson to Lebanon physically took right around 90 minutes.  It seemed more like about 10 minutes.  Now...if it was just one of us, that would be one thing, but for ALL five of us, it's something totally different.  With Teresa not realizing how long we had been on the road, both on the second day, nor when we arrived in Lebanon, and the kids asking, "We're here already?"  There was some type of time shift that occurred on this trip.

So, as I sit here on our third night, writing this, knowing that it won't actually go out for a few days (after we get our Internet service installed), I am still in complete AWE as to what our Father has done to get us here and to provide for us when we got here....We still don't know what type of work He is going to have me do, or for what purpose He has brought us here.....However, there can be ZERO doubt that HE, and ONLY HE has made it possible for us to be here!!!

Even though we have travelled here to Tennessee, we all know that our journey is just beginning.  So, don't think that this story is concluded by any means...............