Hickory Dickory House

Teena's idea on the title. Jeff wanted to put "In a quadrant" due to the curious layout and addressing system of this town.

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we wanted to wait until information of major significance was ready to share.

We are scheduled to close on a house in Hickory next month (2/22). We opted for a classic colonial style older home that has large rooms, a cozy family room with fire place and a sizable rec room or whatever you want to call it that is a converted garage. The house meets our needs for a large kitchen and entertainment area that makes it possible to host family gatherings and house church meetings. It’s also got a large lot and is centrally located, an added plus which makes it easy to get to work, downtown, or even to our future, still yet unspecified coffee shop location.

There were a few God-things that happened as we were considering making an offer. When we were pre-approved last week, the interest rate was at 5.5. First of all, we didn't expect the owner to come down much, but he did come exactly half-way from his asking price and what we thought we could afford. That seemed like an answer to prayer knowing that we will still be leaning on God to supply our needs. Before we made the offer, we checked back with our lender and asked if the rate was still good. She called us back a few hours later and informed us that it had dropped to 5.125! She told us that she had not seen that type of drop in quite awhile. We locked it in and that is where our rate will be for 360 months. It amazes us to think how the rate was 10% with the first house we ever bought.

So, what’s happening with the coffee shop?

We’ve been concentrating on getting settled into our part-time position as managers of the storage rental facility and on securing a home.

Now that this hurdle is out of the way we can begin laying the groundwork for the coffee shop. Currently we feel it best to work on relationship-building with the small congregation of Living Hope Covenant church, the church we are working with.

So, last night we went with their small youth group to nearby Morganton to do community service work. There we helped carry bagged groceries to people’s cars and pray for them. There are many people out of work because so many furniture factories have closed. Jeff met a man who worked for Drexel Heritage for several years and retired just prior to the industry relocating to China. He was much better off (but still in need) than many who had their jobs whisked away without having other skills. Many never finished high school in order to secure work at the plant. The Outreach Center (where we volunteered) has their hands full helping people pass their GED’s and training them to learn basic computer skills. We learned much from “TOC” and think we will be doing more of this type of service via the coffee shop.

We’ll meet with some of our core leaders this Friday night to get better acquainted.

We may also have a Superbowl gathering at another leader’s home as sort of mixer.

All this is leading up to future small group meetings, which we feel will be a good start on our coffee shop foundation.

Goals for the near future in addition to this include making contact with a NC non profit assistance organization to help us determine the legalities of this type of ministry, write a business plan and perhaps apply for a loan.

Once we figure out how we will operate and how much we need, we’ll start looking for an actual location.

Current needs to pray for:

Truck or van for Jeff for transportation
Lawn mower for our house since we had to leave ours behind
Knowledgeable person to help us determine business plan and business aspect

AC on!?

It's January 11th and we've got the air conditioner on in the office at Newton-Conover Self Storage. It is currently 74 degrees outside. Is global warming really a crisis? Kinda feels nice to me (The "grandchildren Jeff!" "Oh, sorry").

We went house-shopping today and have narrowed our search down to a "high-five" list. We're hoping to be able to make an offer by this time next week. We value your prayers.

Whewww!

We're starting to catch our breath, though not completely.

The storage business is very fascinating. People rushing to pay for the month before late charges are imposed have kept these brand new plates of ours spinning. Plus learning the format; plus unloading our trailer and packing our things into 3 10' X 10' storage units. With the latter completed and the customer rush dropping off, we have a bit of time to reflect and do other things.

This afternoon we will be looking at 5-6 houses as we try to transition into the dwelling place God will provide for us for the next few years (hopefully). In the meantime, we are making 2 one-hour trips each day to and from Teena's mother's house in Lewisville to Newton. What a contrast to commuting in the Bay Area. We actually cover more mileage, using less gas (at about 20 cents cheaper) and enjoy much more beautiful scenery in the 120 minutes we trek. Jeff is hoping to get a vehicle in the very near future. Please pray about that.

It is also much more enjoyable having conversation with each other in the car instead of wasting oxygen, carbon dioxide and vocal chords with other drivers. The most astounding aspect of travel is that 99% of the people out here actually use the passing lane to pass. As hard as it is to believe, they return to the right lane when they're finished passing - as does most of the nation, from my experience. One of the biggest frustrations I had with folks in CA was getting them to understand this. A majority used the wimpy rationale: "I'm using the fast lane since I'm going fast" (which would vary anywhere from 62 to 76 mph). I'd like to find the CA driver's manual to use for kindling - that is if we get a house with a woodburning fireplace. ;-D

Weather out here is more variable, but within a moderate range. The temperature dipped down to about 20-some a few days after we got here. All the papers made headlines about it, so that gave us a perspective. Being in northwestern PA for 13 years easily gave us tolerance for that type of chill. Yesterday, we had the AC on in the office as it hit 70 (don't recall doing that in January anywhere I've lived). It's supposed to be like that for a couple more days here.

We have the espresso machine set up in the office. We need to get a 220v outlet and a water supply before we get to learn how to use it. After we find a home, we will look for space to lease so that we may prepare for launching. Keep praying. It's working. We both have a powerful sense of peace and a "right as rain" sense to what we're doing with our lives currently.

May you be blessed with the same!

Major Day

Today marked a major day for us as another burden was relieved. With the help of some of our new friends out here in NC and Teena's sister and nephew, we unloaded the ABF trailer with our furniture into three storage units. That process went much faster than loading the trailer and we were done by 3 pm on Sat.

Everyone joked about not answering phones when the next need rolls around for moving from the storage facility into a home.

With this big hurdle out of the way, we can now concentrate on looking for a home and we ask for your prayers in finding the right place and not rushing into purchasing because of desperation driving us to make a rush decision. Teena keeps praying for God to do exceedingly above all we ask or think when it comes to finding us a new home.

---New needs to pray for. We ask for you to keep our house search in your prayers.

Another need is for a truck or van for Jeff to replace the one he relinquished when we left CA. Of course it would be awesome to have one donated. But if anyone knows of one that is in the range of a few thousand dollars, please let us know.

Day Five

We awoke at 6:30 am CST in our Jackson, TN hotel - showered, packed and headed east on I-40 for our last leg. Turns out that this is the second interstate that Jeff has traveled from one end to the other (I-70, the other) and the first Teena has. When we picked it up in Barstow, CA there was a sign that read "Wilmington, NC 2700 miles."

The terrain only changed by elevation since the abundance of foliage started yesterday. It was good to be back in the Appalachians again. This time it reminded us of other mountains we've been around and we were able to compare and contrast from our experiences. We hope to make many trips into this range as they are the most serene we've been near.

One witty highlight was passing by a town that you could only find in the state of Tennessee. It would be fun to hear someone from this place tell folks elsewhere of their hometown.

"Where you from?"

"Mye? Wha' Ah'm from Bucksnort, Tena-say."

As we pulled into the storage center in Newton, NC Teena commented that she felt that we should be planting a flag in front of the office just as explorers do on unconquered mountain tops. I guess that comes from traveling over 2600 miles in "one trip." Just short of our final destination at Teena's mom's house in Lewisville, NC. Newton is the location where we plan to store our furniture and we will earn a part-time income by managing the storage facility which is changing from the traditional style of management to an automated kiosk management.

We no sooner picked up the key from the hidden location in the shrubbery, than we went in to explore the office which we have been granted permission to use at no charge for our own purposes for the time being. The timing was interesting. Just after we got into the office an elderly couple stopped by to try to use the automated system and were temporarily stumped. Imagine the two Stewart stooges trying to help them after having been there for only 5 minutes. Interesting scene to say the least but with a little phone assistance from Joel McMinn we were able to assist them and make some new acquaintances in the process. Jackie made herself at home in the office and flopped down on her tummy and proceeded to watch doggie tv out the big glass door office.

Teena wonders if maybe the storage facility clientele might not provide additional prospects for our coffee shop ministry as we helped one other person before we left. Jeff guided this newbie through the process like he'd been at it for months instead of mere minutes. The folks here are very friendly. The funny thing about the storage center is that it is walking distance from an antique store we visited while out here on vacation. Who would have thunk it? --Answer: God.

We checked out the units we'll use until we find a home, so we could get acquainted with the logistics of offloading. After checking online, we learned that our belongings beat us to NC. They are at a terminal in Fletcher, NC (near Ashville) and should be in Hickory on the 2nd. We hope to start unloading on the 3rd. Jeff's twin brother will be here to help. They should make haste as they plan to sit down together and watch the FedEx Orange Bowl as they both "Rockchalk Jayhawk" a KU victory.

It's amazing how natural all this quickly feels. We miss many of our dearest friends, but we are convinced this is what we are supposed to do. As we've said all along, "We are going to die trying." Thanks for your prayers. We value them.

Happy New Year!

Jeff and Teena

Day Four

Jeff forgot to mention that when Teena described the peculiar trees she had seen in the Arizona desert (see Day 1) Noah had a name for the tree--the Joshua Tree which she now foggily remembers hearing about somewhere before. You can find out more: http://tinyurl.com/9qhpk

As we've traversed east, we've watched the terrain change gradually from the plains of Oklahoma (which had more trees than Teena expected and some lovely horse farms) to the tree lined placid lakes and streams of Arkansas to the more familiar forresty terrain of Tennessee. (It's starting to look more like NC.) Teena drove through Memphis which was a bit more Las Vegas looking than expected with even a pyramid type of building.

Except for a stomach bug which Teena picked up and which has remained somewhat manageable forcing her to make only one unplanned pit stop, we are doing well. Hopefully she'll be feeling more herself by tomorrow. Jeff stopped at WalMart in Arkansas to pickup some Pepto Bismol and came out with glazed eyes. "It's a whole different culture in there." (Evidently all the motorized carts were in use by obese women buying junk food.)

Liz Tognoli called to see how we and Jackie are doing. Jackie's adjusted fairly well since the initial barf-in-the-car-on-the-dog-rug incident. She's learned to hold it indefinitely and to go at the end of the leash. Her only protest is dumping her food bowl, even after we stopped and bought more enticing food. Oh well. I guess it's her way of letting us know she's pretty bored with the drudgery of sitting in the back seat. Last night as a treat we picked up a stick during her evening constitutional and let her bring it inside. She was very happy chomping away.

Day Three

We are posting this at the end of "Day Four" as the "no frills" Motel 6 (the only place that we could book that allows pets in the Oklahoma City area) had no Internet connections. They did have 2 washers and 2 dryers so we filled our time doing laundry.

We woke up in Albuquerque at about 7 and walked down to the "Owl Diner" to have a hearty and leisurely breakfast with Noah and Rachel. It was like a "Rosies" or "Gunther Tooties" style with very tasty and fatty food. We had great conversation for over an hour. We walked back to the motel and they helped us pack up for our next leg. We bid them farewell promising that something was in our scheming to get them out to our new home either in the summer or next Christmas. We have a feeling that this might be another "Ocean Isle Beach" family year.

We pointed east on I-40 and headed toward Oklahoma City at about 9 am.

It was amazing to watch the topography change from desert to plain. As you travel east there seems to be a transition as the fertility of the ground takes on a gradual transition - more scrub bushes with some grass to half bushes and grass to all grass.

We arrived at our motel after dark. The area (north of the airport) is a bit rough and tumble. It looked like about 20% of the businesses in the area had closed. We wondered if the airport had changed its main entrance to the south or another direction. We were glad to pull out of there prior to the dawn with suitcases full of clean clothes.

Day Two

Jeff is asked at about 2 AM to take Jackie (our 12-year old Scottie) outside because she's wondering around the hotel room. Maybe she needs to do her business. So Jeff gets up, puts on some jeans, shoes and a coat; grabs the leash and heads out into the Flagstaff, AZ night.

The air bites like he hasn't felt it in awhile. Perhaps being in the Bay Area over the past 6+ years had made him forget what anything below 35 degrees feels like. The dog only wants to sniff where others of her kind have been. So both head back to the room. At 6:30 am the ritual is repeated, only this time more successfully. "Man! How different the air feels from anything in the past few years."

Teena and Jeff head east on I-40 toward New Mexico at about 7:15 and turn on the radio. A station giving Arizona current temperatures includes Flagstaff and announces a reading of 2 degrees. It has probably been nearly 10 years since we both felt that.

Today was intended to be a relatively short trip (4 hours) so that we may spend time with Noah and Rachel in Albuquerque. Teena wanted to see the Petrified Forest National Park, so we took an hour-long diversion to see a government protected lot of land that looked like the surface of Mars.

We get to Albuquerque at 1:15, meet Noah and Rachel and have an enjoyable lunch near our hotel.

We wanted to do something for the afternoon, so we agreed to find the "Rattlesnake Museum" listed in the front of the Yellow Pages. It turned out to be in a section called "Old Town" which had many shops and sidewalk vendors. After seeing many versions of American rattlesnakes, we walked the shops and enjoyed a Mexican dinner in a local restaurant.

We concluded the night by watching a couple of movies in their room. We will breakfast together in the morning and head to our separate destinations before the morning is half way gone.

It is great to see them and they look very happy.

Day One

The ABF "pup" trailer with all of our worldly belongings was picked up late yesterday evening by a driver. It will make its way across country as drivers going East are available and we'll store those goods in a storage center at no-charge in Newton, NC which a generous donor has allowed us to use for a few months at no charge until we secure a home. We'll be living with Teena's mom in Lewisville, NC for the time being and camping out there.

We left Benicia at 4:55 am this morning after spending the first half hour repacking and getting rid of excess boxes that wouldn't fit. We put things in every cubby hole we could find in the trunk and back seat of the Bonneville. It was tight but we made it with room for one 12-year-old very confused Scottie dog named Jackie.

Jackie whimpered slightly in protest as we made our way down the Benicia hills, positively certain we were going to the vet or the groomers. It took her about 4 hours to figure out that maybe we were just going for a very long ride. On our first pit stop after just having made comments about traveling without having to worry about the hassle of kids, Teena gave Jackie some water and Jackie promptly puked on the sleeping bag in the back seat. So much for not having kids.

"1 state down, and 7 more to go" - is what Jeff told Teena when we crossed the Colorado River on I-40 into Arizona. We were amazed to see how the terrain changed and as we passed through the Mojave desert Teena was surprised to see it wasn't a Sahara white sandy desert, but rather one consisting of scrub brushes and very odd looking pine trees which looked as if they couldn't make up their minds as to whether they wanted to be a cactus, palm tree or pine.

After 765 miles in .5 of a full day, we arrived at our motel in Flagstaff, AZ with below freezing temperatures, a biting wind and crunchy snow underfoot . Not exactly what we imagined taking the "southern route." We're glad we took it as we can't imagine what systems we could run into going over the Sierra Nevadas, the Rockies, and through the heart of the country at this time of year. Jeff checked the weather ahead and it looks to be very much in our favor.

Rachel and Noah will leave Parker, CO tomorrow morning at 5:30 am and we will leave here at about 7:30 am so we can meet in Albuquerque to spend some time together. However, there is some snow in CO as we speak, but it is supposed to tapper off and pass through tonight and be partly cloudy tomorrow. Hopefully the roads will be cleared ahead of them.

We'll post on how our day and time go tomorrow..