24 Hours

God directs our steps. Last Thursday we picked up a stack of 3 flatbeds at Fontaine Trailer Factory near Boar Tush, AL (yes, Boar Tush!) and we knew the next 2 load assignments. With some phoning we learned we could not pick up the next load till Monday after 4:00 a.m., so it was no use busting our tush to deliver the stack on Fri. So we took it home. This delay slowed us down and allowed us to spend Saturday night and all day Sunday with friends in Carlinville, IL - Gary & LeAnne Glabe. We had to return their big red pickup truck anyway, so we drove that and the semi up to Carlinville and stayed almost 24 hours. We left after the season premier of “24 Hours.” Peggy has business with the Glabes - buying & selling antiques, so we loaded antiques into another pickup truck, which we are buying from them, and parked it in their garage until we can get back up there for it. Our ’89 S-10 has been parked at the Glabes’ for a month since it broke down up there, which is why we had their big nice diesel p-u truck. So they are going to sell our S-10 at auction, and we are paying the difference for their ‘92 V-8 Sierra. We did all our transactions and then visited into the night and all day Sunday. We went to their church Sunday. The Glabes live at Lake Williamson Christian Center. Their house is right on the lake; we ate at the LWCC cafeteria - good food! Gary taught us Sudoku - he and son John are brilliant at it. We now want to work on those game skills. We stayed much longer than we had planned and enjoyed every minute. The Glabes are gearing up for a MAPS trip (Mobilization And Placement Services) to Texas for a couple months. They are leaving in a couple weeks with their big red diesel p-u truck, pulling an RV. Then to Miami for more volunteer work and then to Haiti for a month of more - all building projects. They return home in April. If we had been able to do the trucking schedule we wanted - to keep moving through the weekend, we would’ve missed this special time with the Glabes. We left about 10:00 p.m. Sunday, knowing we could not deliver till Mon. morning north of Valparaiso, IN, which we did at 6:30 a.m. and were packed up and rolling by 7:15. Then we picked up a trailer in Elkhart, IN for Louisville. That should’ve worked to deliver by 5:00 p.m., even though we lost an hour to EST. But we didn’t make it in time so had to wait overnight. But here is where God showed his better schedule than what we had in mind. At 4:00 p.m. Mon., we were still 90 miles north of Louisville. We hung at the Flying-J for awhile and then decided to call Christian trucker friends whom we only meet sporadically - it’s been a little over a hear since last time. We called Joan, she invited us to the house (as hoped,) and we enjoyed a very nice visit. We watched the next 2 hours of “24 Hours,” arriving just after it had begun. We had met Joan & Gary (he’s out on the road now) at the USXpress terminal in OK City about 3 years ago. She heard me fiddling early in the morning and has become my most supportive fan - maybe my only fan come to think of it… She has quit driving semi and stays home. We met Gary’s son Rodney and his fiancee Sara. Joan is a very sensitive spirit, studies the Bible a lot, is very thin, smokes a lot, and is very interesting to visit with - smart lady. She wants us to read “Ragamuffin Gospel,” an important book to her, so I will. From the time we had first met them, she has spoken to us about a Chinese couple they know, who are Christians, frequent travelers to China for missions, husband is an accomplished pianist, and Joan wants us to meet them. Son Rodney took us back to our truck at 5:00 a.m. Under similar circumstances, last week we had delivered in Cleveland, TX about 5:00 p.m. on Tues and did not have the next load lined up. So we had to wait till next morning to get assigned. We thought of David & Shawna Horne, whom we’d met about 3 years ago at the Fr8liner dealership where David works. He is also a professional violinist, but works as a computer geek for Houston Fr8liner. We had not spoken with them for nearly 2 years, but with our new company, RexDon, we now get through Houston again. So we called David. He invited us to the house. They had just moved into a brand new house one week prior to our visit. It’s twice as big as the rental house from the last time we had seen them. We enjoyed 12 year old son Kyle and the cat B.B. (Big Black.) That was the night that David & Shawna, who have a huge T.V. and are NetFlix subscribers, introduced us to “24 Hours,“ which we had barely heard of, being so out of touch with T.V. on the road. David fell asleep in the recliner, and Peggy on a couch; Shawna and I watched the first 4 episodes of “24 Hrs” from last season, till 4:30 a.m.! That was after watching “Cars” (my first time.) Actually, I’m glad not to be tempted by T.V. in our current situation. At home we have no cable, just regular channels, and no time for it anyway, so we can’t get hooked on “24 Hrs” or any other show. Nice to drop in on the rest of western civilization once in awhile though. So it seems that when we mess up our schedule or when it is just impossible to make it work efficiently, God gives us divine appointments. It was great to renew relationships in Carlinville, IL; Louisville, KY and Houston, TX. At the moment we are picking up trailers in Boar Tush again and will haul these to Ft. Myers, FL. Let’s see, who do we know down there?

New Years / Christmas Letter

Blessings to our family, friends and loved ones in the New Year 2007!

Christmas has slipped by so quickly with so little preparation on our part - no tree or decorations. We dashed up to Urbana (IL) for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to be with David & Alicia, Jacy, Aspen, Jadyn, Treighton, Echo; Racheal & Eric and Zachory. We had only gotten off the road Saturday morning and spent the day shopping before we even went home. Sunday after church, we took a Korean friend to lunch and then drove up to Urbana. All the kids and Alicia were with the other side of the family, so Peggy and I took Eric, Racheal and David out to eat on Christmas Eve. David achieved Urban Legend status that night at ‘Crane Alley Pub.’ He ordered 12 hot wings. The waiter was excellent. He came 3 times to the table to ascertain how hot David wanted it. David made it clear he wanted the hottest possible result. The cook specializes in hot stuff and has a supplier of Thai and Viet Namese peppers. He pulled out all the stops and used up his entire store of peppers. It was entertaining for us all as David began to sweat and hallucinate, but he was determined to finish all of it (with breaks to go outside for fresh air.) Next morning was Christmas. The whole gang came to our hotel to open gifts by the indoor pool, and all the kids swam.
Jacy (who turned 10 Christmas Eve) was the winner of our drawing at Thanksgiving, to go with us to Orlando for 11 days. He left with us Christmas Day. We drove our car down home to the truck, jumped in and drove to Florida with a trailer to deliver in Orlando. We had planned for a long time to visit our friends from South Africa when they traveled to Florida. Isaac & Lillian Kekana were in our church in Korea with their sons Kitso and Sam. Peggy especially got very close to them the year she returned to Korea without me. She stayed with the Kekanas every weekend that year (2001-02) to go to church. Isaac is the S. African ambassador to Guinea Conakry. Lillian’s brother Bannet Ndyanabangi lives in Virginia (Washington, D.C. area.) He is a public health doctor and travels to the Congo every 4 months. Bannet and Margaret have 4 kids. We had a wonderful time with these families. Jacy bonded with the boys - all much older than him. We all went to ‘Arabian Nights’ - a spectacular dinner show with Arabian horses & riders in costumes riding formations in a central arena. We went to the Kennedy Space Center - us 3 plus Kitso & Sam. Jacy’s favorite new discovery is sky-diving. He saw an ad for $5.00 off, so we took him there. It’s a vertical wind tunnel to simulate sky diving. Very cool! Jacy is addicted - so he says. Peggy has promised to pay for him to jump out of a plane when he’s 15. We went two times to ‘Sky Ventures’ for Jacy. There was so much more to this vacation, but those are the highlights of our Christmas week in Florida.

Just today we got home - Fri, Jan. 5, relaxed and ready to get started on 2007, which for us shall include moving to a new house and 40 acres. We are buying Peggy’s brother Larry’s place. The past couple weeks including Christmas and New Years have been full, fun and relaxing. It seems we missed the traditional parts of Christmas because we have been constantly on the go. We are thankful for what God has done in our lives and in our world by sending Jesus to be born in Bethlehem. That message must not be lost in all the busyness and tradition of Christmas. We love the unlikely life God has led us into at this time - trucking. It has been an adventure, hectic, grueling and rewarding. The trick is to live every moment to the fullest on the road or off, to give God the glory for what He has done for us, enjoy the process, make plans, dream, work hard, always be ready to speak God's Word into others' lives - all for Jesus. I am not satisfied with how I manage my time or my life. Many New Years Resolutions come to mind, but God is gracious and faithful. Trust in Him!