Getting a job at Stevenson University was only the first stop of relocating my family to a new state half way across the country. Next we needed a place to live, a place to worship together with other believers in the Baltimore area and hopefully have them somewhat close to my new job.
My first wrong move was to pay a good chunk of change to get “special secret housing listings” from a site that totally did not deliver what I was expecting. One of those, “I thought it was a good idea at the time” sort of things.
My next wrong move was to choose an apartment unknowingly in the wrong part of town. Aparently, if you’re looking to find an apartment in the Baltimore area, do not choose Reisterstown Plaza. My supervisor at Stevenson asked where I was planning to move and his first response after I told him was, “I would highly reccommend that you do not move there. I don’t want you to get shot.” So, that ended my housing search before the move because I ran out of time.
It was at this time I picked up our U-Haul and brought it to my in-laws in Eau Claire, WI to load up our stuff to head out to trek over 1000 miles to Baltimore, MD. We had a trailer for our minivan so everything we owned in this world was moving with us halfway across the country.
The journey went smooth until we got into the rolling hills of PA just north of Pittsburgh. We were on a main back road without shoulders, winding up and down hills and through small towns. Suddenly I was faced with a terrifying choice as we plummeted down a hill with all of our belongings. At the very bottom of this small hill a tractor trailer semi truck was almost stopped and turning right. I thought I would just go into the left lane and pass since I didn’t see any other vehicles coming and I hated the thought of having to stop for this truck to turn a the bottom of a hill and then try to make it up the next hill right in front of us going about 15 MPH chugging down the gas. So as to keep momentum I flipped on my blinker and proceeded to pass the semi. As I was doing this the semi took a wide left in order to take the corner onto the road to the right. The closer I came to passing the semi, the smaller the left lane became until well over half the lane was taken up by this semi. I’ve never felt my heart pound in my throat the way it did as I came barreling past this semi at about 35-40 MPH with one side of the U-haul inches from the guide-rail dipped about a foot below being level with the pavement, gravel crunching and popping under the tires, and the tires on the passenger side hanging onto the pavement. By the grace of God, and I know it was God’s grace, we made it past the semi without hitting the guide-rail, the semi or flipping the U-Haul. After about 3 more hours my heart rate dropped down to normal. We traveled to one of my best friends house in Huntindon, PA for the night and made the final trek to Baltimore in the morning/afternoon.
Previous to our move, I had contacted a Christian and Missionary Alliance church in Lansdowne, MD just outside Baltimore about finding a place to stay until we could find an apartment. The secretary, bless her heart, offered her home for us to stay until we could find an apartment in the area. When we arrived with the U-Haul at their doorstep with our friends from Huntingdon who followed us down, a fantastic friendship began. We hit it off and have been great friends ever since. Two days later we found a suitable apartment and were approved to move in. The Secretary and her family helped us move in and here we are in Baltimore. I’m working at Stevenson and my wife is raising our beautiful kids, we have a fantastic church where we live and serve with some wonderful people.
So that’s our move to Maryland. We miss many things about Minnesota, but we’re enjoying aspects of Maryland too. The people are what really make a place feel like home, but this world is not our home anyway. People are the only thing really worth fighting for. Be blessed!
Jake Wattenphul 