Are we there yet!
 
Ah yes….the dreaded question that comes along with any road trip. It always seems to go quicker on the way TO your original destination…not the trip home.  This is not good due to the fact that we are on a thirteen hour journey home. So far though it has not been bad at all I will admit. Tory and I are one hour from being home while I sit here and write this post. We are pretty much on schedule.  We really just stopped for gas and then got our lunch to go to minimize the loss of time.
 
Weather and traffic have been great outside of the traffic in Chicago we endured on our way out of the city.
 
I must make a correction here to the part of the blog where I said "so far though it has not been bad" referring to the trip home…Tory is now making my blood pressure rise due to the fact that he thinks its amusing to go 65 miles an hour heading straight towards the guardrail causing the passenger side wheels to hit the rumble strips causing a loud noise and car to shake.  Doesn't he remember that I already have high blood pressure?
 
Well we are now approaching Paris Mountain and will be dropping off Tory in a short while.  From here I will drop the car off at the airport and will catch a ride home from my sister.  Thank you all for sticking with us on this journey.  I hope you enjoyed living vicariously through my blog post.  It has been enjoyable to let you all inside our journey to see how the Lord is working in and through Off The Coast.
 
Jeremy 

Lucky number seven!
 
Day seven completes our final day of events and activities for the Off The Coast road trip!  What a week it has been. Today we are in Chicago! The windy city as they call it. Here Tory and I headed over to Willow Creek Church which was amazing.  The facility they have was top notch.  It has a huge auditorium, food court, book store, and children's area.  Willow creek is very ministry driven…offering programs for just about any need. While Tory and I looked over the church there were groups all over gathered around doing Bible studies, prayer groups and just catching up with one another while eating in the café'.
 
 
After spending some time at Willow Creek Tory and I had the rest of the day to just relax and enjoy being in Chicago! We decided go to the Ford Theater to see the matinee of the Broadway show "Wicked".  What an amazing production that was! Awesome time! We then headed downtown to do some sightseeing and explore the city. We saw many landmarks such as "the Orb", the spot where Ferris Bueler was filmed and then of course the Sears Tower. The view from the top of the Sears Tower was AMAZING! You could see about 50 miles out in all directions.  It was pretty cool! Tons of pictures were taken here.  We will include some of our favorites for you to see.
 
After hanging out here for a bit it was time to eat!  We asked around to some of the locals as to what was the best place to go…The consensus was "Giordano's", famous for their stuffed pizza. I will admit it was a beast of a pizza but I think I am going to be bias here and say New York pizza has them beat. But that is just my personal bias. Sorry Chicago.
 
 
Well we made it back to the hotel. Time to unwind and get ready for the trek home tomorrow!  We plan on leaving at 7am and heading thirteen hours home to Greenville, SC.  Depending on how many stops we take we should be home by eight thirty Thursday evening. Continue to pray for us during our travels as well as the future of Off The Coast. Thank you everyone for believing in us.
 
Jeremy ~

So I started to write this blog last night…however woke up 4 hours later realizing I never completed a single sentence.  So…now I sit here at my laptop putting together a summary of what all took place day five of our road trip.

Day five which was Monday was more of a relaxing day for Tory and I. The previous days were filled with lots of driving, events, meetings and so on. So it was nice to kind of just unwind and enjoy Michigan a bit.


I had never been to Michigan before so Tory showed me around the area.  We visited some of the local restaurants for our meals, walked downtown Grand Haven, and went over to Lake Michigan which was pretty cool since there was snow on the ground and parts of the lake were still frozen.
 

We then drove over to Grand Rapids which was about forty five minutes away.  Here we visited a coffee shop/ music venue that is Christian owned.  The guy working there showed us around and told Tory and me a brief history of the place and shared his passion behind starting up this business in not the safest part of town.  He wanted to be the light to a hurting city. A positive place for people who are burnt out, lost, seeking and just want some good coffee and to listen to music.

 
After visiting this location we headed back to Spring Lake to meet up with Tory's aunt and cousins for dinner.  The place was called Sam's Joint. It's a popular eating spot that has been there for quite some time. I got a ½ rack of BBQ ribs with fries.  Yum!  Tory got a burrito which also looked pretty tasty as well.
 

After dinner Tory thought it would be fun to go over to the local state park where we could see the huge sand dunes and hike to the top to see the lake off in the distance.  This was really cool.  I felt like we were in the movie Narnia with the snow on the ground and walking through the woods. During this venture I made a snow angel too. I mean…who wouldn't take advantage of this opportunity?

 
By this time, the day was winding down…so what better thing is there to do than get ice cream!  Last night was opening day for Miss Lisa's, a local favorite.  It is a tradition for many families here to go to opening day at the ice cream stand.  Tory, Josh (Tory's cousin), and I went and stood in line with 20 other people and got our fresh ice cream.  It was sooo good!  But…did I tell you it was 25 degrees outside and we were getting ice cream and eating it outside… so if any of us come down with pneumonia you could probably trace it to this moment in our road trip.

 
Once we finish that we headed back to Josh's place and just crashed for the evening. It was a good day.

Well since we have two and a half more hours until we arrive at out destination…I know no better time to write up this blog for you all. It is currently 12:38 am Monday morning, twenty eight degrees outside and snowing lightly. Tory and I just left Detroit, MI after spending time hanging out and getting to know the staff at The District; a Christian club for young adults. The place was amazing!  Before I go in to all of this thought…let me back up to the start of our day.


Tory and I woke up around 9 am, got ourselves ready for the day and then headed out to Grand Rapids to attend Mars Hill Church.  This is the church where author Rob Bell preaches at.  It was a great church service filled with an amazing praise and worship session followed by a sermon from Rob Bell.  The church was pretty cool.  The way the auditorium is set up is the congregation is seated in a circle with the platform in the middle where the band is and the preacher preaches from.


After church Tory and I headed on over to get some lunch at Arnie's. This is a local favorite, a cozy family style restaurant.  After Arnie's we were on our way to Detroit, MI…a two and a half hour drive.  This is where The District is located as mentioned before.

 
The District is a pretty tight club located on the outskirts of Detroit. The things offered here are five pool tables, coffee bar, high definition TV's playing sports and music videos. On top of that there is a nice sized auditorium where major concerts are held as well as gatherings for Bible studies, dance club and other events.  Upstairs there are classrooms that are used for different "step" programs directed in helping people with addictions, finances, marriage and other issues that are pertinent to today's society. Tory and I attended their weekly Bible study called Generation One. Drew gave the message.  He did a wonderful job. The music and praise and worship were very moving as well.
 

After the service, Tory, Drew, and Shawn (the manager of The District) talked for quite sometime about the facility and learned a lot of valuable information as how to create and run such a place as theirs. After that, Drew, Tory, and I, along with two other staff members, went out to eat at a local Mexican Restaurant. We all hung out there, continued to talk about ministry, and got to know one another better. We had such a great time getting to know everyone and spending time with others who share a common interest.  After dinner, 10:30 pm, we all headed back to The District where we got some coffee for the road and said our goodbyes.
 

It was a great day all around. Contacts were made, friendships established and information gained that will be helpful for the development and future of Off The Coast. Keep on praying for us as we venture out to these different ministries and make new contacts and gain advice from others who have gone before us. 
 
 
Jeremy ~

So Saturday was a very long day for us.  Tory and I woke up to four inches of snow…making it the biggest snow storm in five years in Nashville, TN.  Because of this the driving conditions in Nashville were less than good, however we still had a road trip to complete…

After finishing our lovely complementary breakfast at the hotel, Tory and I drove over to the infamous Opryland Hotel.  This place was amazing!  We parked the car in the 20min/unloading area…(due to the fact we did not really want to pay $15 for parking just a few feet over)…and then headed on inside to see what all the hoopla was about.  We soon realized what it was.  Below is a picture of what the place looks like.

After spending a little time here we headed out on our journey to Spring Lake, Michigan.  This was ten hours from where were currently were.  Along the way we drove through Kentucky, Indiana and then Michigan…Once we got to Indiana we noticed that there was a McAlister's Deli here.  This caught us somewhat off guard because we did not realize the chain had made its way over to this area.  We were very pleased and ended up eating our dinner here.  While at McAlister's we got to briefly meet their friendly staff who where just so down to earth and made ya feel welcomed.  Tory asked them if we all could get a group picture for our blog. They were happy to do so and here is the result.
 

After dinner we continued on to MI….arriving at 11:30am…fourteen hours later…the trip was good though….long…but the roads were clear and the sun was out.

 
Sunday, Tory and I will be heading to Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids and then heading to Detroit to visit the club, The District at 6pm.  Please continue to pray for us as we travel and network with various ministries. We just heard about another possible lead in Chicago. We will be contacting them Monday to see if we can check out there facility.

Feel free to comment or e-mail us anytime.  Also check out our media section for additional pictures taken from the trip.  Also check out our personal blogs or our facebook group "Off The Coast Ministries."
 
Jeremy ~

So we concluded day number two here in Nashville, TN.  Tory and I got up around 8am and headed downstairs to get our complementary HOT breakfast.  After that we ventured out to The Good Cup and grabbed up an amazing cup of coffee.  I had the cafe' mocha while Tory stuck with a Cappuccino and espresso chocolate chip muffin. The staff here was so great and hospitable.  If you live or are planning on visiting Franklin, TN go here to witness for yourself the friendly atmosphere at The Good Cup.


After that we drove down to Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Center. We talked to one of the staff members there and got some ideas as to where to get information to relay to young adults in regards to managing their finances.   After spending a short amount of time here – Tory and I headed on over to Rocketown where we had a 1pm appointment to meet with the staff at their facility.


What a place!  We had such an amazing time here meeting the staff and seeing the facility before it opened as well as during full operation.  The information we gained and the time spent here was priceless.  It was great learning the ins and outs of starting a facility such as "Rocketown". We enjoyed getting to know the staff as well as some of the youth that regularly attends.  It was huge hearing from the youth's point of view as to why a facility like Rocketown has played a role in their lives. The staff has such an amazing heart for the youth of its community.  Thank you so much Ben, Mandy, Mary Virginia, Melanie, Kyle and everyone else at Rocketown.  Your time and dedication to the ministry means so much to us as we want to create a ministry as affective as yours.


After leaving Rocketown around 8:30 – we were greeted with about an inch of snow on the ground! It was great seeing the snow again as I am from NY and tend to miss it at times. Tory and I headed downtown to get dinner at Jack's Bar-B-Que . This was also another great eating establishment highly recommended by some of the staff at Rocketown. Great suggestion everyone!  During our time here – the snow had picked up quite a bit causing driving conditions to be a slight challenge.  Well we made it back safe and sound and are now getting ready for our long trip to MI in another few hours.  This leg of the trip will be 10hrs…


Continue to follow us as we journey on for Off The Coast Ministries and check out more photos on the Road Trip Media Page. Please keep us in your prayers!
 
Jeremy

Well as I sit here in the hotel room in Nashville, TN it is 1:30am…2:30 am for most of you readers. That is the nice thing about being here. We actually gained 1hr.
Day one of our road trip was a success! With the help of our trusty navigation system and atlas, we arrived safe and sound! Well…we did get lost once…in Knoxville, TN but that was only because Tory had the "bright" idea to change the language on the navigation system to Dutch…Since neither of us know how to translate that…and there were so many crazy roads and intersections approaching at the moment Tory switched the language over…we got off course for several miles…
Once we got back on track we stopped and got Starbucks coffee and snacks at this Asian market before we continued on our destination. We arrived in Nashville around 6:30pm just in time for dinner.  Tory and I met his friend Duffy for dinner at "McDougals".  This was a wonderful choice that Duffy had recommended. The three of us got Chicken wings dipped in this "gold" sauce that just had the right kick to it.  Homemade fries and Texas toast also came with our meal. So good! You must go here when in Nashville.  
Once we finished at Mcdougals we headed to Brian's pad to check the place out. After that Tory and I hit up a pretty sweet coffee shop Bongo Java.  This was a cool place where we talked over some business while enjoying a nice cup of java.  After coffee we went downtown and just walked around and took in the city.
Tomorrow (Friday) which is really today…we are heading to Rocketown where we will be attending a meeting with the staff there.  Our meeting is at 1pm. More info will follow on how this went.

More pictures available in the Media Section of the website. We've also added on the left side of the page links to our personal blogs where we may post more random things about us and our lives. There may even be some cool pictures there too that we don't have space for here.

Check back tomorrow to follow our journey...