Setting Up Shop in Red Lion, Pennsylvania!

Fitting all the tools and equipment in a one car garage will be quite the challenge!

---

It has been quite the journey across the United States. After 2,600 miles from LA County in California to York County in Pennsylvania I am convinced that all of us need to go back to driver's education classes! During the couple of weeks time over the road, I did chronicle quite a bit on video. I missed a few opportunities of close calls, traffic accidents, and all kinds of craziness, but we made it safely all things considered. We traveled with a 20 foot UHaul and towed our Chrysler Town and Country. We also had two 16 foot PODS that we sent ahead of us to Red Lion, Pennsylvania. One POD was filled with tools, equipment, parts, etc. On top of all that, I shipped the 1955 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan by contracting with the same company that I used to ship the car out to California back in 2023. Big mistake - this time the scheduling, service, and overall experience were horrible. More on all of that later...

Mystery grease/oil stains showed up on the floor mats of the 1955 Ford Club Sedan.

Getting into the Garage...

Red Lion Bible Church has gracioulsy offered their parsonage to us for as long as I believe my wife and I need to live on the church property. The house is conveniently located next to the church parking lot. The ability to move into a vacant parsonage gave us the opportunity earlier this year to keep working at Lancaster Baptist Church in California without making so many trips to Pennsylvania looking for housing. Our plan is to locate property once we settle in the area and to build according to our needs. For right now, the house is quite adequate although the garage is much smaller than what I have used in the past. It was pretty much built to store the family vehicle and not much more. This will really be a challenge, not only to organize and set up but also to discover how to function from week to week as I continue to publish content on the website and the YouTube channel. Thankfully, the church has also offered a number of places on property to store parts and other pieces of equipment as I believe I need.

Much had to be done in the garage to prepare for tools and equipment.

Support from Red Lion Bible Church

These men helped unload the PODS and showed up at 7 am to beat the triple digit heat index!

As you would imagine, the last few weeks have been quite the whirlwind of unloading, arranging, organizing, and setting up as my wife and I "move in" to the area. The church has been extremely supportive. We did have a few garage items on the Uhaul truck, but these were very minimal. During the weeks (yes, weeks) that we waited for the PODS to be delivered, I decided to paint the walls of the garage a fresh coat of white to brighten things up and start sketching out where various pieces of equipment would go.

Within a few weeks, I should be able to publish a video tour that will include some of the process, space-saving ideas, and a finished product on what the setup looks like. From the brief videos above you can also see that there is duct work in the garage for the HVAC system. It should be simple to add a couple of vents and even a return since both runs of ducting are exposed in the ceiling. In addition, there is a need to add a few electrical circuits to the main panel (which is also conveniently located in the garage.) All of this will take some time, but I believe it will be worth the effort. This will be a great place to assemble the 342 c.i. Y Block stroker engine, store my run stand, and hopefully get set up for carburetor rebuilding. (Among other things I find myself tinkering with these days!)

Support from all the gearheads at Red Lion Bible Church included encouraging me to visit the Markets at Shrewsbury on the second Friday evening after our arrival in town. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the event. The markets have a cruise-in on the fourth Friday of each month, and boy, do the cars and enthusiasts ever congregate at that place!

I was very surprised to find that several people at the cruise-in recognized me because they are either a subscriber here on HotRodReverend.com or they had watched some of my videos on the YouTube channel. We had a wonderful time meeteing people and checking out various cars. There were very few Y Block powered offerings - I believe I saw three in the whole lot, and all of them happened to be mid-50's Thunderbirds. I am sure we will bring the 55 Ford to the show on Friday, July 24th, the next date for a cruise-in.

Paul was at the cruise-in to greet me; recognize his t-shirt?

The wife and I had a wonderful time grabbing supper at the markets and checking out cars!

My Experience with Montway for Auto Transport

The logistics of moving a few thousand miles across the country carries with it many challenges. There were several who encouraged me to make two trips, taking the UHaul on one trip, flying back and driving the 1955 Ford across country, etc. If I had the time and the money that would have been a fun experience, but the needs of the church came first. (The previous pastor had retired and resigned back in May.) I decided to use Montway again since they did such a fine job three years ago. While the 55 ended up arriving safely with only some serious grease stains on the floormat to clean up, the scheduling and timing on all of it really put a damper on the overall plans. If you missed the first video of the car getting loaded up, then take a look at this...

The worst aspect was the lack of communication. I am not speaking of communication during the 10 days Montway took to transport the car but referring to the pickup and drop off. After I had already paid the fee, the real issues were the lead up to picking up the car, the lack of information concerning arrival in Pennsylvania, and the lack of getting any answers after the car was delivered. The main issue is that I could not be present in Pennsylvania when the car arrived - Montway had fouled up quite a bit on scheduling. At $1 a mile for enclosed transport - I really do wish I would have done all of this a different way, but it is what it is and here we are.

The staff at the church had some fun with me when the car arrived, sending photos and checking things out. One of them photoshopped a picture and sent it to me after I already knew the car was ok. We had a good laugh, but I decided to use it on a title screen for one of my YouTube videos. Wonderful AI!

Once I arrived in Pennsylvania, I did check out the car. Thankfully, the church staff had stored it for me in one of the pole barns on the property for safe keeping. The video below is a record of firing up the Ford just after I arrived in town. It had been sitting a while, but I was glad to see her!

Hitting the Ground Running

We have been very busy over the first three weeks of church ministry here and have been quite impressed by the faithfulness of the members and those in the community who are visiting. Red Lion Bible Church holds two Sunday morning services, one at 8:30 am and one at 10:30 am. The services are essentially the same in content. You are certainly invited to join us anytime you are in town, and I would love to have the opportunity to meet you.

Sunday mornings have been quite full over the past month at church.

My wife and I enjoy greeting people in the church lobby after each service.

With this photo, one of our church deacons reminisced about old Fords and days gone.

The photo immediately above was shown to me during a time when I met with a church family concerning funeral arrangements. Cancer and age had finallly caught up to an elderly deacon's wife, and I was honored to officiate the funeral my second week in this pastorate. The married couple had a long history of old Fords, that included a 1935 sedan, a 1956 Ford Victoria, and many others. They seemed to be very happy that the new preacher in town has a history himself with old cars and trucks, but beyond the familiarity with tuning old V8's, shining up classic cars, and swapping stories of great vehicles, the family is looking forward to what God will do in the future days of Red Lion Bible Church. I am blessed to serve the Lord in this capacity!

The Hot Rod Reverend

aka Daniel Jessup