An old store in Dill City brought back to life from halfway around the world
DILL CITY, Okla. (KFOR) — It might be the last spot in Oklahoma you’d expect to be a crossroads to the whole world, but the old Ensey’s Gas and Grocery seems to have a knack for international traffic.
To understand what’s happening here lately, we had to call Andy Gearhart and his wife Letlet on Cebu Island in the Philippines.
They met each other on an international dating site a couple of years ago and hit it off right away.
“I could see through his eyes that he was a good man,” Letlet tells us on a Zoom conference call.
Switch back to Dill City and the rest of the Gearhart family including Andy’s parents Jim and Darla, and his brother Scott have been working most of the year to get Dick and Lena Ensey’s old business back into shape.
In June, it was ready to open again as a place for the newlyweds in the family to make a life.
“It’s a work in progress,” says Jim Gearhart
“I love it,” gushes Andy.
“Of course I love it,” agrees Letlet. “I’m so excited to be there in the U.S.”
Dill City started out as a water stop for steam engines.
We came here to this very store in 2010 to consider why Louis Mueller would choose this life over his youth in the Swiss Alps.
“I like the wide open,” Mueller told us then. “In Switzerland everything is pretty crowded.”
Louie’s vision for the place didn’t last much longer than the call of a mountain horn.
But Letlet’s family already had a store on Cebu. She enjoys cooking for a takeout counter there.
Let’s Stop and Go is almost ready to go. The only thing missing from this recipe is Letlet and Andy themselves.
“Are you still coming?” we inquire as a jest. “Of course,” Letlet laughed.
As of June they are stuck in the immigration process, awaiting a final interview in Manila.
Andy says, “It’s taking a long while.”
Their business is also waiting for the lucky couple who have gladly invested their future in Dill City Red Devils and a unique international highway intersection.
To check on the progress of Let’s Stop and Go as they prepare to open their doors, visit the Let’s Stop & Go Dill City Oklahoma Facebook page.
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