Retired, Packed, and on our way!

As of March 24th, we are officially retired and off to start a new chapter in our lives. The countdown timer had been going on for a few years, but the last few months were increasingly hectic. The house was getting packed up - all our life's possessions were put into three categories - Keep, Take to the Boat, or Donate. We had a good plan - the house we bought a few years ago had a large shop that we could store anything we needed to keep, while allowing us to rent out the house. Luckily it's being rented to one of our kids, which makes the process much easier.

The U-Haul trailer was picked up on the 25th and we left town on the 26th - no time to waste!

2,786 miles and 4-1/2 days later we made it to Belhaven where True North was waiting.

In case you are wondering - 2,786 miles is a looong way. Google Maps calculated it as 41 hours. We quickly realized that Google expected us to travel the speed limit. For about half the trip the speed limit was 80 mph. Our trusty** jeep pulling the trailer averaged about 60 mph. Add that up over a "planned" 9-hour day and we ended up driving for 11 to 12 hours each day. Whew.

** The trusty jeep worked great and was comfortable to drive - when it worked correctly. The multiple Check Engine lights with the associated Traction Control error that would put us into "limp mode" made things difficult. We did learn that we could manually shift our automatic vehicle and keep it close to 60 (assuming no hills or wind). By the way, we had lots of hills and wind. We also had very cold weather. I had thoughtfully "fixed" the heat/cool controller before we left since it was stuck in heat mode. Now it was stuck in cool mode and with mornings in the 20's, that wasn't fun. We learned later that it was stuck somewhere between heat and cool, so it would heat the air about 15-20 degrees warmer than outside. At 20 degrees, this was freezing, 50 degrees was nice, 70 degrees and we were getting blasted with 90 degree air. so, fun for all 4+ days.

After the trials of the cross country trip, we made it! True North was safe and sound and waiting for us to get busy on some projects! We have a house rented in town and will spend the next 3-4 weeks getting everything ship-shape.