Journey North

We left Richmond on March 1 and headed north.

The drive started out in the wee hours of the morning to hopefully miss the snowstorm that was rolling in north of us. Mike's work has sent him off with a travel kit of water, diet coke, cheese and crackers, celery, carrots and humus and some chocolate too. No need to stop for snacks along the way. They even placed it all in a large personal size cooler with freezer packs. We split the goodies as we were taking both vehicles north.

We stopped for gas, slowed for rain/sleet storms, avoided peak traffic times and dodged accidents and found ourselves in south western CT around 5 pm. We decided to stop for the night as it had been a long drive and the rain was heavy. Pub 99 was next to the hotel so we stopped in for supper and felt like we were welcomed home. The people were friendly and kind, the gold fever wings delicious and Sam Adams' Cold Snap on tap!

The next morning, we headed out with our end designation of Mike's parents in Maine. We immediately noticed the difference in driving. Southern drivers tend to be oblivious that anyone else is on the road with them. They travel in the passing lane, travel on the speed limit, enter and on ramp without the thought of merging, lane change without reason and text while driving. New England drivers are more aggressive and therefore in my opinion pay attention to the task of driving. They pass in the passing lane and return to the travel lane once they passed a vehicle. They vary their speeds to let oncoming cars merge. They alternate in slowed traffic; they move out of the way when a car comes up from behind. It was a refreshing change. They are focused on driving and nothing else.

We arrived and settled in just in time for the snowstorm to drop its beautiful white flakes. Mike's parents were gracious hosts and fed us well. 

We ate at our favorite haunts and shopped our favorite stores in the area. I met up with a friend from my Westbrook teaching days and she offered me my dream job! More on that later. We settled into a routine and worked on looking for a house. We spent our weekends looking at open houses and weekdays by appointment looking for our new house.

House hunting was a frustrating and disappointing time. As our previous realtors can attest, we know what we want and really do not settle for less. So, the homes on the market were extremely overpriced, thanks to COVID, and underwhelming. Most places were asking for $200-300,000 over their true worth and then needed a $100,000 for necessary updates and repairs. Those priced correctly with no work needed sold for $100,000 over asking price. Knowing this was not a forever home, again, we decided to keep looking, and looking, and looking.