Well, we've managed an entire week in our new state, if not exactly the area where we'd like to end up. We are, and I suspect will be for quite some time to come, amazed at the lack of traffic. Bob & I moved here from a metro area which is regularly listed in the top five worst traffic jammed areas in the entire country. Let me put this in perspective. I worked six miles (9.6 km) from our former residence. On a 'good' traffic day, it only took me twenty minutes to get to work. On a 'bad' traffic day, say a Thursday before a three day weekend or any summer Friday, it regularly took me upwards of 45 minutes or more to travel the same distance. Bob had it worse. He worked thirty eight miles (61 km) to his job. On a 'regular' traffic day, it took Bob an hour or more to get to work. On a bad day? Upwards of two hours or more. It got so bad that he switched to night shift to avoid one of the rush hours. So expect traffic to be a regular feature here.
Due to unanticipated circumstances- unanticipated by me, although obvious to others, obvious in hindsight at least. A combination of traveling with two large dogs, one vehicle being hit by a deer & a lack of appropriately sized storage units has landed us in temporary accommodation significantly further from Bob's job than we wanted to be. Thing is, though, none of us really stopped to consider that there wouldn't be as many conveniently located hotels that permit dogs, as many self storage businesses, as we're used to finding in our former locale. That and everything is spread out further. Not that this is necessarily a complaint mind you- I enjoy driving, especially if it's scenic and mostly traffic free. It's just an issue of perspective, I guess. No longer do I have a gas station, two convenience stores, a McDonald's, a Dunkin Donuts, two grocery stores, a drug store,a Chinese take out, a Central American takeout, a bank, a dentist, an ice cream shop, a pizza chain and two laundromats all within one mile (1.6 km). Two rescue squads. A middle school with only eight hundred and seventy kids.
So we'll be driving back and forth for a while. It'll be fun to get lost on purpose and explore our new region.
Oh BTW, I just looked up the number of pupils at the high school where two of our kids graduated. The student population is supposed to be maxed out at two thousand kids. Even better, our daughter's high school had two thousand eight hundred kids. There are twelve high schools of similar size where we came from. The 2010 census of the town in which we're trying to buy an old farm house? Two thousand four hundred plus a few.
There's some perspective for you.
