The Journey - part 1

Last Monday, an 18-wheeler pulled up in front of our house. A group of 6 or 7 movers came in and packed up all of our things.

Another guy came to build crates for our TV and a glass tabletop.
Movers have a weird method for packing everything.  One newbie on the moving crew packed a lamp in 3 separate boxes. 1 lamp, 3 boxes. I also saw him put a guitar, a drum, and ramen noodles in one box.

Castle in the kitchen...okay, that makes sense...

Boxes everywhere.

The movers put in about 11 hours that day to get all of our things packed in boxes and loaded on the truck.
We stayed the night at my parents' house, cleaned up our house a little the next day, and then headed out. Also, a guy came to put Justin's car on a trailer bound for Phx.

The first day, we drove to Nashville, TN. A lot of the photos I'm posting are tagged with their specific locations in Picasa. And the coolest thing is, you can see a map showing all the photos I took with my phone on the trip in the locations where I took them! https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/albumMap?uname=JamieCRichardson&aid=5595127228671512161#map

The mountains of NC and TN were very pretty.

The cats did not appreciate the scenery as much. Beeb was meowing woefully. Spooky was lounging contentedly the whole time. Callie spent some time lounging and some time meowing.

A Smart car passed us on the highway. Justin was surprised "Is that a Smart car on the highway?"

I responded "Yes, and she's passing you." The speed limit was 75 for much of our drive!

After 6 hours of driving, we were very happy to see Nashville, where we planned to stay the night.

We left the cats in the hotel room and ate dinner at McNamara's Irish Pub.

The next day, we left Nashville and drove for over 10 hours to stay the night in Yukon, OK.
The Tennessee River was really pretty.

We saw an interesting silver pyramid in Memphis.

We crossed the Mississippi River! Justin had never seen it before.

These pictures are blurry because they were taken by a phone through the filthy window of a moving car, FYI.
I didn't take many in Arkansas....frankly it's not the most exciting state to drive through.

Oklahoma was a little better.
I enjoyed seeing many huge wind turbines.

In Texas you could see for miles.

There were also cattle, which is what you expect to see when you're in Texas.

I have a lot of great photos to sort through from the rest of the drive, so I'll be posting more later :-)

Finding A Home

Thursday evening, I flew out to Phoenix for the purpose of finding an apartment for Justin, myself, and the cats. Alex picked me up from the airport, despite the fact that she was in a car accident the previous day. She took me to a restaurant called Postino for dinner. The ambiance was very relaxed and fun. The doors were open to the patio, where mist was spraying from above. Reggae music was playing. We sat on the patio and it was really a perfect temperature. We each got a cup of soup and shared a delicious and intriguing bruschetta plate.

Bruschetta at Postino

In case you're interested, the flavors from left to right are: warm artichoke spread, brie & apples with fig spread, roasted peppers with goat cheese, and smoked salmon with pesto. All amazing. And they randomly gave us 3 olives on the side...we couldn't figure out the reasoning behind giving 2 people 3 olives.

I may talk about food a lot in this entry, because I'm really excited by the wide variety of wonderful restaurants in Phoenix.

Friday morning, we got up early and went to work out at Alex's gym, and then we went to eat breakfast at a little place called Tryst Cafe. No pictures from that, since we were very hungry and just dug right in. The food there is all organic and delicious. After breakfast, the apartment search began.

We visited 5 different apartment complexes. Overall, I was disappointed to find that most of them were more expensive than their websites led me to believe. They just happened to be all out of the cheaper apartments, apparently. At one apartment complex, the woman who worked there, when I complained about the high pet rent taking the total beyond my budget, said "do you have to bring the cats?" Are you kidding me?!? Maybe some people treat their pets like objects but we treat them like part of the family. How presumptuous, to assume we want to live in their complex so badly that we'd give up our sweeties. Grrr. Another place had beautiful landscaping and ponds, but really mediocre bland interiors.

I actually picked out one apartment complex while I was there, but after coming home and talking to Justin, we decided we could afford to spend a little more, and live slightly out of the way in order to live in a safer, classier neighborhood. The apartment complex we decided on is actually very nice and new. It has a nice fitness room, some free group exercise classes, a rooftop solarium at the clubhouse with 2 gas grills, 2 saltwater swimming pools, hot tubs, balcony, walk-in closets, and covered parking. It's a little far north, at the very edge of Phoenix, but still just 10 minutes from my job and around 10 minutes from a movie theater and some stores and restaurants.

Here are some photos I took at our apartment of choice; click to view larger:

Rooftop Solarium at the Clubhouse

Dining Room and Kitchen

One of the pools

Living Room and Patio

Bathroom

Sometimes the way they stage these apartments is kind of strange and funny. In one bedroom, there was fake Chinese takeout on a tray on the bed! It was a little gross, I think.

After we looked at all the apartments I was interested in, we got to do fun things for the rest of the weekend. We ate at various restaurants, went in the pool, and walked around various malls.

Me near Scottsdale Fashion Square

Alex and I in front of some big...thingies.

He says "oh"

Why do you live in Phx?

Decor at Macayo's

I picked out this shirt for Justin...

And that about sums it up.
We are moving in 6 weeks! It's hard to believe. 

Plans!

We have officially set our moving date with the movers. It's the last week of July. Movers will come one day and pack all of our possessions into boxes, and then come the following day and load those boxes into a truck and drive away with them. We'll probably sleep on an air mattress that night and then head out the following morning. For our 3-day drive. With 3 cats.

Haha...they will be in the back seat, meowing their little hearts out from the safety of their carriers. The above picture does represent my road rage fairly accurately, however. I have even been known to hiss at bad drivers.

We are planning to stop in Memphis, TN, and Amarillo, TX. In preparation for our 3-day journey, I would like to acquire some entertainment to...entertain us in the car. Maybe audio books, or some stand-up comedy, podcasts, or awesome sing-along music. Please suggest such things in the comments!

We're thinking of staying in La Quinta hotels along the way since they are all pet-friendly, but this is another area where we are taking suggestions. Might as well stay somewhere nice since it's covered by the relocation pacakage. ;-)

That's all for now!

More From Our "Fam" Trip

In my last post, I mentioned our familiarization trip to Phoenix and some things I learned about Phoenix while we were there. Now I will share more details and photos from that trip.

I took quite a few of these photos from a moving bus, so please forgive the blur.

The hotel we stayed at had many palm trees and orange trees.

Many yards in Phoenix have orange trees, lemon trees, and grapefruit trees. With the group, we toured one rental house with fruit trees in the backyard, and all of the women on the tour were carrying as much fruit as they could back on the bus! People were shaking branches to get the precious oranges and grapefruits.

Justin contemplated taking an orange he found on a bench at the hotel, but decided against it.

Like I mentioned before, everywhere you go you can see mountains. This was on the drive north to Anthem.

There are also many cacti! I'm strangely fascinated by them. They grow very slowly, and if you damage one, it's a $5000 fine!

Here are pictures of what some typical neighborhoods look like:

Very different from NC!

The Decision

The call center where I work as an Industrial Engineer is closing, so Justin and I were faced with a choice between relocating to Phoenix or Fort Lauderdale...or taking a severance package. We immediately knew we had no interest in living in Florida, so the choice was really between Phoenix or Greensboro. When I was laid off from my last job, a little over 2 years ago, I ended up unemployed for a year. That kind of experience does not engender much confidence in the local economy and job market. There appear to be numerous GIS opportunities for Justin in Phoenix, so for financial reasons it makes sense for us to relocate.

The big question was: Would we like Phoenix?

To help us answer that question, the company flew us out to Phoenix for a familiarization trip for 3 days so we could get a feel for the city. Justin thought he would hate it but was pleasantly surprised to find he liked it. I thought I would like it and discovered that I loved it. We rode around on a bus for hours with other potential relocaters, with realtors telling us about the different neighborhoods around the valley. Two neighborhoods in particular appealed to us: Anthem and Desert Ridge.

A few observations about Phoenix:
 It's very easy to find your way around the city, because roads are laid out in a grid. There are 2 main highways you need to know. Nearly everyone has tinted windows in their cars. Most houses have a garage. Apartment complexes usually have covered parking. Athletic fields are well-lit because many games are played at night, when it's cooler. People there have many ways of adapting to the extreme heat they experience in the summer. Apparently road construction is completed very quickly there because they don't have many setbacks due to rain. The highways are very nice because they are constructed with recycled rubber from tires. A realtor told us Phoenix is in the greenest desert in the world. If the Sonoran desert got just a little more precipitation, it would not be considered a desert anymore.


Justin in front of Pinnacle Peak Patio

 We were lucky enough to experience a 100 degree day while we were there. A 100 degree day there is much more tolerable than a 100 degree day here, due to the fact that it's a Dry Heat. You hear that phrase frequently in association with Arizona. The lack of humidity really does make a difference in how comfortable it is. Fruit trees are common in Phoenix, and many of them have their bark painted white to protect them from the sun. The same day it was 100 degrees in the afternoon, it was a very pleasant temperature in the morning and evening. Some places you go in Phoenix have "misters" spraying mist to help you cool off. Overall, I think the weather in Phoenix is wonderful. I really enjoy sunshine and warmth.

Palm trees and saguaro cacti are also common in Phoenix. The cacti are much larger than I expected them to be! In movies and photos they just don't appear to be that large, but in person they are often taller than streetlights. There was a lot more vegetation in Phoenix than Justin expected. We have so much to learn about all the desert flora.



Look at the size of that cactus!

Most of Phoenix has height restrictions on buildings, so no matter where you are in the valley, you can see mountains around you. I love it! Some areas even have light restrictions at night so that you can see the stars. Many communities have bicycle lanes throughout, and you often see houses outfitted with solar panels. There is a light rail running through downtown Phoenix. Justin and I are both pleased by how "green" Phoenix is.

After the familiarization trip, we had 10 days to decide if we would relocate. I knew I wanted to move, but Justin had to take time to ponder if he could be happy in Phoenix. To tell me he wanted to relocate, Justin gave me a picture of the desert with "Let's trek forward." typed above it. Hence the title of the blog.

Obviously this was not an easy decision to make. Leaving friends and family behind is not something we want to do! (We want to take them all with us.) But ultimately, it seems the best option for us and one that will enrich our lives with new experiences. This is where I will be documenting those experiences.