Leaving Texas, back to Snow Country

 As you may know from previous entries, we traded in our small-town lifestyle for life on the road back in 2015. We sold our house, loaded up the car and drove to Florida with 2 Beagles and cat to purchase our new home on wheels. 

We were rewarded with nearly 5 glorious years traveling the US, basking in each new experience, making lasting friendships and relishing our time together. We left the road due to health issues (details in prior post) and settled in San Antonio.

After I lost my life partner Shel in November 2021, I stayed in TX for awhile. I love my in-law family, but realized my place was up north with my children. I decided to keep only what I could ship or pack in my car, so for months I packed boxes, sold furniture and  donated everything else. What a cleansing. Back in 2015 before we traveled, we did the same thing, selling all but some keepsakes.

It was a daunting undertaking but I'm thankful for the help from relatives and my daughters. 

Before I left, I managed to take a few pictures of the "ribbon roads" of TX. I never saw sky roads like this anywhere else and believe it or not, my vertigo is so severe I couldn't wait to get off them! I still think they are graceful and unique. 

Meanwhile, my daughter Carla flew down to TX to take Cole back up north so he wouldn't be cramped in the car on the drive to Pennsylvania. It was a great help. She let him out on his leash going through airport security and he was such a champ!! He's a travelin' cat and loved the attention. More later!

Nina, my older daughter and I had decided to share a 2 BR apartment. She suggested we share since she works from home and it was more convenient to live in Lancaster. Other than a few minor bumps in the road, this arrangement has been wonderful for both of us. 

Nina flew down to San Antonio to assist with the drive to Lancaster PA. We closed up the apartment, spent the night with my SIL and left early the next morning. 

We spent the first night in New Orleans. I was physically unable to explore the area, but Nina walked around and came back with coffee and beneighs from Cafe Du Monde. Yummy!

   

The next 3 days we continued our journey to Pennsylvania, sharing the driving and enoying the scenery. As we got closer, we stopped at Mr. Ed's Elephant Museum and Candy Emporium near Caledonia State Park

  

 

It was interesting in a quirky way. We bought some candy and went on our way for the final leg of our trip.

  

As we got closer to Lancaster, the landscape changed. The countryside is so picturesque.

  

On the fourth day, we pulled into our new home and new life. I had only seen pictures of the apartment so it was amazing to see how open and roomy the space was. The living room is huge, the bedrooms are at the end of the hallway and there are closets galore including a storage locker in the basement. The kitchen is small but has an incredible gas stove!

  

  

This is what greeted me. You can see only a small portion of boxes to unpack. There were about 40, and each box was numbered and a list was made of each box's contents. Unfortunately, I made mistakes and lost half the list (it may still turn up) and as I unpacked the boxes, I didn't keep track of the numbers as I opened them. I naively thought everything was there, but some boxes went missing. Everything of value I took in the car, so it's not worth trying to track down the missing boxes. 

They weren't insure anyway.

Within days of arriving in Lancaster, my car died. It couldn't be jumped, so it had to be flatbed towed to get a new battery.  I thank my lucky stars we made it to Pennsylvania before it died! 

So I made it to Amish Land. 

See you real soon!