Spiders, spiders everywhere

The process of settling in is a slow one, involving an evolving understanding of what the space will allow and the limitations of our belongings to conform to those allowances. Matthew and I decided before the move to sell off most of our furniture, requiring us to find new furniture that better fits our style and needs. Right now that means we're sleeping on our futon (which eventually will land downstairs in the den) and keeping our folded clothes on top of wire racks in the closets. I'm hoping that some dilligent craigslisting, garage sale'ing and thrift shopping will allow us to outfit the new place on the cheap, but that starts to sound like a full-time job (which I need, but I think my talents probably extend beyond being my own personal shopper).

The biggest surprise of the move is that our house has some pretty stupid problems. The house was built very well in 1946 from what looks like old-growth cedar, and most of the upstairs has been lovingly maintained. The basement, however, was finished somewhat recently and evinces a lower budget than the job really required. There are holes directly to the outside ground level in a couple of places, and tons of shoddy work putting in sheet rock on the ceilings, creating a bunch of gaps into dark hidey-holes. The completely foreseeable result is a bit of a bug problem (though so far no rodents, thanks no doubt to the previous tenants owning 2 cats--which has caused endless allergy problems for Jessica).

Mostly we're seeing spiders. Tons of them. Everywhere. The former tenants (who now live across the street) set off bug bombs before we moved in, which I suspect killed off most of the smaller insects. Now the remaining spiders are the larger ones, some of which seem to have nervous system problems from the poison, and all of which are hungry and/or horny and consequently are on the move. Poor Matthew (who is arachnophobic due to a horrific childhood experience) nearly faints about a dozen times a day as big, meaty spiders run towards him or fall on his head. Yesterday we caught what may or may not be a hobo spider in the laundry room.

So in addition to unpacking boxes finding furniture, we now have a ton of holes to plug around the house. Hopefully before Matthew suffers a heart attack.

Day 8 - Butte, MT to Black Diamond, WA

The first hour or so of our drive through Montana was in the wildfire area. The landscape was choked with smoke that irritated our eyes and lungs when we stopped for gas. As we neared Idaho, the smoke cleared and we were again treated to some iconic Rocky Mountain vistas.

It wouldn't be a cross country trip without some sort of vehicular mishap. Ours was fortunately mild and entertaining. We had pulled off the freeway in Idaho to relieve ourselves in the bushes. Matthew and Jon were trying to turn the truck around by pulling into a driveway and backing out when the metal steps and hitch on the back of the truck got stuck on the road. They couldn't go forward or reverse. We started gathering large rocks to wedge in front of the tires when the local zinc miners came around to help. They got their fork lift in under the bumper and lifted the truck while Jon hit the gas and we were freed.

As we drove across the border into Washington, Jon got on the walkie-talkie yelled "Welcome to Washington!!!!" while Matthew shouted "Wooooooo Hoooooo!!!!" in the background. The next thing we heard over the walkie-talkies was:

"What the hell was that?..... Was that you Ed?"
"No, that wasn't me"
"Must be some trucker or something"
"Man, that was wierd...."

Then I got on and said "Crackwhore" which was our version of "Roger that"

"Alright Ed, I'm gonna switch to channel 17..."

Probably the biggest surprise of the trip for me was Eastern Washington State. When I think of Washington, I see green pine trees and mountainside lakes, but the eastern part of the state is essentially a desert. The Cascade Mountains block most of the moisture coming in from the ocean. As wet as Seattle can get, east of the mountains is even dryer. Flat, dry, hot, and lifeless with not even a cactus to look at. The three hours from Spokane to the Cascades were the most grueling part of the trip.

The part of the Cascades we drove through was gorgeous and to me, more difficult to navigate in the truck. The arid heat didn't help things either and most of the semis had to turn off their AC to keep from overheating. As we progressed through the Cascades, the landscape got progressively greener and more fit for, well, more fit for everything except maybe filming Westerns. We arrived in Black Diamond around sunset and were warmly greeted by Jon's family who had beer and grilled meat at the ready. After 3000 miles of mostly eating road food, it was heaven. We slept greedily in our un-hotel like comfortable beds with no pressing start time in the morning. Tomorrow we only have a 45 minute drive before finally reaching our new home.

Day 8 - Butte, MT to Black Diamond, WA

Rapid City, SD to Butte, MT

Jon and I got up at 6AM and drove to Mt Rushmore. We arrived right when the park opened. It was the most quiet place I think I've ever been. Only a few other tourists were there with us and the wind was cold and faint. Seeing the famous monument in person is an interesting experience: it's large and small at the same time. Large for a sculpture, large compared to the humans it represents, but small compared to the giant mountains surrounding it.


I have only two things to say about driving through Wyoming and Eastern Montana:

1 - Why did we feel it necessary to take this part of the country away from the Indians?
2 - Why can't we give it back to them?


Driving through the Rocky Mountains was not as harrowing as I had imagined. There was one long climb and descent right before we entered the valley where Butte is located. It also happens to be the continental divide with an elevation of 6393 ft. The truck was slowed to 35 mph and there was occasionally the illusion that you were going downhill when you were in fact still going uphill, but at less of an incline. You expected to speed up, but the truck kept grinding its way up the mountain.

The sun was an apocalyptic red as it set in front of us; masked by the smoke of Montana's recent wildfires. In a simpler time, we might have taken this as an ill omen causing us to break out into fits of God appeasing rites as we flogged and pierced and wailed and danced in the hopes that we might be spared from his damnation. Being modern creatures, we knew this kind of behaviour was pointless. We were spending the night in Butte, Montana. We were already damned.

Day 7 - Rapid City, SD to Butte, MT

Sioux Falls, SD to Rapid City, SD

Well, we've already safely arrived in Covington, WA outside Seattle. Tomorrow we start unpacking the truck. I've finally had some free time to sort through photos and update the blog so over the next few days we'll be filling in the blanks with commentary and galleries....


Sioux Falls to Rapids City

We spent the night at a Rodeway Inn which is the worst hotel I've ever been in. We had to smuggle in the ferrets because they have a 1 pet per room rule despite the fact that the ferrets could all stay in the same cage. At any rate, the room wasn't even fit for a pet and we didn't let them out into the bedroom. There were cigarette burns in the carpet and the box spring was held together with duct tape. All this for only $73!

The next day was only a five hour drive to Rapids City, but we were so distracted in South Dakota by all the roadside attractions that it took all day. The natural scenery is beautiful, especially when you get into the Badlands area. On top of this, the landscape is littered with billboard after billboard advertising the tourist attractions such as Wall Drug, the world's only Corn Palace, Petrified Forests, and various Mt Rushmore associated museums. They start advertising these places a good 250 miles before the exit and you'll see a new billboard every half mile sometimes. It was amusing at first and then got annoying as I longed for some uncluttered landscape to enjoy. I would get that eventually... in spades...

















Our first roadside stop was the Mitchell Corn Palace. They were inbetween mural exhibits at the time so we didn't get to see it in its full glory, but seeing the unfinished murals with "corn by numbers" outlines was nice also. Inside were "Corn-cessions", a picture history of the Corn Palace through the years (believe it or not, the Corn Palace has burned down a few times...) and a gift shop where I bought a corn palace hoodie. There is also a basketball court and stage with corn murals on the walls.

















The next stop was Wall Drug, a tourist trap if ever there was one. It's got pretty much everything; stores that sell all things western, coin operated animatronic statues, photo op sculptures, 5 cent coffee, a chapel, etc. The picture above features the many stuffed Jackalopes for sale. We could've spent a day basking in the kitsch, but we had a few hours left to go before we hit Rapid City.

















The landscape here is absolutely beautiful and Jess and I fantasized about living here sometime. It's so peaceful and majestic and in some parts seemingly untouched by man. Reminds me of a girl I once knew...

We arrived at the Econo Lodge at sunset; too late to hit Mt Rushmore before bed. Fortunately, our hotel had an indoor water slide that Jon, Matthew, and I went down as many times as we could before it closed. There was a metal gate on both sides of the slide entrance so you could really grab hold and launch yourself . I went down so fast that the whole contraption rocked back and forth and splashed water over the edge, soaking some of the parents watching their kids in the pool. Good times...

Jon and I decided to get up early tomorrow at 6AM to drive 45 min to Mt Rushmore and be back in time for an early departure before our long day into the Rockies. More on that tomorrow!

Day 6 - Sioux Falls, SD to Rapid City, SD

Firefox is still having trouble with Picasa, so use Internet Explorer if necessary.

Dust Devil!

So I haven't posted yet, even with the relentless poking and prodding of my co-travelers. But this morning was not to be the same. We all usually divvy up chores before we pack up and go, and my chore was to blog. So here it is, my grand entrance! Anyway, yesterday while we were driving through Montana I snapped a picture of a wee little dust devil. There had been a whole bunch, but I didn't manage to get my camera out in time to get a picture of one of the bigger ones. The drive yesterday was amazing, and I SOOO wanted to buy a big pink cloth that I could attach to the top of our truck so we could travel Priscilla Queen of the Desert style. But then I quickly remembered what part of the country we were in, and decided I didn't feel like getting shot. Think I was being paranoid? That night when we arrived into Butte Montana, Jon and I took a walk to the grocery store and were flipped off by two men in a rather large truck. Sure, it could have just been them fooling around. But I figure the chances were pretty good I had too much of a sashay in my step. Afterwards, I took off my glasses when we got into the grocery store so I would be more incognito.

Illinoise to Sioux Falls

Just a quick gallery post before bed. We traveled across South Dakota today and it's been the best landscape so far. Jon and I are getting up early to see Mt Rushmore before our long drive to Montana. I have some great pics from SD and Wall Drug especially, but I better get some sleep as I feel a cold coming on. So for now, enjoy a few pics from our travels through Illinois, Iowa, and into South Dakota.

Day 5 - IL to Sioux Falls, SD

Blogging the Beard, part the second

The beard continues to grow. It has softened quite a bit in just a few days, which I wasn't expecting. I've been enjoying it (and my cowboy hat) in conjunction with the truck. Matthew has come around: this evening over dinner he announced, "I like it!"

Though I suspect he may just be softening me up to ask me to get rid of it next week.

:(

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Not much to say about yesterday's drive: mostly flat, lots of corn. It was nice in its own way: meditative, minimalist. Tim announced when we got on the road that it felt like a return to normal. Strange, but he's right--the driving has already become habitual and comforting.

Today we drive across South Dakota, about 5 hours. We'll be on I-90 for the first time since we left Boston. (Had we not had stops at points south, I-90 would have been our route the entire way since it runs directly from Boston to Seattle.) I'm hoping to put a Philip Glass opera on the stereo and achieve a trance state by the repetition of corn and notes.

Day 2 - C-burg to Illinoise

We arrived at Jess's parent's house too late for our family barbecue so instead I got up at 6:45AM EST to drive to my parent's house for breakfast. My brother Pete drove down from Pittsburgh and my brother James drove over from Hanover with his wife and two kids. They spent the night after the canceled party to hang out for a few hours. The morning sun was bucolic and I took a few snaps on the way to the Franklin house:


Pete cooked up some delicious Clams Casino for breakfast which we ate along with the traditional eggs and bacon. After breakfast and saying good-bye we packed up and headed out towards Bloomington, IL at noon. We had an 11 hour drive ahead of us, and have figured in about 1 hour of rest stoppage per 4 hours driving which would peg our arrival at 2AM EST, 1AM CST. Having four drivers to switch between the Tercel and the truck makes things pretty easy. The driving experience between the two is hysterical. I couldn't believe how high up I was in the truck. It felt like I was driving a house from the second story. We've had to speed up on the downhills and drive the pedal to the floor to get up the mountains anywhere near the speed limit. If the Appalachians are giving us this much trouble, the Rockies are going to climbed at a snail's pace. We're taking our time and enjoying the drive as much as possible.

Driving through the straight, flat highways and expansive sky of Ohio is always nostalgic for me as I spent over a decade living there in Columbus and Cleveland. We passed under a storm system that had caused some tornadoes a few days ago but we just got a quick rain, though the clouds were the most ominous I've ever seen.

Before leaving RI, I bought some 18 mile radius walkie-talkies which have been a godsend. I was concerned about communicating between the two vehicles while driving through bad reception areas, but even beyond that they've been an extremely fast and convenient mode of communication. Keeping the truck in sight isn't always easy, especially in the mountains.

We've stopped at several truck stops to fill up on diesel and stretch our legs. The truck stop culture is always entertaining. My favorite so far was "Crazy D's" in Cambridge City, Indiana.


I walked in to pay my bill and the cashier was behind the register smoking. I haven't seen that in ages. We parked and ate at the adjoining restaurant "Pop's Country Kitchen" which had sections for smoking, non-smoking, and truckers. Do they really smell that bad? I had the "Egg Mess" which was scrambled eggs with ham, veggies, and hash browns. We also shared a plate of biscuits and gravy. We left at 11PM CST for the last 2 1/2 hr drive to Bloomington and after switching sleepy drivers a few times, arrived safely at Matthew's Dad's house at around 1:40AM CST.

Here is the online gallery for day two!

Day 3 - PA to IL

Remember to try using Internet Explorer if the gallery won't open in Firefox...

Final Packing - Second Opinion

Jess and I have moved seven times in the last six years. You would think by now that we would be pros at it; everything boxed and stacked in perfect cardboard cubes that create a flat, LEGO-like wall of possessions. Everything finished two days in advanced so we can clean, putty, and hermetically seal the apartment for the next tenants. But alas, we are as overwhelmed as ever and though I would not dub this move "disastrous" I would use words like "disorganized", "hellish", and "soulsapperific". At any rate, after two days of hard labor and a night of sub five hour sleep, we managed to empty our homes and mobilize them. We would still be in RI if not for the generosity of our new friends Aaron and Emily who not only helped us pack and clean, but promised to burn down the building if our landlord doesn't return our security deposit. Remember that promise guys? We high-fived on it which I believe is binding.

We departed for PA at 2PM EST, a mere 2-3 hours behind schedule. We arrived at 1AM EST, a whopping 5 hours behind schedule. It's hard to predict these travel times even with the help of google. Connecticut has (in my opinion) the worst highway planning in the US. Boy do they love their merges in CT. Waterbury should be added along side the Bermuda Triangle as one of the world's great mysteries. Every time I've driven through there has been stop-and-go traffic without ever seeing a cause for the delay. My eyes shed nary a tear as the stunted skyline of Waterbury slowly faded behind us....

Here's the complete packing gallery. My Picasa web gallery hasn't been working with Firefox recently so if you have trouble viewing the photos, try using Internet Explorer.

Day 1-2 Packing, RI to PA

Final packing

Matthew taking down curtains:


Downstairs neighbor Emily helping out with shower curtains:


The ferrets waiting patiently:

Packing day 1

Dateline: Providence, Rhode Island

Yesterday started off much according to plan. Tim and Jess had arrived at our house around midnight, and we all woke up at about 7 AM. Matthew, Tim and I went to pick up the truck. It turns out that the 22-foot truck that Penske had promised us had indeed come in, but with some kind of damage that necessitated repairs. Since there were no other 22-foot trucks available, they offered us a free "upgrade" to a 26-footer. (These lengths refer to the size of the cargo space, not to the length of the entire truck, which is closer to 35 feet.) Having no choice we accepted it and crossed our fingers that we wouldn't get any worse mileage for it. I drove this monster home, looking down on Tim's tiny Camry from what seemed like the second story of a building. In fact, had we been able to park it a little closer to the house we could have placed things from our apartment onto its roof.

Not much to say about the packing process really. It's like a giant game of 3-dimensional Tetris--but I was never any good at Tetris, and my spatial reasoning is pretty poor. Jessica, luckily, is better at it. Between the 4 of us we managed to load the truck pretty beautifully: this stuff is going nowhere, and I don't expect any broken boxes. During the whole process our landlord/downstairs neighbor Ron was lurking in our apartment getting the dishwasher fixed and kind of staring at us move our stuff. We finished putting in the venetian blinds that we had removed from all the windows and swept up. The ferrets were caged (the houseplants, too: we put them all inside the larger ferret cage for easy transport, and I was happy not to have to leave any behind).

Allie (our upstairs neighbor; her fiance Max had left us a lovely "good luck" note on our doorstep) made us cornbread, and Tim made a final run to the All-Star Sandwich Bar, the best sandwich shop anywhere. So a quick lunch on the porch, then a nearly tearful goodbye as we drove off.

All this before 3. And then the second, more frustrating part of the day began.

Jessica and I took the car past the Legal Aid Bureau, where I turned in my keys, and got on I-90 to get out of Boston. (Goodbye, Boston!!!) I-90 is a toll road in Massachusetts, so we had to pay a couple bucks to use it, but the traffic was light and it was well worth it. We were in Providence at Tim and Jess's house by 4PM--but Jess had lost her housekeys and we couldn't get in! Tim and Matthew in the truck avoided the tolls (which would have been at least $10 for the truck) and got on I-93, promptly sticking them in the middle of a traffic jam. They arrived in Providence just before 5PM.

There was still a mess in the house, with many boxes but many piles. Plus we were already exhausted from the first part of the packing, which slowed our bodies a bit and slowed our minds considerably. The humidity had turned up outside and we were all pretty miserable. But we managed to pack a good portion of the stuff last night, and this morning we're hoping to finish packing and be on the road no later than noon.

Which reminds me: better get to it. Tim and Jess are already working, and I should wake Matthew up now.

Itinerary

Here we are on the eve of the move! The dishes are packed, the ferrets are bathed, the no-parking signs are posted. Since we've been getting many questions about where we'll be and when, here's a quick rundown of the week to come:

Thursday, Aug 23
7:30am: Pick up the rental truck (the Penske 22 foot diesel beast shown above).
8am: Pack Jon and Matthew's stuff in Somerville.
3pm: Drive to Providence.
4pm: Pack Tim and Jessica's stuff in Providence.

Friday, Aug 24 (7 hours driving time)
Finish packing.
Drive to Chambersburg, PA, where Tim and Jess grew up.
Dinner with family and friends.

Saturday, Aug 25 (11 hours driving time)
Drive to Bloomington, IL, home of Matthew's father and family.

Sunday, Aug 26
Our day off in Bloomington. Swim suits and barbecue.

Monday, Aug 27 (9 hours driving time)
Drive to Sioux Falls, SD.

Tuesday, Aug 28 (5 hours driving time)
Drive to Rapid City, SD.
Visit Mount Rushmore.

Wednesday, Aug 29 (8 hours driving time)
At 4 AM there is a total Lunar Eclipse, which we will nearly certainly miss.
Drive to Butte, MT.

Thursday, Aug 30 (9 hours driving time)
Drive to Black Diamond, WA, home of Jon's family.

Friday, Aug 31 (45 minutes driving time)
Drive to our new house and unpack!

Saturday, Sept 1
Spare day in case of disaster along the way.
Or hopefully, day of relaxation.

Sunday, Sept 2
Bumbershoot!

Blogging the Beard

After our return to Boston from Seattle I decided that I need a beard. Not necessarily in a permanent way, but just in a I-haven't-tried-this-since-high-school kind of way. So I determined that my next shave will be at a well-regarded mens salon in Seattle. This has the benefit of saving me a couple of minutes (and possibly a few drops of blood) each morning along the road, which will be better spent wandering the motel parking lot trying to get a wifi signal to post my next blog entry. It also has the benefit of giving me a rugged mountain man look that will instantly communicate the vastness of our heroic journey, and help me fit in with the locals in South Dakota and Montana. (I'm also angling to have a tourist at Mount Rushmore ask me questions under the impression that I'm a park ranger.)

Unless I just come out looking like a dirty hippie.

Compare the nascent beard of our Vermont trip, to the awkward half-formed beard of the "Coast Cooling" party and of today (above).

Now as body modification goes I think that a beard is pretty mild: reversible and actually requiring fewer sharp objects than the alternative. From Matthew's reaction, however, you'd think I had just tattooed my face with a vulgar scene involving goats. I think it's safe to say that he finds my beard to be more in the dirty-hippie than the rugged-mountain-man mode. His is the only negative reaction so far though, and I hope that by the time we get to Seattle he'll come around.

I'll be keeping you all in the loop with up-to-the-minute descriptions of my follicle happenings!

How to say goodbye

All packed, a day early. Time for some reflection.

After 3 years in Cambridge/Boston, I still have a relatively narrow view of the place. During school terms Matthew and I rarely had time to get out of Cambridge--me with my legal aid work, Matthew with his job and internships, and both of us with our classes, always seemed to be keeping just half a step ahead of utter DOOM. When we did manage to get beyond Harvard Square we usually went far in (straight to downtown Boston) or far out (to the Berkshires, or of course Arizona, Illinois, Washington, Louisiana...). Partly this was because we were too busy to take long trips except during vacations where we were expected to visit loved ones; mostly it was because we didn't have a car. The only times I ventured out of the urban core of the city into the suburbs where normal life happens (and the population demographics aren't skewed towards the 18-to-25 age range) were visits to the homes of my clients. The result is that until yesterday I didn't know that the towns of Belmont and Arlington are immediately adjacent to Cambridge--to the northwest, in the opposite direction from downtown. And Matthew discovered 2 weeks ago that there is a large mall with a Costco just a couple miles fromm our house Why would I need to know such things? The suburban "fringe" (i.e. any town more than 2 miles from my house, to say nothing of the rest of New England) was invisible to me.

Here in our final days we've been doing a little something to remedy that. Today we're renting bikes and going for a trip on the Minuteman Trail, which will take us 11 miles through Arlington, Lexington and Bedford. (We're also going on one final shopping trip at H&M, the European answer to Gap, since they haven't made it to the West coast yet.)

And last week we took a trip with our friends Kyre and Fred (who we hope might soon become Seattle transplants as well!) up to a small reservoir in Vermont for a canoe-camping trip. As an overnight trip, it was the longest that we had ever spent in a New England state other than Massachusetts itself. There were loons on the lake and moose droppings in our camp. We were there just after the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, so despite the scattered clouds we had a profound experience with the night sky: taking a canoe out into the lake in total darkness, with only the flicker of our campfire through the trees to steer us ashore, we watched the Milky Way spill out then be mopped dry by an otherwise invisible cloud, and we gasped as every few minutes a bright contrail would draw a swift line across the sky. Sitting there in the darkness surrounded by water and stars brought to the surface the deep feelings of powerlessness and awe that led humans to create gods. It was one of the best camping experiences of my life.

Now that I'm more relaxed and have more time for recreation, I'm finding that the Boston area does have some great things going for it. So I'm kinda sad to see New England go. That said, it took nearly 4 hours on the road to get to this lake in Vermont--from Seattle, you can find experiences much closer that are even more wild. And our trip in the upcoming week will take us through 15 states, including "Big Sky Country" Montana. I'm mostly thankful to have had a real chance to say goodbye to the region and be leaving with a warm feeling about it.

Oh, and the fact that the weather is unseasonably pleasant right now helps quite a bit as well. :-)

Farewell Tour

Jess and I took a farewell tour of Boston yesterday with our new friends Aaron and Emily. We visited our old neighborhoods, ate and drank at some favorite stops, and took pictures. I've posted some of them here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/tdfranklin/BostonTour

Afterwards, we had a Coast Cooling party at Jon and Matthew's where we caught up and said goodbye to many of the friends we've made here over the years. Each one of them has had a lasting impact on our lives and will be sorely missed.

Only a few more days to pack the rest of our things and hit the road! I better get off the computer and go make some boxes...

Returning "Home" to Seattle

First of all, thanks to Tim for setting up this excellent diversion. I think a group moving blog is just legitimate enough to qualify as a semi-excuse for not being busy packing boxes right now. I normally maintain my blog over at livejournal under the name Lapith, but this summer my posts have stopped entirely as I studied for the Washington bar exam. I'm guessing that for the next few weeks at least I'll continue to not post to my own blog, since most everything happening to me is going to be move-related. (Although I'm considering cross-posting.) Anyhow, the same busy studying and relentless stressing that kept me from lj'ing this summer has also made me rather poor company, so my thanks also to Tim, Jess, my brother Thomas who was living with us for the summer, and especially Matthew for putting up with my cranky, law-filled self all summer long. I'm glad to be done with tests and preparing for a lovely road trip: 2 vehicles! 4 adults! 5 ferrets! 15 states! Utter mayhem!

I'm the only one of the four of us adventurers who actually has any real ties to Seattle. I consider myself from the Seattle area, and in fact my parents and all 3 of my siblings still live in the area. Because I'm one of "those people" who always talks about how much better home is than wherever he is at present, people who know nothing else about me know that I'm "from Seattle." But in full disclosure, I've now spent more time away from Washington than I ever spent in it.

In fact, I never lived in Seattle itself. I was born in Walnut Creek, California, and lived for most of my elementary school years in Fairfield, which at that time was a quiet but rapidly growing suburb just inland from the eastern tip of San Francisco Bay. I moved with my family to Maple Valley, WA (about 45 minutes south of Seattle) in March 1992, when I was 11 years old. We ended up moving a few miles down the road, and from 7th grade onward I lived in a part of then-unincorporated King County that is now the city of Covington. But then I left for college in Phoenix (where I met Matthew), then left for law school in Boston (where I met Tim and Jess). So all told I lived 11 years in California, 8 years out of Washington for school, and only 7 1/2 years in Washington. Ok, so I've returned for holidays and summer jobs, but still, it's a bit embarrassing after all my puffery!

So am I a Washingtonian? Do I even know enough about my "home" state to be of any use to my new transplanted friends? We'll find out soon enough, but I suspect that my teenage memories about the area range from nostalgically misty, to fuzzy, to simply not there. And much has changed in the 8 years I've been gone. I left Seattle as the dot-com bubble was furiously inflating itself, and return as the state has reworked its economy into one of the best states for business, according to Forbes magazine. Most of my close friends from high school have moved on (to California, Alaska, D.C., Louisiana...)--but luckily, I'm importing 3 excellent friends with me.

Here we come. Ready or not.

Moving update

Jess, Matthew, Jon, and I were in Seattle at the end of July and found a lovely house to share. Lucky for us, it was the 2nd place we looked at so we had the rest of the trip as a vacation. We went to Alki Beach, the Seattle Art Museum, saw a Red Sox - Mariners game at Safeco field, went to Block Party and saw some good music, hiked, boated, and played lots of Nintendo Wii.

Now we have ten days before the move and are in crunch mode. As Jess and I finish up our last audiobook before we go, we're posting things online, selling, yard sale-ing, packing, throwing away, and eating everything in our apartment.

I've set up an online photo album that I plan to update during the trip, along with this weblog. You can see it here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/tdfranklin

We pack the truck on the 23rd and will make our first stop in Chambersburg, PA on the 24th.