It started about a year ago when my husband was working on a project that required him to travel to the North Carolina office for a few weeks. I had mentioned that if his job ever required us to move there then it was something we could do. His reply was something like, “Don’t be so cavalier about a move like that.”
Our daughter was grown and gone, my mother who I saw rarely lived 2 hours away in the summer but wintered in Florida, and my sister lived in Utah. Sure I had plenty of other relatives but with one grandmother gone and the other on her way out via a nursing home for Alzheimer patients, there wasn’t much family to stay for. The biggest loss would be some close friends and a strong cycling community that I was a big part of. There was nothing really holding us in Maine.
Not to mention I had lived in Maine all my life and the thought of moving someplace without snow, and potential year round cycling, was very appealing. I didn’t hate the snow – it was more of a nuisance and I remember on more than one occasion growing tired of the repetitive snow removal and exclaiming we were going to move to Atlanta. Of course it was mostly in jest. Seriously, I’ve been to Atlanta and it’s probably not some place I’d really want to live.
Soon after my husband’s project ended, things changed at his office. There was a reorganization that resulted in several people being let go and new ones to take their place. It ended up being a good opportunity for my husband and after several months he ended up with a new position in the company. That also meant a move to North Carolina where his team would be located. I was more than overjoyed.
My boss didn’t see it that way. After working for him for almost 7 years he was completely blindsided by the news. We had a great working relationship and I never gave him any indication that I wasn’t happy with my job. It was a new opportunity for my husband and I fully intended to support him.
Our biggest decision to make was whether to sell the house or keep it and rent it, being 900 miles away. If we kept it and rented it, and if North Carolina didn’t work out, we’d have our house to come back to. In the end, we thought selling was in our best interest.
My husband started work the first of December at his new office in North Carolina, just north west of Charlotte, and I stayed behind to pack and prep the house for sale.
At the end of March 2014 we removed the snow tires from the vehicle, packed it full of all our remaining belongings that hadn’t been packed in the POD or shipped via UPS, which also included two new adorable feline additions to our family, Athena and Hercules, locked up the house one last time, and left at 4:30am for the 15 hour journey south.
Maine Velophile 