December 31, 2020 the day Darlin retired. Come January, we hit the ground running.

A huge decision … a few life-changing decisions. His retirement was big, especially for him. He worked his whole life with no gaps in-between. “What will I do, he’d ask?” That was the question.

A few weeks later, no longer the question. Now, he was busier than ever. Why?

Well, we decided to move out of a house he’d call home for 40 plus years, me nearly 30 years, and a state he called home since birth. I did say huge decisions, right?

Were we ready?

There were repairs around the house needed and a storage unit was a must. Not a want, but a need. And boxes, A LOT of boxes. Local moving company was our best friend.

I began cleaning out closets, getting rid of unused items to Salvation Army, tossed a ton out and kept what I felt I’d use again. Still so much stuff. Darlin made several trips to the donation center and to the local dump. It was the two of us with a significant task ahead of us.

When we made the decision to leave the state, I started seeing posts on social media about how Texas or Tennessee were the places to land. Folks would welcome us to “America.”

A couple posts intrigued me, and I followed the live videos of one who moved to TN. I soon contacted her and had a great, encouraging conversation. She’d given me the name of a realtor friend who I’d met unofficially once. I reached out. She, too was encouraging, prayed with me, and vowed to help once we got to TN. To meet up for coffee, at least. Her husband is the realtor, but she is the contact. So, we thought we’d be traveling to middle TN and find our forever in-our-twilight-years home. If you are following my gibberish, we did not have a home to go to once we sold ours. Simply because we needed the funds from the sale to buy a new one.

It took us a good two and a half months to get the house in order. A friend recommended a real estate agent, Jen Kline Km-realty.com and/or https://www.zillow.com/profile/Jennkline. She worked so hard for us. Next thing we knew, it was mid-March, the house was going on the market soon. We moved a lot of stuff into the garage to stage the inside. The weekend it went on the market, there were 24 showings, ten offers, and five counteroffers. We accepted one of the five. But that wasn’t the last of it. The buyers wanted to meet us. So, we agreed. They were a sweet, engaged couple who we would soon find out were exposed to Covid, and she tested positive. Ugh. Our departure was delayed until our tests came back. Negative! Thank you, Jesus.

The bittersweet moment had arrived. Our next-door neighbor took a picture of us standing in front of a home we thought we’d never leave.

Onward.  With no home.

Our first stop on our adventure across country while sorta homeless, was a visit to my son’s family in the San Diego area. It was a great four day visit with my ugly crying when we left.

Next stop Winslow, AZ for the night. Not a great hotel, but one must stop on that famous corner.

It took us three nights of hotels and four long days. A couple of choice detours along the way was a must. Who knew if we’d be back that way in the future?

We finally landed in Middle Tennessee outside of Nashville. Spoke with our realtor, (sadly we never hooked up for coffee) they were sending us links to homes for sale and then referred us to another realtor for the areas we were looking at. Nothing, absolutely nothing we saw was anything near what we wanted to become our forever home. We departed Tennessee and moved on to South Carolina. Simply because of a friend who loved it there and said it was a great place to live and we’d be able to see them. Sadly, SC wasn’t what it was hyped to be, for us, although we really loved downtown Greenville. Never connected with said friend there either.

Disappointments abounded. We decided to give the search a rest and be tourists for the day. We drove down to the Charleston area and ended up in Isle of Palms. It’s a quaint town and we sat and watched boats go by while having a picnic lunch, trying to control our hyperactive Tanner.

Off we went again, next stop East Tennessee. This made seven different beds to lay our heads on. (Will never stay at a Quality Inn again.) Seriously don’t know how travelers do it. We missed our bed like crazy.

At this point we were quite discouraged and exhausted. It was then we gave it up to God.

Within a few hours we found an agent recommended, April Blankinship of  www.TheBlankinshipGroup.com and we loved her energy and knowledge. She sent us a few links of homes to go look at. One we were ready to make an offer on. In a new subdivision, with a bit of land in-between other homes and a nice porch. They had already accepted another offer. Insert sad face here.

The next day we met with our realtor’s husband in a subdivision down the road from the house we wanted. There were a few new builds going up. Just seemed too small. We drove down that street. A house nearly completed on a corner was pending an offer, but we were able to walk through. Hard for me to tell, with only 2×4’s and no walls yet.

Just so happened there was a lot next door with a for sale sign, a call was made … available. We had only seen a floor plan of the house, but we put an offer in … two days later we signed. It would take five months to build. Ugh. Off to see family in Michigan. Our stay there was longer than anticipated. We felt we overstayed our welcome, but our family was … is so gracious and accommodating. Can never repay them.

Darlin was missing his truck since we could only drive one vehicle across country, it made sense to use our SUV. A dear friend offered to let him store his truck in her 3-car driveway. It was a little over two months and he needed to get the truck out of her space, so he flew back to CA. Plus, he was able to tie up some loose ends, say goodbye to long-time friends and visit his mom and dad’s gravesite. It took him three days to get back to MI. Thankfully, safe and sound.

During our time in MI, I had a full left knee replacement due to bone-on-bone from arthritis. The worst pain … EVER. My sissy was the best caretaker and my oldest … um wisest sissy gave up her bed for the first week home from surgery. A week I barely remember. Then off to my sissy’s home for a while. Back and forth for five months. It was hard on everyone. That still makes me sad. But ever so grateful for a loving family.

Our U-Pack trailer would soon be dropped off near our storage unit back in CA. Time for Darlin to take another flight home from MI. He needed to be there to sign for delivery. My son wanted to be a part of the move in any way possible, so he and my grandson drove up from SoCal to help unload said storage unit into trailer. We also had the much needed help from long-time friends, Brad and Pete along with their pick-ups. Our stuff was finally eastbound.

The time came for closing. It had been pushed out three times. The signing was done digitally. Crazy right? Our amazing realtor walked us through every step of the way. She was even driving several miles to take videos of the progress to send to us.

My Darlin drove to our home leaving me in Michigan to await my amazing son’s flight. He would be driving my vehicle with me to our new home since I was unable to drive such a distance with my knee still painful, and he knew we would not be able to unload the trailer our old-selves. Well, man did my son help. We would not have done it without him. Plus, we had some great bonding time in the car on the way to TN.

We took a break and tried a local restaurant and drove around the area so he could see where we would spend our twilight years.

Curtains are up, furniture mostly in, Tanner seems to love it. Looking forward to a Christmas tree lighting in the “square.”

I’m still recouping and pray the pain and stiffness will subside soon. I have decorating to do for Christmas and a whole lot of boxes to unpack, and gorgeous trails by the lake to walk, and places to explore, and …

Our journey has only just begun in our small town in our beautiful new home, close to the Smokey Mountains, with views of the peaks just around the corner. We are blessed beyond measure and we have no doubt it’s where God wants us to be.

Yep, I think I’m going to love small town livin, y’all.

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV (New International Version)