Jackie's Blog

 We decided to move back to the UK in the middle of 2023 and then it seemed so far away! Six months later, Dick has a new job (which he loves), and I don't have one at all, The latter being part of the moving plan. Technically, I finished working at the nursing home in October but I have worked two separate weeks in the mean time to help train my replacement and still maintain ties there. Since then I have kept myself very busy completing small projects in the house- all strange things that you only really notice when you are thinking about selling and what other people may notice! Paint flaking in a corner, and patching and painting a closet among other things. I've also started what I can only say now is phase 1 of the sorting and clearing out process. I say phase 1 as I've quickly realized that you need more than one go through 'stuff'.  Aside from that, I wanted to start recording the processes we are going through to move our lives back to the UK. I am using Tr

 It's only when you know you are going to move that you start to really open your eyes to what is around you on a daily basis. Not only inside the house (how have we accumulated so much 'stuff' in the last four years?) but in the yard too. My raised vegetable bed is outside the front of the house, yes, not the back garden but the front. It's a small piece of land- maybe only a depth of 8 feet but enough to put a 12 ft x 4 ft raised bed.  I started tomatoes and peppers under the grow light with heat pads in the basement last year, and ended up with a bumper crop because we had such a dry and hot summer but I didn't start any other veggies. This year I tried a bunch of different veggies but in the coco coir pellets. They started really well but almost too quickly and were fairly weak plants, so they didn't transplant very well. I took a chance and sewed new seeds into the bed a bit earlier than usual, along with the transplants. Luckily, it was a mild Spring and e

To be honest, I had rather forgotten about my blog but I was reminiscing about the road trip from CA to MA on Route 66 and came back to read it.  Here we are, four years later and at another milestone. We've decided to move back to the UK next year. There is so much to see and do between now and then, I thought I would try and keep a record of it all. We'll see!  Today it is raining, and we've tried to do something toward moving every time we are 'stuck' in the house. We have started going through some of the boxes in the attic office space. We ended up moving some things here from CA that we shouldn't have, therefore the aim is to whittle it down even more this time. We are also not self-packing like our last move either, so it is more about sorting through everything we have. We've already accumulated four boxes of electrical waste that have been taken to Staples.  The thing I'm not so fond of doing is selling online. I haven't had a great deal of

Last day of the road trip! Dottie won't be the only one glad to get there. We are looking forward to not packing up every morning and being able.to stay in the same place for a few days. It was 22 F when we took the dog for a brief walk this morning before getting in the car, and that was evident as we saw our first ski slopes and lots of very frozen ice on the roadside. At least the weather was still dry,  We drove from Pennsylvania, into New York State, and then into Connecticut. When we passed through Hartford, Connecticut,  I looked up where the summer camp was that I worked in the first summer I was at university. Camp Wah-Nee , which is near Torrington, now charges $11,000 per child for a seven-week (yes, that long) summer camp! I knew it must have been expensive back then  Finally into Massachusets, and only 68 miles to go... Dick has been recording the entire trip on a dash camera in time-lapse, being very careful to remember to turn it on at every

The car was covered in frozen rain this morning as we drove out of Columbus. It had been snowing  so it was very petty. Today the first part of the day was lots of farmland and dairy farms. The roads were much better and the traffic too. The road atlas showed how close we were to Cleveland, and Lake Erie, so not that far from the Canadian border. After that, we saw our first sign for New York City (348 miles).  We will, however, go north again before then. It wasn't long before we crossed into Pennsylvania. Lunch was the best (and healthiest) pitstop on our route at the Station 101 Pub and Kitchen . Dick was able to have a taste of the local beer and I drove the rest of the way. By now the landscape was rolling hills and trees as we crossed what I had imagined the Pennsylvania landscape to be. It doesn't look so good out of a car window with my phone though, so sorry, no photos.  We made really good time and so reached the hotel by 4.00 pm. As is our habit,

Today was also started with a dog walk in another St Louis County park much to Dottie's delight. We drove out past the airport and across the mighty Mississippi.  We have crossed it before but never so far north. This time the 'Welcome to Illinois' sign was prominent but also included an 'Alcohol driving limit of 0.08' sign too! Maybe it was put up prior to St Patricks Day :) There were also lots of anti-drink driving signs with St Patrick's themes today on the message boards.  Just FYI, Gas prices have been pretty consistent since we drove into Arizona- largely ranging between $2.25 and $2.49 a gallon. We crossed into Indiana and are finally on eastern time- 2585 miles driven to that point. It might be quicker on the interstate  oads but it isn't much fun when the rest areas are closed! This is now officially the longest road trip either of us have done- beating my Atlanta to Morgan Hill road trip back in February 2007 which w

The Boots Court Motel was by far the smallest room we have stayed in, but oh so cute. We hadn't really appreciated it so much the night before. With a radio in every room- no TV, but there was wifi! Our day started with a walk around the historic square of Carthage- there had been some real money here at some point in history. This is the Jasper County courthouse, built in 1894 out of native Carthage stone, and its bell tower was said to have inspired the bell tower in the 'Back to the Future ' movies. It's like a castle with all its turrets: After a coffee and breakfast at the Mother Road coffee shop, we started our more sedate day. We saw two old garages in a row- one we could drive up to: The other (where we were personally escorted around by George), was so full of memorabilia, it was almost too much- Gary's Gay Parita Sinclair: Dottie had a wonderful time there playing in the

Longest day ever! Not really, we drove 412 miles from about 9:30 am to 7:30 pm though, and most of it was on route 66 but we were all tired by the time we got to Carthage MO. We drove into four states today... Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri.  That's one of the reasons this blog is late in posting. We started with a breakfast consisting of a waffle in the shape of Texas! Luckily, Thursday was one of those clear big blue sky days. We drove almost straight into Oklahoma and noticed that this was the first state that didn't have a welcome sign. Oklahoma's route 66 has mainly concrete surfaces so they have stood the test of time but they are bumpy in places, however, there are also some of the longest uninterrupted stretches of the road too. The roads are often quiet and you can drive for miles and only see a car or two. It's probably different in the summer months when more tourists are traveling route 66. It's also unusual to be traveling west to eas