09/16/2023 I’m really not sure where to start, but, here goes. Soon after Kathy left I decided I wanted to move away from Kentucky, mainly away from Burkesville. It’s a nice little, tiny little town, the people are nice, it’s pretty, and I loved our property (except I was terrified of copperheads and rattlesnakes getting the dogs). I like privacy, not having neighbors on top of me. I liked being able to walk the dogs in a swimskirt and a bra and not have to worry about anyone seeing me. However, I did not like the poor quality of health care, the choices for dining out, and the lousy horrible excuse for a grocery store that is IGA. Their prices were double that of other stores, the produce was miserable, only iceberg lettuce, red and green peppers were individually wrapped in cellophane bags, zucchini were wrapped two to a tray and they were usually $4+ for two. I was amazed that so many people did all of their shopping there. I buy a lot of produce, veggies and fruit and it was a 40 minute drive to get a decent variety of that. Lowe’s was almost an hour away, we had two local hardware stores and the prices were very high in both stores. I was tired of it. I was looking all over, N and S Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Florida. Real Estate prices were high and interest rates were insane. My friend from PA moved to Smithfield NC and she told me to look around there. She gave me a few other cities close by. I happened on the house (that I bought) on the day it was listed. It seemed pretty cheap for what it was. I chatted with the realtor, looked around at the area. The house was in the county but 10 minutes from everything that I wanted to be near. Most yards were 1/2 acre so nobody on top of the house and the backyard was fenced. We talked it over and decided to just buy it. No, we never saw the house and no, we’ve never been to Goldsboro, NC. Remember, we’re the people who bought 31 acres sight unseen in Kentucky, a state we never even set foot in prior to our move.
So, our offer was accepted and we signed the papers and now owned a house in North Carolina. My friend Rona, who lives nearby offered to drive down and meet the realtor and check out the house. She called me while she was there and confirmed my thoughts that it needed some love. At that point it was a done deal so we couldn’t back out if we wanted to.
The packing began. It’s kind of interesting that 2 years prior I was packing the house in AZ, getting ready for our trek to KY in Walt, the RV from hell.
We closed on the NC house around August 10th. I was in full packing mode from then on, with an anticipated date of August 26th to move. Two years to the day we left AZ. However, we ended up loading the Uhaul truck on the 26th and leaving on the 27th. We planned to transport Bill’s truck to NC on a Uhaul trailer but a few days before we were to leave we found out it didn’t fit on the trailer and we would have to tow it on a dolly. Not ideal, but it worked.
I was messaging my long-time friend Cims while I was having my vodka. After that, I went in to take a shower.
Our KY shower is probably 5′ long and 3′ wide. It’s ridiculously huge. I forgot my soap so I stepped out of the shower to grab it from the sink. When I stepped back in my right foot went out from under me. The next thing I remember is Bill yelling, what the hell was that? I was on the floor of the shower, blood from my leg was all over the floor. (I hit my shin hard on the tile step you walk over to enter the shower.) Bill grabbed a pitcher that we use to rinse the shower and started washing the blood away. I thought, is this a crime scene? WTH is going on? Then he said, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to sit there, can you get up? I got up, dried off, put antibiotic cream and a bandaid on my leg and I don’t remember anything else the rest of the night.
The really unexplainable thing is, I got up the next morning, got in my car with the 2 boys, and drove 15 & 1/2 hours to get to NC. It was supposed to be a 9-hour trip. We hit a major traffic jam that lasted almost 2 hours then when we got into the mountains of western NC we got hit with torrential rains. The road was twisty and up and downhill, tractor trailers everywhere, tunnels, you name it. I finally radioed Bill on the walkie-talkies and said, I can’t do this, we have to stop. I was white-knuckle terrified. During my drive to NC I finally remembered what happened when I fell in the shower. I’m sure I blacked out. It all came rushing back to me, along with the insanity of following the fall with a 15-hour drive.
The adrenaline kept me going for a good 10 days before I started to crash and burn. I was manic, I had 6-7 miles on my Fitbit every day. It’s still pretty much a blur.
The goonie on my chin has gone away but not before it was all kinds of colors. I had a hematoma on my neck, it was really sore. After I came down from the adrenalin rush, I was hurting. I went to an urgent care, and they put me on antibiotics because of my shin and gave me some mild muscle relaxers. They didn’t do much. I was still really hurting so I ended up taking Gringo’s Tramadol because I couldn’t get comfortable. I made an appointment with a chiropractor. The chiro cracked up when I told him I was taking my dogs meds, in fact, I went yesterday and he asked how many Tramadol I needed the previous night. I said none…
So, yeah. It was a trip. We rolled in here at 11:30. I let the dogs out back to pee and grabbed 2 moving blankets and a pillow and laid down on the floor and slept. Bill got a chaise lounge out of the truck to sleep on.
He stayed here 2 weeks hooking up the washer and dryer, the stove that we brought and the reverse osmosis filter for the water. I did something else super smart. I had a cart full at Amazon, the day after we got here, I changed my address on Amazon and hit enter. I ordered all of the stuff. However, I didn’t notice that it defaulted to my KY address. Amazon helped me fix most of what they could. I had changed my address and we hoped packages would be forwarded. In KY, Amazon comes via USPS. After 10 days of the lost packages not moving on Amazon tracking, I called Amazon again. I told them it was my fault but could they help me at all? I thought they may have more sophisticated tracking than I did. Amazon reordered everything that was lost at no cost to me. I was blown away. So, now I have everything and I’m done shopping.
While Bill was here we ate out a LOT. Having a variety of food choices was a big move factor, as were good grocery stores. We have all of that here.
I’m going to wrap this up with a few photos, typing is killing my shoulder.
Bill brought the pressure washer and he bought a round scrubbing attachment for it. He cleaned the garage and drive, I did the sidewalk. It made a huge difference.
The yard is over a half acre. We actually looked for a riding mower to buy for me to mow and then decided to pay someone to do it every other week.
WalMart has a store 8 minutes away that is just groceries, it’s so stinking convenient. Another few minutes and I’m at Harris Teeter and Sam’s club. Heaven…
And that’s it folks. Remember, changing zip codes is not for the faint of heart. It takes quite a bit of insanity thrown in there too.
Mermaid on a Raft 