Moving from Vermont to Arizona on our BMW

We're off! After weeks of 'lasts':  last lunch with a friend, last run on familiar roads, last volunteer meeting, last day of work, last night in Vermont; we're ready to start logging in some 'firsts', beginning with the first day of our move to Prescott, AZ.

We sold our cars, hired a moving company to pack and ship all of our household goods, and we're making the trip into a motorcycle adventure. This is the perfect opportunity to ride the BMW across the country as we transition from Vermont to Arizona.

For a summer filled with hot temperatures, high humidity, and lots of rain today was perfect:  blue skies with a few fluffy clouds and temperatures hovering in the high '70's as we wound our way along county roads and state highways through Vermont, New York, and into Pennsylvania.

As we rode through Manchester early in the morning, I tried to print all of the familiar sights on my memory one last time:  the new library that Mike worked so hard on, Hand Motors where he worked and where we purchased all of our cars, the view of the Green Mountains on Wilcox Flats that never ceases to amaze me with it's beauty, the soccer field in Arlington where the boys played hundreds of games, and the BattenKill River where we tubed and swam.

 

As we headed west through New York we spotted horse and buggy signs, and then passed an Amish horse and buggy, reminding us that it's still possible to travel slowly and live simply. Most of the time we had the winding, curving roads to ourselves as we passed by fields of corn, hay, and wheat.

Our route took us for a few miles through heavy traffic from Chenango NY to Athens PA on busy routes 17 and 220. I was glad to leave the trucks behind as we traveled through the 265,000 acre Susquehannock State Forest on Route 6, the longest continuous  highway in the continental United States. The roller coaster hills and steep hillsides covered with forests reminded me of Vermont. We could stay on Route 6 all the way to our stop tomorrow night in my hometown, Valparaiso, IN but we want to take our time and explore other roads.

We're spending tonight in Oil City, PA in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains after an 11 hour trip. Tomorrow we leave mountains behind as we head into Ohio and Indiana. We moved from northwest Indiana to Vermont 22 years ago, and it seems fitting to spend one night on this move West back in Indiana.