h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Those of you that have known me for a while (which, to be honest, is likely everyone that's bothered to be subscribed to this journal) know that late June/early July is normally a busy time of year for the Paperclan, since we (the adults, anyway) sell fireworks to support the nonprofit that Tom is director of, which means from June 23-July 5th, Tom is selling fireworks from a big tent in Brookings, which is just on the other side of the Oregon/California border, while from June 28-July 5th, I'm selling fireworks from a 16'x8' plywood box (and am technically the boss over another plywood box here in town, but L, my partner in crime, is a very competent manager). The weeks before the selling time are for preparations, and the days after are for counting the leftover inventory, returning the returnable inventory, and running around planning PaperKid's birthday celebration and what on earth are we going to do for our anniversary, anyway? Then things generally calm down, though the last couple of years I've been making and selling fudge at the local farmers' market, and some of you may have heard of a little trip I took last year

This year's a little different.

We're selling fireworks, as usual (got the tent up in Brookings all stocked up for start of selling at noon tomorrow), and I still need to get my staff down here sorted (I've got the people--I've just got to figure out schedules for the majority that *aren't* available at all hours for all the days, and work B into the slots that are left). We're *not* bothering with fudge this year, because we're not going able to be around for enough Saturdays to bother, because of the next item...

We are moving to Tennessee. Our house is in escrow, and, all things going well, will be no longer ours around July 15 (we had to change the original escrow end date, because it would've fallen midway through fireworks selling season!) The house is very empty--the only furniture left is the 3 whole pieces of living room furniture that we're taking with us, PaperKid's loft bed frame (should break down nicely to flat panels), folding chairs and a card table, and a couple of pieces that will be going to the dump, as they aren't good enough to donate, and not worth the trouble for anyone to take anywhere. We've been using air mattresses, and most of our clothes are packed away. A couple of days after the house changes hands, we will be flying to Tennessee for a couple of weeks to go house hunting, then coming back here to use up some of *that* escrow time. (We will be staying in an RV.) There will be a long roadtrip starting in late August/early September (PaperKid is planning to vlog about it on her channel, since she will be getting a decent camera for her 15th birthday). We are going to take our time crossing the majority of the continent--I know that we're definitely going to see the Grand Canyon, for example, and, once I know when we're going to start the roadtrip, I'm going to try to arrange some micromeets along the way.

I am *not* promising Dmitri anything for out of all this, though I suppose it *could* be decent fodder for NaJoPoMo 2018

Exciting times ahead

Good luck with it all

Whereabouts in Tennessee will you be living?

Wow - that will be a busy time for you all. Sounds like you'll have a great time, though! Must be weird for you in the meantime, waiting for it all to start, while most of your stuff is packed up... Good luck, and I look forward to reading about your epic roadtrip!

Will you be living near Dollywood?

We're moving to somewhere within an hour's radius of Nashville (central Tennessee). Of course, real estate prices are even lower at the edges than in the middle, but even in the middle, prices are a lot lower than in California! My map on Realtor.com has a near-ring of hearts around Nashville, though some of my favorite houses just recently sold...

We'll actually be living nearer to an elvised researcher than we've ever lived to any other h2g2er before, no matter where in the part-circle we end up living (the Kentucky border slices off the top)--Montana Redheadhas has lived there for a while now. And I'll be near some of my good BYC friends too and, property permitting, will finally be able to have call ducks (though I do realize that I have to be reasonable and keep that lower on the priority list, but it *is* there). Should be a lot cheaper for any future travel, as well--Nashville's airport is just a *bit* bigger than the one I flew out of last summer

There's a nice upland area of Tennessee where the climate is almost perfect -- never too hot or too cold. Getting around may be harder than it looks, though, because of all the long ridges. When I studied Army Corps of Engineers maps of the area, I noticed how long the streams had to flow before getting to gaps where they could join each other. Vermont and Pennsylvania have some of the same type of terrain. When my mother was doing genealogical work in Vermont, she was baffled because her ancestors weren't in the cemetery in East Granville. It turned out that they were in *West* Granville as the crow flies, but a long ridge separated the two places. To get form East to west Granville entailed driving forty miles.

I meant to say that the two towns were within five miles of each other as the crow flies, but you had to follow the roads along the ridge, cross over at the next gap, meaning a 40-mile trip.