The Big Move Home: Prologue

They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Technically, that may be true, but it's not quite that easy. Jess and my journey back home to Cincinnati started just about the time we both arrived in Seattle 9 years ago. We always knew we'd be heading back at some point, but it just kept getting pushed back.

Last year around this time we decided to start the plan in motion. We moved into a smaller one-bedroom apartment in our building and got rid of a lot of the stuff that was taking up space in our second bedroom. The plan was to move home around September. Then our plans changed a bit.

As you all know, we found out that Jess was pregnant and we decided to push back the move until the baby arrived. Shortly after Finley was born we started solidifying our trip by setting dates, pushing for (and getting) approval for me to work remotely, renting a truck, and booking flights. In the last week we've packed our moving truck, had Jess' stepfather Ray drive it across the country, flew the cat home, helped unload the truck, finished up everything for work, and cleaned out our apartment. It's been exhausing.

Now, almost a year to the day after we moved into that smaller (now empty) apartment, the car is fully packed and we're beginning our crazy two-week trip to Cincinnati.

We set a couple of (loose) ground rules and waypoints for the trip:

• Leave Seattle, WA on May 15
• Get to Fresno, CA for a wedding on May 22
• Get to Austin, TX for a wedding on May 29
• Try to go to places that we've never been before
• Try to get to places that we may never visit again
• Budget for around 5 hours of driving per day

Over the next few weeks you'll see the exact route on this blog, but the general idea is to head West and drive around the Olympic Peninsula, then South through Oregon and California, then to the Grand Canyon, to Austin, and home to Cincinnati. We're planning a lot of this as we go, so we're not entirely sure where we'll end up each night.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, huh? Well, here we go...