Live Free or Die

May 24, 2022

In just a few days, Meg and I completed our longest move yet: Denver, Colorado to Littleton, New Hampshire. It was a long, tough journey. But we had a good time overall, and nothing went wrong. Special thanks to Meg's dad, Craig, for flying across the country to help us pack the truck... and driving across 2/3 of the country in just 2 days with a moving truck. We couldn't have done it without his help.

The Move

Once we found a place to rent in New Hampshire, we started to pack right away.

🌈⭐ The More You Know 🌈⭐

Meg contracted COVID at a not-very-optional work event less than two weeks before we moved. We were fortunate that her symptoms abated before the move. We were even more fortunate that, thanks to masking in our own home and sleeping in separate rooms, I didn't manage to catch COVID and ruin our entire moving plan. Thanks, name-of-meg's-company-that-i-will-not-namedrop-here, for easing up your COVID precautions. That was exactly what we needed in the middle of a stressful cross-country move!

still making progress regardless of sick meg

One fateful night in April, we were (mostly) (kinda) (sorta) (for the most part) packed. We still had to break down some furniture, and sort some basic need items into boxes, but we'd put pretty much everything we could into boxes. Meg's dad arrived, and we went to Illegal Pete's for a last burrito (and margarita) of Colorado. They did not disappoint.

'um it's a condo, not an apartment' -mean HOA lady

The next morning, we were up bright and early to pick up the moving truck at 7AM. After a only-slightly-harrowing journey down very potholey city streets that were definitely legal for a truck of our size, we made it back to the apartment. Just 6 hours of elevator hogging, dolly rolling, package securing, and ratchet strapping later, everything was settled in the truck.

One quick stop for subs, and a whole lot of driving later, we made it to Lincoln, Nebraska. Despite a slightly behind-schedule loading experience, we were right where we wanted to be: in a cheap-ish hotel, in a quiet, safe town, a reasonable drive from our next stop: Batavia, New York. Where Whitney and Eddy awaited us with delicious Wegmans subs, beers, and a free place to crash.

Even though Google Maps estimates that drive at 16.5 hours, don't make the mistake of thinking you can actually average that:

in a moving truck
with PA and NY's insanely long 55-MPH interstate construction zones
when losing a whole hour due to time zones

We left with the truck at 6 AM or so. We didn't get to Batavia until almost 2 AM the next day -- almost 20 hours later. We only had to deal with a torrential downpour for the last two hours or so, so I'll call it a ... win? Needless to say, the beers, subs, and friends were very, very needed when we finally arrived.

After that, the next day was easy: a hearty bacon, egg, sausage, and toast breakfast thanks to Whit and Eddy, and a quick two hour drive to Chittenango to relax with the dogs at Meg's parents' place. In retrospect, we could have divided up our drive a little better than 8 hours/20 hours/2 hours. But it was pretty great to see friends that second night.

One day of rest later, we woke up on Easter to drive the last 6ish hour stretch to Littleton, New Hampshire. Aside from a surprising amount of snow in Utica, Albany, and the higher altitude parts of Vermont, it was a beautiful, low-stress drive. At the very least, there weren't many people on the road, and those that were on the road seemed to have a good grasp of how to drive in the snow.

moving into a house is ezpz after ny and denver

We arrived in Littleton a little after noon, and it only took us a couple of hours to unload our boxes and furniture into the house. The next morning, we woke up early, dropped off the moving truck less than a mile from our new place, and walked home on a greenway, crossing the river to stop at a local coffee shop for breakfast on the walk home. Funny how you can move from one of the largest cities in the country, where you somehow can't reasonably walk to pick up a moving truck or go to a decent coffee shop... to a small 6,000 person town, where you can. I don't know enough about city planning to really say what's wrong with American cities, but something is seriously wrong when the walkability is this much better in a tiny mountain town.

ahhh walkability and clean smells .5 miles from our front door

Living Free, Not Dying

charles is up to no good, no good at all

We're happy with Littleton so far. It's a big change, moving from some of the biggest US cities (NYC, Denver) to a town almost as small as where I grew up in upstate NY. But so far it's been a welcome change to have some peace and quiet, some walkability, nearby mountain biking trails, a really nice co-op for groceries, and familiar faces around town. Easy access to northern Vermont and a myriad of hikes is icing on the cake.

amazing how easy it can be to get plates, looking at you thousands of temp plates in denver

mt washington on a bike ride home from reklis

Since moving, we've:

gone mountain biking several times on the trails that start literally a few hundred few down the street from our home
fully explored the length of Franconia Notch State Park, all the way to a brewery in Lincoln, NH
checked out the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail
used a random day off to buy way too much beer at Hill Farmstead, damn near the best brewery in the country
visited home for a concert without spending an entire weekend driving or taking time off from work and thousands of miles on the car

working off mushroom poutine from one love brewing

franconia trail, a windy boi, worth the climbs

Only time will tell if small town living is right for us. But who knows, maybe our next step is living off of the touring bikes for a few months to figure out where we'd prefer to live next. In the meantime, we're happy to explore this new state and town we call home. As (short) residents of New Hampshire, we're officially shirefolk now.

pt 1 of the lamoille valley rail trail, to be continued

hes a river boi in a river world and i am his river gurl

first ride up to the lookout (for meg, 2nd for nate)

Now

We're now back in upstate New York, just a 6 hour drive from home. It's good to be so close to family and friends again.