Welcome to the First Edition of the
AZR Report
It is official we are residents of the great state of Arizona!
August was an absolutely crazy month for the ECR (now AZR) crew. It started with a trip to Arizona to move Brandon into the dorms and for him to get started on his college career.
View from B’s room
Hard to tell but that blue thing is a shade tarp over a courtyard he sees from his window.
This is when we left B and he was off to his first class. We are so proud of him and the work he has done to get here.
At the same time we moved Brandon in, we moved into our new house. To say we are happy with it would be a gross understatement, in fact if it was for sale I think we would be tempted to buy it as is.
On our first morning we woke up early and caught this bobcat on his morning rounds behind our back yard. By the time I found my camera he was already heading out so I was only able to catch the back end.
With Chayce home working and taking care of the dog, Kim joined me on a business trip to CA for a few days.
We had dinner one night on the Queen Mary. It was build in the 1930s and has been retired and turned into a hotel with restaurants and banquet facilities since the 60s. We ate in Sir Winton’s, it was a very good meal with excellent views of the Long Beach harbor.
Back in AZ we scrambled to get our residency established. Here we are waiting at the DMV for drivers licenses and car registrations. Yes it was a pain, but the savings in tuition will be well worth the effort.
Once we got back to NJ it was a mad rush to get the house packed up, cars shipped and take care of everything else we needed to do to move out of NJ.
The deer seemed to know that Shelby was moving so they got even bolder and hung out in our yard to see her off.
Let’s just say it was an exhausting and stressful couple of weeks, but we survived and got everything done. It actually set us up mentally to be able to sit back and relax and enjoy the journey to Arizona.
We left NJ with a mixture of feelings as you can imagine. We loved our 14 years in NJ and all that came with it. We love the beautiful town we raised our boys in, the rich history, the green woods, and the contrasting awesomeness of New York City so close by. The good news is; my business will take me there often and so Kim can join me and we will have opportunities to go back and visit when we want.
The day we hit the road in the car Chayce took his seat in first class on a plane to AZ to start his Junior year at ASU. He moved apartments within the same complex to be with a group of his friends. Kim, Brandon and I actually moved a bunch of his stuff to his new apartment from Uncle Thayne’s house at the beginning of the month when we were dropping B off, so we got a chance to see his apartment. Yes it is nice.
It is going to be a busy year for him as he has some difficult classes and also needs to start prepping for his MCATs and Med-school applications. Wow time flies.
The Journey Begins:
Kim, Shelby and I drive across America.
Some of the highlights were:
Shenandoah Valley
The Great Smokey Mountains
New Orleans
French Quarter and Bourbon St.
San Antonio
River Walk
Shelby loved it and really wanted to get her hands on one of those ducks
Alamo
El Paso
Yes it took two full days to cross Texas. I will say we found it much more interesting then anticipated.
Las Cruces, NM
Shelby’s response to arriving in AZ. She slept for two days straight, I’m not sure if it was adjusting to the heat or just recovering from all the driving and strange hotels. She does seem to have settled into our new place and is enjoying all the new desert smells.
Well we hope to have some good stories to tell about our new adventures in AZ starting with next month’s report. Have a great September.
3 comments:
What an awesome month! Glad you guys are safely settled in Arizona and had the chance to see so much of the country on your way there - what an adventure!
Arizona and all your new spots look good. I think you should all be as tired as Shelby. I several new places I want to visit. You had an interesting trip. Love Mom
I love all your photos of your journey across America. You are getting to be a great photographer. It is crazy how many times you zig zag back and forth traveling. Glad everyone is settled in Arizona.
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