Rhona and I truly appreciate the messages of support and good wishes as we step away from international schools after 34 years. It will be odd in July when, for only the 3rd time since 1985 we won’t be hopping on a plane at JFK or Logan or O’Hare, crossing an ocean, and returning to work. We will build a life in Asheville, North Carolina in a place where we never lived but briefly visited. We are grateful and nervous and excited as we move forward. Relationships matter and maintaining and nurturing these, from a distance, will be important. Social media will be invaluable to sustain contacts from our international worlds. If you’re in the SouthEast of the US, PLEASE visit. Asheville is a fun town. 

And for those interested in triathlon, there are 3 major 70.3 races within 5 hours and heaps of other opportunities in the area to race.
Finally, we’ve been in the US for a week now. We’ve already started a list of odd moments of ineptitude – like not recognizing that the EZ pass in the car rental wasn’t set up right and having to walk across three lanes of EZ Pass truck traffic upon entering the NY State Thruway in order to beg a bewildered and probably amused toll booth operator for a ticket to enter the thruway. I felt like a total rookie!

Finally, for the first time in 20 years, I have had to arrange for my own phone plan. Do you know how many options Verizon has, let alone Sprint, or AT&T? Where is Russell Layton when you need him? Too many choices! Luckily our millennial son came to our rescue to sort us out! I can feel a collection of blog posts coming on during this transition!

Today we’ll travel from Lake George (we’re staying with our dear friend Mary Fox in LG as we tackled our storage units here in New York) up to Vermont for a couple of days (and visits) before heading back to Boston. Mid-July is our target date for landing in Asheville! All systems are go!