Reliving Our Cross-Country Relocation - the Bizarre Experience of It
If you didn't know, we moved from WA to FL at the absolute height of the pandemic. This is that story, the good and the bad.
Now that we’ve been in Florida for three years, I felt like going through photos of our drive across the country and it was just such a rush. You kind of don’t realize how fast time goes by, especially when you’re trying to just make it and not go crazy or become overwhelmed by such a depressing world as things were 3 years ago.
The pandemic was weird at the start and then just one day became even more intense. I lost all my work in a matter of two hours, we bought a house a day later, a few days after that I was at school with other parents making packets for kids to have at home until school could reopen. And then we moved. It was a lot. Someday I’ll process it.
Anyways, I wanted to share what the experience was like driving across the country during what seemed like an apocalypse, and not for the novelty of it, but because now I can look back on it and see the big picture of both the world then and our family now.
If you want to listen to the podcast episodes we record soon after we moved, they’re here for you. I just relistened and if I had to rerecord these today, I think I would’ve let out more of the emotion of the experience, cuz I’m feeling it right now as I write.
Our Reason for Moving to Florida
Just to loop everyone in if they don’t know the background, living in Washington State means dealing with rain, gray, smoke season and, I feel, a limited existence, or at least a sunny one. Also, I personally have always struggled with seasonal depression and I don’t do great with stress either. Working together to make a big life change that brings sunshine and stress-relief into our lives, Chris and I started looking at houses in our favorite Florida destination, Saint Augustine, and happened to find our near-dream house.
It was single story, close to the beach, it had a courtyard… Perfect. Well, now that we’ve been here three years we realized that families can outgrow “perfect.”
We started the process to buy it, including getting a video tour of it before putting in our offer. Then I flew out for the inspection and the world got weird. We had to rush our closing and figure out how to get to Florida as things shut down. We were able to buy a camper, picking it up on the last day non-essential businesses were open in Washington. And then we moved.
This is the story in retrospect. Now I can look back and I still remember it all so vividly. It’s weird to recall, but I feel like it’s worth sharing.
Day 1: Leaving Suquamish, Washington
We couldn’t leave on time as planned because our movers were their own issue, but we were able to depart early morning on April 1, 2020. It was my second time driving towing something and it was not awesome. Crying as we departed our driveway and fighting with the sway of the trailer, it was the wrong way to start this happy transition. Whatever. We did it.
We stopped in the parking lot of Grocery Outlet in Hood River, Oregon to say goodbye to our best friends (who now live in Maine!). We couldn’t hug them and had to be fast to make it to our first stopping point. Battling the trailer sway and snow on the roads, we eventually made it to Twin Falls, Idaho. What a journey we were on.
Day 2: Twin Falls, ID to Monticello, UT
This was our first day NOT waking up in Washington as we began our new life. We woke up in Twin Falls, Idaho after our first day of driving across the country during the height of the pandy. We were cold, tired, disoriented and just all kinds of weirded out by what we had embarked on.
Through this whole transition, Chris actually had to keep on working, because he works in grocery and at the start of the pandemic, that was THE business that was thriving. That first morning, I fixed breakfast in the cold camper in the empty KOA in Twin Falls as Chris held meetings in our car.
As soon as we were able to, we hit the road, making a quick stop at Shoshone Falls. It was icy but full of rainbows and really, it’s what we needed on day 2 of a life changing move.
I love doing a Utah road trip and I wanted us to enjoy this part of the drive so much, but that just couldn’t happen, because of time constraints and IT WAS SHUTTERED.
In Green River, UT we had the cops show up outside our camper when we stopped to make dinner in a parking lot. We moved on. When we drove through Moab, the Utah National Parks were closed and the town was mostly boarded up, deserted with blinking neon signs.
We got to our campsite that night and there was a note on the door of the office for how we could pay for our stay... We were the only ones there and we saw no other people in the town. Scary weird.
Day 3: Utah to Amarillo, Texas
On our way to our next stop we tried to find fun breaks in the day. We let the kids out to scooter, stopped at some Anasazi ruins in the middle of nowhere (Canyon of the Ancients), peed on the side of the highway lots... All in the name of a new adventure for our family.
Since this was a big deal, we tried our best to make this a fun trip, even though there was a whole lot more to this than enjoying the scenic route. Oliver’s one request for the entire cross country drive was just to stop at the Four Corners at CO/UT/AZ/NM… it was closed. The Navajo Nation was even more locked down than Moab, so we just had to continue on.
Poor Chris. There was no cell service in New Mexico. What seemed like the longest driving day of them all was also the day that Chris has meetings all day in the car and there was just no service. At least the drive was pretty.
We rolled into the KOA in Amarillo really late. We got the kids to bed, had some boxed wine, and slept hard. I will say, our camper was amazing for us and really made the emotion of the move much more bearable. Having a piece of home with us as we moved kept us calm. And Bijoux (the cat) felt quite at home.
Day 4: Amarillo to Dallas, TX
Today we woke up in the middle of the Texas desert. No trees, just RV hookups. BUT THE SKY WAS BLUE! This was the first day that Chris didn’t have to work, so finally we got to share the driving responsibilities, and that was huge for me.
We had our camping breakfast and packed up, made a quick stop at Cadillac Ranch for some silly pictures and hit the highway. The drive wasn’t thrilling, but we were able to make a stop at Copper Breaks State Park and at least take some time to walk around and let Bijoux experience Texas.
PS: Bijoux thought the concept of a family road trip was basically the best thing ever. He is the best cat, and even when we leave town for hurricanes the cat just loves the experience.
And I'm so thankful for our kids. They are the most incredible guys. They are fun, caring, patient and trusting. I cry when I think about them. The whole crazy drive across the country on our move to Florida they had the best attitudes. We literally picked up our life and didn't even get hug people goodbye, and they we amazing through it all. And they still are to this day.
As a parent, I worry that things like this relocation have a lasting, negative impact, but I think we’ve made it through well. When we talk about the move still today, there is reminiscence but not anger or sadness.
Day 5: Dallas to Gulf Shores, AL
Day 5 was tough as we drove across the country during the peak of the shutdown. Stops were just empty parking lots and gas stations. The weather was warmer as we went from Texas to Louisiana to Mississippi to Alabama, but I remember distinctly how the MOVING aspect really set in on this day.
Maybe it was that we were nervous about our tires wobbling or that the kids would struggle with the new town, or we were just tired. Who knows, but this day was without a doubt the most difficult day for us.
I've gotta say though, for as tough as this day way, it was also the day that we started to feel good. It was that weird mix of sadness, questioning and unknown excitement. But we were warm, and that was amazing.
Another parking lot dinner cooked in the camper and a late arrival into the Gulf Shores KOA and we could feel that we were almost there. When we parked the trailer and got out, you could hear summer bugs and it was humid. I could tell that we were camping under live oaks. It was actually so happy.
Weird to have a day where you feel like everything is just wrong and going to fall apart, and then you end knowing everything will be okay. Also, starting a journey bundled up with snow and ending wearing shorts and sunshine…
Day 6: the Home Stretch to St Augustine
Wow. I remember waking up and not wanting to start the drive from Gulf Shores, Alabama. I took Bijoux for a walk around the campground. He saw cardinals for the first time (now his arch nemesis) and I could tell that he was going to be okay through all of this too.
The drive to St Augustine felt like it was the longest ever, even though it wasn’t. Once we hit the 95 in Jax, it all felt more real than at any moment yet. We rounded the big turn on the freeway just south of downtown Jacksonville and saw the first sign for St Augustine. It was so exciting, even though right now as I recall it I totally just lost it and had to take a break from writing cuz the tears are too much.
Anyways, that last hour, I remember, was just surreal. We exited the 95 and turned onto Florida Highway 206, our new entrance to our little island. As we crossed the Intracoastal Waterway, there were dolphins and the kids were just all energy.
I cried as we pulled into our new driveway. The kids were thrilled and wild. All of our worries about moving them across the country were gone in just a flash. They were so ecstatic. It’s just so amazing to think back through this journey and see how the feelings churned into so many different things with each day’s drive.
It’s been three years now. We really do love living in St Augustine. We’ve found our community with some of the most wonderful, loving people. We have friends all around. We basically live outside. The kids are thriving unlike I ever imagined. We have an incredible school that I am beyond thankful for.
And now we’re moving just up the road a bit to our new “perfect” house. We’ll be two minutes from the sand, two blocks from so many of our friends, walking distance to our cute little beach town restaurants and shops, and ready to grow into our new home.
The Moral of the Story
The reasons I shared all of this are two-fold: 1.) because I wanted to share the reality of our journey to today and its theme of changing emotions, and 2.) because apparently I just needed a good cry, cuz going day by day through photos and memories was really jarring for me. It’s okay to have days like that where you relive moments and see if there’s something new for you in them.
The combination of strategic planning, impulse decisions and the pandemic all brought us to where we are today. I don’t know how any of this applies to everyone else, but from where I sit, I see that our process of moving and the mental-emotional transition of it all really is reflective of how everything else in our world has been for the last three years.
I feel like we’re heading into smooth waters for a while, on many fronts, and I hope that’s the case for us all, both here in our family and for you.
I thinks that’s all I have to say today. I really do love writing my newsletter, so thank you for subscribing and listening. Feel free to share this if you like. My brain is kind of an open book and if anything I say is helpful or encouraging, that’s my aim with sharing my experiences.
Have a great rest of the week and next week I’ll have much more fun stuff to share!
Thanks for sharing. I remember being locked down outside of Austin, TX, while you were making this trip. Utterly surreal time and doing that drive at that time -- GAH. But you all seemed to have sailed through it brilliantly.
Moving cross country is normal for military kids. I well know. But the sadness, and for you to not be able to physically hug everyone, becomes joy when you get to your new home and new adventures. As for Navajo Nation being shuttered, the govt did nothing to help them. Nothing. I made over 5k masks to send to them along with gallons of sanitizer. Yes, they want to be self governing but this was a pandemic that needed controlled. A friend lives in Chinle, AZ and shared how bad things were. Just so sad. Bright side for your family was fun in the sun awaited you. As a fellow SAD person, I’d love to get out of Oregon. We do take trips to the sun as often as we can.