The North Carolina Arrival

Noah, myself and our cat buddy set off last Sunday morning after a final coffee at Pendl's and a farewell to my family. We shipped most of our belonging out the Tuesday before with a company called ABF U-Pack, which meant the car was nearly empty. Needless to say, the drive across the states was both interesting and boring at the same time. We stayed in Cheyenne, WY our first evening and ended up having an Australian who had fallen in love and married an American (and who had just received his green card a few weeks ago) wait on us at....the Outback Stakehouse (the only dinning option near our hotel). After he came by our table the first time Noah asked, “Do you think the accent is real or is he faking it?” How coincidental! We spent most of our second day in Nebraska which was empty and flat and flat and flat. We stayed our second night in St. Joseph, Missouri, woke up super early the next morning and made it all the way through Missouri, part of Illinois & Kentucky down past Nashville to a place called Cookesville, TN. We were in Mars Hill by the next day at noon! Whew!

We were extremely lucky with the weather and only hit rain the last 20 minutes of day two and a tiny bit of day four. Buddy was an incredible traveler and pretty much slept on my lap the entire way. Overall he has been adjusting surprisingly well for both a cat and himself (he is a super fraidy-cat sometimes). In fact, he's already ventured outside for a couple of hours at the new house. I kept telling him the mice were bigger in North Carolina...

We absolutely LOVE the little house we rented in Mars Hill—we were both afraid that something would be terribly wrong with it, but, other than a few issues with the heating system (that we are getting worked out) and some dust, cobwebs, a pretty poor paint job, dead bugs and uncleaned corners, we really couldn't be happier. There are so many trees around us that we can barely see the houses nearby—and most of the leaves are gone now! In the summer I imagine we will feel a little like we are living in our own private forest.

However, the best news ever is that Noah got a job teaching yoga today! He will be working for a studio called Pilates Fusion that is expanding to include yoga classes. He had the interview today although he had talked to the owner on the phone from Driggs. The scheduled date for opening the new yoga part of the studio is November 30. The details of the schedule etc are yet to be worked out, but we both have a good feeling about this opportunity.

For now, we are dealing with the mundane little joys and trials of unpacking, figuring out a new place and settling in to a new existence. I am so grateful that we chose to arrive a couple of weeks before my school starts (November 30 is the first day of classes, we are both doing an intro course on the 25^th), it has made the whole experience a little less stressful. Every day we have taken a little drive and explored part of Asheville or other surrounding towns (a.k.a getting lost :)). We have already discovered a little cafe/bakery in nearby Weaverville that we are a fan of (and where I am using the internet from right now). In general, the countryside here is absolutely beautiful and, although it has rained a bit, I am loving the fact that I have on sandals and a skirt today.

I could go on forever about a million other little things, but will save some of the details for later posts. Hope everyone is well and happy and thank you to everyone in our life that has helped us get to this point!