Well, it’s been a while since my last post. And honestly I had to go back and re-read it to see what I had last written. A lot has happened since then.
I went thru a pretty big emotional upheaval moving to the beach. And I wasn’t expecting it. Just the realization that I now am living 2 hours from my old place. 2 hours away from my friends and the things I was used to doing, and away from my ROUTINE. It was rough for a week or so but I finally got tired of feeling sorry for myself and decided I needed to get out and do things!
So, the first thing I did was join a Meetup hiking group. I met a great bunch of people and explored the area around here like I never had before. I think the first four hikes were on roads that I had never driven on! And I am now very happy to call a lot of them friends. Priceless!
Next I joined the local YMCA. It is conveniently only a mile from my house. Been taking 4 classes a week, and also met a bunch of nice people there too! And also have quite a few that I now also call friends! Priceless again!
When I got back here it was Oscars season and there is an Art Cinema here – they were playing a lot of foreign Oscar-nominated films. I LOVE foreign films so for the first time in at least 3 years I went to the movies. Several times! Saw a lot of good movies and was very pleased that I checked that place out.
For about a month I enjoyed my NEW routines (which also included almost daily walks on the boardwalk along the ocean) and my new friends. But then Carmel started calling me back. I started thinking about how to get back out there and it came through that I should drive out there instead of fly. So, I started looking into getting a new car. The GTI had a slow leak tire that was speeding up in leaking, so I went from having to fill it every 9 days to every other day. And the GTI felt ‘too small’ to do this type of road trip. I did some research online and found the car I wanted.
Buying a car is just not the same anymore. I ended up on Cargurus, found the car I wanted, put a message that I was interested in the car, and got a call from a dealer up in PA. After a 5 minute conversation I had to decide whether or not to buy the car, which was still on the boat, sight unseen. With a date range of anywhere from 6 to 16 days when the car would arrive to the dealership. So, I took a big gulp and said I wanted it. And here she is, a 2022 VW TAOS SEL:
I got in the car and it just felt RIGHT. Finished up all the paperwork and got a little familiar with the car, which had only 18 miles on it! Drove to a friend’s house to show off the car and take a little break before heading back down to the beach. Then drove the roughly 2 hours back to the beach. What a great ride!
I spent the next few days reading the manual and figuring out how to do things. Not completely done with that but have a much better grip now than I did, so I’m getting there.
I also got a new cell phone since my old one was running out of memory and getting kind of weird. Ended up with a Samsung S20 fe. So far I really like the phone too – AND – the new car has wireless charging (which didn’t really work too well with the old phone, it was too old) so I just lay my phone is this one spot and it gets charged up. Cool!
So, I’m leaving on my trip on Saturday. By my calculations it should take me 2 weeks to get back to Carmel. I reserved an AirBnB there from June 1 thru July 30. Although I have spent hours working out my route, it’s still not totally concrete yet, so, I think I’ll end this post here and start a new post with the details of the trip when I get them finalized.
Excited to be back writing in my blog – thanks for reading! Talk soon!