Moving is exhausting, which makes you wonder why it is then that I would be willing to do it twice in one year. I can only claim insanity. I was crazy to leave Tennessee, and then crazy to get back.
The week was consumed with final touches getting the house in Naples ready to go on the market. I did manage to take Sunday morning off for one last fast ride with the Naples Velo guys up to Sanibel and back, even though that ended up being a very wet affair with lots of lightning all around us as we passed back south through Lover's Key. Then it was back to fixing up the house.
Tuesday morning, I was almost done. My realtor and her photographer came by and took lovely pictures of our newly rearranged home, and then the air conditioning guys came to make sure the house would be as cool as it looked when visitors came by. When they left, I jumped in the car and drove almost 600 miles to our other Florida house, just west of Panama City Beach, to empty the owner's closet, since we were closing on the sale of that house the next day.
The next morning, I started back to Naples, arriving about 4 pm. A quick stop by Home Depot was followed by another quick stop at U-Haul to rent a trailer. Or, rather, to try to rent a trailer. Although the hitch on the back of the Watzzwagon was up to the tasks, the light connection wasn't. I spent part of the next morning trying to get that fixed, and then just loaded everything into the back and onto the roof, and started north in the middle of the afternoon. Friday, about 3:30 pm, I finally got to Nashville.
Sure, I was tired ... but the Murfreesboro Bike Club was hosting the H.O.T. 100 the next day, and the weather was extraordinary for mid-August. So, RandoGirl and I were back up before dawn Saturday in order to travel to Lascassas, TN, and ride the metric.
Since then, it's been pretty hectic. Settling in, doing a bunch of the work for which I am (technically) paid, and looking for a piece of land worthy of our next home. It was this last task that allowed me to get out on the bike Wednesday, scouting locations.
When we first moved up here in 2005, we had no idea where the good bicycling was. Now, we know ... and that's one of the main determinants that I'm using when looking at land.
We want between five and 10 acres, and we've seen a lot of lots that are just somebody's field that they're willing to sell. That won't do, because I also want something with enough trees to give us a semblance of privacy.
As I've told you before, the best roads in middle Tennessee (in my humble opinion) are down around College Grove and Bethesda. There's a great mix of flat stuff for when you need that, and hills for when you feel like a challenge. It's why I put the W.K. Lee route down that way when we did the 200K of Nowhere.
There are a few lots over on Peytonsville Road that looked nice, too. This one was about five acres, with nice slope and good trees, and was right across from a string of estates. The problem is, some of these lots know that they are right across from estates, and are asking estate prices.
While we want to build something nice, it's not going to be anything big ... definitely not an estate. I want a place that we can entertain, with enough room for RandoGirl, the RandoDaughter, and me. Also, it's got to have storage space for bicycles.
This one doesn't look like much from the picture, but it may be the current winner. It's just off the HBC's Tuesday night route, and is on the Harpeth River Ride route. Plus, it's only 10 miles for RandoGirl to drive to work. My drive will be longer, of course, but I've got more flexibility to work at home.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to come up with a name for the new place. I used to have the RandoCave, and never came up with a name for the Naples house (another odd sign that maybe we never intended to stay). Since we're going to have so much land, I'm thinking ...
The RandoRanch!
Bearing Home?
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