Moving to Vermont
After our adventures working overseas and with both Ann's parents passings, it was time to find our own place. We had been riding through Bennington, VT for a couple of years and liked what we found - friendly people, small town, plethora of outdoor activities, colleges nearby... In fact our first introduction to Bennington was when we were on a motorcycle trip coming down from Killington and the motorcycle quit right in downtown Bennington. After much confusion about trying different fuses, disconnecting and reconnecting things, and explorations of a myriad of options finally led to a call to the local Honda dealer who asked "Did we try the kill switch?" Yep, a sleeve hitting the never-before used kill switch did it. So, we like to say that our motorcycle led us to Bennington, stopped right there and said "Hey, look around - it's a great town!"
We had found a great realtor before going off to Cambodia and went back to her in June. Angela took us around to various houses and upon returning to LI, we made an offer on a house. Our offer was refused and we just didn't love the house enough to up our ante. About a week later Angela called to let us know that the owners were willing to accept our offer, but meanwhile we had seen another house on-line that looked lovely. Angela went right over to the house and did an hour and a half video conference with us showing us the house. We planned to come up in a couple of days to take a look at it in person only to find that there were already 2 offers on the house. So, without seeing it in person we made an offer and were accepted! We love the house, the neighborhood, the town and the surrounding area.
August 10th is the move-in date. Many people think we're crazy for moving north when so many retirees move south, but for us it seems to fit our lifestyle. Later brother Bob comes up with a load of stuff in his truck, we go back to LI to collect the motorcycle and load up the Jeep, then brother Roger comes up with another load in his truck and finally we've pretty much got all of our 'stuff'.
The summer ends, Fall whizzes by and then it's snow time. We've made great friends, joined the Green Mountain Club, done lots of biking and hiking, pot luck dinners, Billy teaching Ann to play tennis, visited Jeanette in North Hampton, down to Connecticut to see Greg/Jess/Flint had a wonderful Thanksgiving (one day with friends and one day at our house with Mike/Shirley, Richard/Annette, 4 neighbors and Cynthia from over the mountain), done a million projects around the house, and explored the local area.
We had found a great realtor before going off to Cambodia and went back to her in June. Angela took us around to various houses and upon returning to LI, we made an offer on a house. Our offer was refused and we just didn't love the house enough to up our ante. About a week later Angela called to let us know that the owners were willing to accept our offer, but meanwhile we had seen another house on-line that looked lovely. Angela went right over to the house and did an hour and a half video conference with us showing us the house. We planned to come up in a couple of days to take a look at it in person only to find that there were already 2 offers on the house. So, without seeing it in person we made an offer and were accepted! We love the house, the neighborhood, the town and the surrounding area.
August 10th is the move-in date. Many people think we're crazy for moving north when so many retirees move south, but for us it seems to fit our lifestyle. Later brother Bob comes up with a load of stuff in his truck, we go back to LI to collect the motorcycle and load up the Jeep, then brother Roger comes up with another load in his truck and finally we've pretty much got all of our 'stuff'.
The summer ends, Fall whizzes by and then it's snow time. We've made great friends, joined the Green Mountain Club, done lots of biking and hiking, pot luck dinners, Billy teaching Ann to play tennis, visited Jeanette in North Hampton, down to Connecticut to see Greg/Jess/Flint had a wonderful Thanksgiving (one day with friends and one day at our house with Mike/Shirley, Richard/Annette, 4 neighbors and Cynthia from over the mountain), done a million projects around the house, and explored the local area.
