COC Life

Hello to all family and friends who are taking a peak at this blog. This is an attempt to share our transition from Arizona to the Central Oregon Coast, a journey of 1300 miles from the desert to the Pacific Northwest, in November/December 2008, and beyond. The last weeks have been busy beyond belief, filled with anticipation, a little angst and anxiety, but above all, a little regret and sadness at leaving family and friends, but eagerness to start a new life in a new place in a setting we both love.

After months of little or no activity, the Cottonwood house finally sold in mid-October. a time which coincided with a week-long vacation to the Oregon coast, when we actually found the house we both knew was perfect, but had little hope for being able to realize the chance to obtain it. Strangely enough, the initial offer on the AZ house came just after we flew up here, and at a time that we were almost ready to take it off the market and wait for better times. But when the offer was negotiated and finalized for the house in Arizona, the dream became a reality as we made an acceptable offer for the house in Waldport. We REALLY appreciated the assistance and effort our agent, Dave Gatchell, put into this process. We were very busy during the last part of October and first weeks of November, preparing for this move by making final improvements on the Cottonwood house, completing negotiations for its sale and for the purchase of the Oregon house, packing, resigning from employment with Highland Resort and Yavapai County Courts, and sorting and packing ALOT of stuff. This was complicated even more by Barbara's health situation as her allergies to the Verde Valley and complications increased.

But we finally had everything packed and loaded on November 24th, having had our goodbyes to good friends at the resort and at the Prescott courthouse, and we headed to Phoenix for a few days to take advantage of Thanksgiving with family, before heading out to the new home. Sadly, Barbara's condition worsened to the extent that we had to take her to urgent care on Thanksgiving morning, causing her to miss out on dinner with the family. But with 5 different medications prescribed for bronchitis, we hoped this would bring about a turnaround. We had a fun time at Aaron's and Amy's, with their kids, Adam & Erin, Carson, Jason and Mariah, Mary and David and his friend Angelina, and many of Amy's family as well.

Early on the morning of November 29, we loaded up and left in 2 vehicles with Tom, Barbara, Tom's sister Mary, and the 2 pooches, Jeffry and Santee. The route took us thru western Arizona into the California desert over to I-5, then straight up I-5 into Oregon, until we left the interstate north of Roseburg and headed for the coast. We arrived in Waldport around 4:30 PM on Nov 30, thankful for a safe and uneventful journey. We were very glad to have Mary to help with the driving, since the prescription drugs Barbara was taking made it impossible for her to drive at times. Mary spent a week with us, and we were able to show her around some, as she had never visited this part of the country until now. On Sunday, Dec 7, we drove her to the Eugene airport for the flight back to Gateway in Mesa. It was alot of fun having her here.

Life at 44 degrees north latitude calls for some readjustment to those used to life in the southwest. It is truly a little cooler here, but we were anticipating and looking forward to that. We haven't seen any of the 115 mph wind gusts from the winter storms coming in off the Pacific that the local folks have told us about yet, but winter is going to be here for a while. And being this far north in December means that the sun doesn't come up until 7:45 A.M., and then promptly sets around 4:30 P.M.

So now we are settliing in and getting established here. The 2 pooches seem to enjoy the daily walks on the beach as much as we do! We are gradually getting things put away and getting the house tweaked to where we want it. Still lots to do though, painting some walls to the color scheme we want, getting a fence for the backyard, getting a cement slab laid for the back yard patio. We will keep you all informed of our progress.....