Our trip is at an end, at least for now, but that doesn't mean the adventure has stopped. After driving up and down the eastern coast of America, fleeing hurricanes and tornadoes we eventually ended up in Providence, Rhode Island.

At that is where we're settling down. For now.

We could tell that we loved Providence as soon as we pulled into the city that night and drove around looking for an affordable hotel. It's a small city, but definitely a city and every street looks like something out of an American History textbook. The weather was beautiful and people were friendly (even if they're the worst drivers we've seen outside of China.)

After deciding this is where we were going to live we booked ourselves into the luxurious New Yorker Motor Lodge for a few nights so we could begin exploring neighborhoods and hopefully find an apartment before our car rental contract ended and we had to be back in Indiana to get our stuff. It didn't take long to see that the area around Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design was the place to be. Colonial houses that have presided over these streets for the last 300 years rub shoulders with quirky cafes and quiet parks. Incoming freshman walk the streets still looking excited and happy, obviously not having purchased their books yet. John Brown's house isn't far from our new apartment. All in all, very nice.

Of course, securing this apartment wasn't the easiest thing in the world. We arrived at the start of Labor Day weekend and although we found many nice apartments no one was around to answer our calls so we ended up leaving about a dozen voicemails and hoping someone would call us back on Tuesday. We spent our downtime exploring the area a little and catching Dodgeball at the local cheapie movie house. On Labor Day we drove through Massachusetts and went to the Yankee Candle Headquarters which is a mecca that Jennifer couldn't miss. Our good college friend Jennifer Bowman lives near Hartford, CT and was nice enough to take us in for the night.

Back in Providence we were a bit disturbed that no one called us back. (A side note about all this calling of apartments. To make this easier we decided to get cell phones. Apparently the fact that we gave them an Oregon drivers license, an Indiana address and had no jobs doesn't stop you from getting a couple of phones.) Since no one was calling us, we started calling them all again. We soon lined up visits to several apartments and after a few days of soul searching we decided on a place and look forward to moving in. We'll be living on a street that locals refer to as "the Boulevard." Actually, they call it "the Boulevaaad." We look forward to removing the letter "R" from our speech. Wait til you see the "haadwoods in our apaatment."

Our apartment isn't ready for about a month so we're once again hanging out with the family in Indiana until we head back and start getting back to "normal" life.

If you're one of our regular readers, fear not that the fun is over. We're planning the "Big Entry of Lists" to be updated on this site very soon. Everyone loves a list so we've decided to share our highs and lows, ups and downs for all to enjoy. It'll be full of all the little tidbits that didn't fit into my articles including our collection of Chinese signs translated into "English."

We also don't plan on letting this site simply die out. Our traveling is hardly complete and we'll be sure to update you on anything exciting that happens so keep checking in. In fact, there's a decent chance we may be doing some more substantial traveling in the near future. More word on that later...