Preparations and the beginning of our trip
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011Today is our 16th day in the U.S. and our 2nd day on the road. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of preparations mixed with some good times with my family and old high school friends.
We flew to Jacksonville from Paris (via Amsterdam and Atlanta) on February 6th. Fabien passed immigration with his new resident visa and we spent 4 hours in the Atlanta airport napping on benches and watching parts of the Super Bowl before catching the last flight of the evening to Jacksonville. My mom picked us up with her little convertible and we stuffed our already overstuffed bags into her trunk before heading home.
After a good night’s sleep, we woke up early on Monday morning ready to tackle the preparations for our cross country road trip. Considering that we hadn’t even decided what kind of vehicle we were looking for…this took some soul searching and quick decision making on our part. The week was crazy but productive.
Monday: Social Security Office and Target (to restock all of the toiletries we left in France) and dinner with my mom, my brother, Pete and his girlfriend Jenn and Karen, a good family friend
Tuesday: Cell phone and Wireless Internet contract and the DMV (for Fabien’s driver’s license); car research; at this point, we had decided against a motor home and were thinking of reconverting a cargo van into something we could live in; checked out used car dealerships looking for a cargo van we could convert, or something we could live in, plus Home Depot to look for the stuff to convert the van
Wednesday: Met up with Nicole and her precious baby Myla for lunch at Chili’s; continued the car search; decided against the cargo/ conversion van and on an SUV; did the strip of car dealerships (Toyota, Ford, Nissan, Honda, etc.) test drove a couple; found our dream car, a 2007 Nissan XTerra but decided it was a little expensive…more research necessary
Thursday: checked out all of the used Xterras in Jacksonville; still hooked on the first one; made an offer but it was rejected…
Friday: upped our offer and got our car; got car insurance; started checking out camping gear; drank beer at mom’s bar to celebrate the new car J
Things have basically been at the same pace since we bought our car. Lots of trips to Wal-mart, stocking up on gear. Fabien built a suspended shelf to give us more space. Since we decided to go with an SUV we won’t be sleeping inside, we’ll be tenting it around the country. We definitely feel like we’re in for an adventure though.
Fabien’s administrative stuff for immigration has gone pretty smoothly. Our main headache has been finding decent health insurance, which we didn’t find. We’re actually going to go with an expat insurance that supplements the French social security (CFE.) It has fewer restrictions and better coverage than the American plans we found.
This is our second night camping in Hillsborough State Park, just north of Tampa, Florida. This morning we went kayaking on the river and saw lots of turtles and alligators. Last night, we had a possum and an armadillo in our camp site. The weather is gorgeous; we were in shorts and t-shirts all day. Tomorrow we’re going to Tampa and St. Pete.
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