Tomorrow marks the end of a ten year run of life in Charleston, SC. The hubby and I are setting out on a new adventure in the Pacific Northwest.

Charleston will always be our first love. We moved here from Philadelphia when Jason finished grad school. It’s close to family, close to old friends, and soon became close to our hearts. We got married here and in no time made new friends and built a little world for ourselves. We bought our first home here – a house we love in a neighborhood we adore with the sort of neighbors who leave homemade pies on your front porch swing (yep, it happened). And we built our careers here. We’ve soaked in everything that makes this town a top destination on so many travel pub lists year after year.  It’s hard to say goodbye.

There’s little time for teary-eyed reminiscing (although I’ve managed to fit that in). We’ve gotten in our last dinners, post-workday cocktails and porch-sittin’ with friends and our last visits and hugs with loved ones before we hit the road tomorrow. We’ve gotten reacquainted with our favorite restaurants and places to play, and have visited all the hot new spots that seem to be popping up downtown on a regular basis.

We’re westward bound, visiting family along the trail for a few days then taking the next two weeks to see the northern part of the country we’ve only seen on screen – corn fields of Iowa and Nebraska, national parks in South Dakota and the mountains of Montana and Washington, along the way resting our heads in everything from farmhouses to ranches to historic hotels to log cabins and tree houses.

I’ll be building on this little endeavor called Trigger from a home base in Eugene, Oregon starting September 1, where vineyards and hop fields are plentiful, bragging rights for who-hiked-what-mountain-that-day are hard won, and die hard Duck fans emerge in the fall. We can’t wait to experience it all and learn why everyone we know who lives there says they’ll never, ever leave.  I’ll be posting shots of the Chapman Chuck Wagon Cross-Country Tour from the road.  Stick around for the adventure!