So, how did this trip come to be? Why am I leaving Fredericksburg? Is it a mid-life crisis? Is it because of 9/11? Or, something completely different?

Well, it's not as simple as any of these. I like Fredericksburg and have lived there since 1993. I've made many friends, and have had great experiences there. Unfortunately, the Virginia summers have taken a toll on me. I can't take the brutally hot and humid weather, and the older I get the more they soak the energy out of me.

When I first moved to Fredericksburg from the immediate Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C, the pace of life was a good bit slower than farther north. There was less traffic. People were friendlier. It was a nicer place to be.

That's all changing. And changing fast. Between the 1990 and 2000 census the area experienced a 50 percent population growth. Fredericksburg is being swallowed up in the megalopolis that will eventually stretch from Boston to Richmond like a vital organ is by cancer. Traffic is worse. Farmland is being replaced by more subdivisions and retail space. Green space is vanishing. People are in more of a hurry. The area is losing its character, and the cost of living spirals ever higher. It's such a shame--I won't stay around to watch it.

9/11 figures into the equation, but only tangentially. I had made up my mind to move out west last summer after a family reunion in Oregon, but the terrorist attacks made me wonder more about life across the country. I don't know how that will come across in the documentation of my trip, that remains to be seen.

While I had decided to head out west, I hadn't decided on the timing. Until, that is, I mentioned my future plans to my landlady. She somehow interpreted my vague future plans to mean "soon." Very soon, as it turned out. I was served thirty days notice to move out of the apartment I had occupied for over three years so their grandson could move in. I decided it wasn't worth trying to find another apartment in the over-inflated housing market when I was planning to leave anyway, so here I am--hitting the road.

Please use the navigation buttons on the left to ride along in the passenger seat. Fasten your seat belt.

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