And I've been fluttering all over the damn place.

Since my lease on my apartment in New Orleans was almost up and I planned to move rather than renew it, last month I set off on an 1800-mile roadtrip to check out the various places I was considering moving to. I decided on Knoxville, TN, for several reasons. I've really been wanting to live somewhere mountainous, and Knoxville is certainly satisfying in that respect. Andrés and Amy had just moved there for grad school and plan to be there for at least two years. Geographically it's within a few hours' drive of lots of the places where I have friends — Atlanta, Clemson, Raleigh. There is a healthy aviation scene in Knoxville — there are at least three good flying clubs with great rates, and there's a large commercial airport and a smaller regional airport and lots of private grass strips all over. It's a small city, so I have access to all the stores and resources I want, without having to deal with city blocks and traffic and nowhere to park.

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Bored out of your mind at work? Wish you were accompanying me on my roadtrip but the fates didn't allow it? Now you can follow along at home! All the fun of sitting in a car for hours without the tedious scenery to look at!

Car pulls to the left
Must hold constant right steering
Why don't cars have trim?

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When I moved to New Orleans last year, I knew I wouldn't be staying there long-term. I thought of it as a sort of foothold back onto the mainland — I'd stay there for a year and then move to somewhere that more closely matches my wishlist: Most importantly, I want to live near friends. Aside from that, I want to live in or near the mountains (New Orleans is basically the exact opposite of that), away from a city (roughly the level of rurality of Clemson), and somewhere in the generally southeast part of the country; ideally towards the more northerly parts of the southeast, like North Carolina or Virginia.

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A few weeks ago Amy called and told me that Andrés' spring break was coming up at the beginning of March, and suggested that I fly up to Boston to spend it with them. All it takes for me is an invitation, so I soon bought my plane ticket and made my plans to fly up.

The departure didn't go quite as planned — the flight left at 1:30pm, so I aimed to be there two hours before that. We made good time crossing the lake, so Bryan and Cat actually dropped me off at the airport at around 11 am. I figured I could certainly stand waiting an extra half hour.

Of course, when I checked in I learned that the incoming flight had been delayed due to weather, so my flight was rescheduled to leave at 4:30pm. I called Bryan and Cat and delivered the news, and they offered to come back and pick me up so I wouldn't have to sit at the airport for hours. We did a little thrift store shopping and ate at Denny's, then returned to the airport at 3 pm. I thanked them for helping me pass the time and headed in.

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Yesterday was incredible. Gary (Irish), Greg (German), Andrés, and I rented a car and took a roadtrip up to the highlands. It couldn't have gone better, especially considering it was relatively unplanned. The weather even cooperated — yesterday was the only clear, blue, sunny day I've seen since I arrived.

We had planned to spend Saturday, the day before our excursion, making the preparations for the trip; determining a route, making the reservation for the car, etc. We did decide on a basic, flexible game plan, but the car reservation part kind of evolved into "making one phone call that didn't accomplish much."

Update: Greg prepared a map indicating the route we took, and marked all of our stops sequentially with numbers. Very cool of him. Here's the map.

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