I turned 50 this week. I have neglected this blog and many of my passions for far too long.
I don't make new year's resolutions for public consumption, but I am a compulsive list maker.
In addition to recommitting myself to writing about great places to relax, relocate and retire, I commit to the following over the next 50 months as my own MidCentury Manifesto:
For me and my family, 2007 has been a year of comings and goings.
Personally, my beloved mother-in-law, Ken's Mom and Stirling and Alex's Nanny has gone. My father-in-law has come into a new phase. The transition has been like most things in life, a little messy and unpredictable but necessary.
Stirling has gone to Senegal for three months of academics, cultural exchange and contemplation regarding her future careeer and life goals. Happily, she has come home safely.
Alex has gone from high school and come into his own as a college man. He has also -- as have we all -- come from New Jersey to return to our readopted hometown and my children's birthplace in Alabama.
We all have gone from a life that contained the excitement and complexities of living, working and playing in the Northeast and come to embrace the simpler pace of spending lazier days and nights in the South in proximity to family and, for Ken, life-long friends.
Continue Reading...While the purpose of Back Roads, Charming Towns remains to chronicle great out-of-the-way getaways in small town America, I was totally enchanted by Emily Prager's account in today's New York Times of the microcosm she discovered in the center of bustling Shanghai. The parallels between anyone leaving the B.C. to explore a simpler way of life, regardless of on which side of the planet you do so, are striking.
Continue Reading...I have lost my voice. Figuratively anyway.
I find the writing and this topic -- both of which are still very much huge passions -- a bit more labored to come by at the moment. Like so many things in our lives, if we don't practice and refine a talent, we can became stale and awkward in our execution. I ask for your indulgance as I rediscover my blogging chops.
So while I am enjoying exercising my literary muscle again, I must admit it is a little sore from lack of stretching. Looking forward to getting my endurance back up for the marathons ahead.
We recently hosted a high school graduation party for Alex at my sister Sheri and brother-in-law John's getaway place at Smith Lake in Warren County, Alabama. As is so typical of me, before the weekend was over, I was scheming and dreaming about building a place of our own along these same shores.
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Ken's reaction? Sell that book you're writing and then we'll talk. While this wasn't an unenthusiastic response (although it might sound that way), this Sunday's Parade magazine offered even more practical commentary on the "dollar and sense" of such a purchase.
Continue Reading...For a blogger extraordinaire, the last few months 
would have provided ample opportunity for content, content, content.
However, from my perspective, it seemed rather self-absorbed to write about every nuance of our move in numbing detail. Instead, I thought it would be more useful to encapsulate a few lessons learned from our recent familial excursion into a single narrative.
Continue Reading...It goes without saying that Back Roads, Charming Towns have been on "hiatus" for the last few weeks. But rest assured, we have not been lolly-gagging about.
Recently, our home base has moved from one charming town to another. In fact we pulled up stakes and moved from one part of the country to another (more on that later).
We have been reworking and rethinking how to best present information to you on "great places to relax, relocate and retire." You will see many of these changes implemented in the coming months, with more information and opportunities for interaction than ever before.
And I will continue to provide personal insights and experiences on our family's own quixotic search to find our "perfect" place to relax, relocate and retire.
As always, we welcome and encourage your input, ideas, thoughts and anecdotes. So don't delay -- become part of the BRCT community by telling us about your favorite back roads and charming towns! We look forward to exploring them with you.
We will be relaunching BRCT this summer with more elements, information and interactive features including podcasts, targeted feeds and community-building aspects. Please look for the new and improved Back Roads, Charming Towns in a few months.
In the meantime, we will continue to share periodic entries on great places to relax, relocate and retire.
Boxes, boxes everywhere. That is much of my life these days. As D Day approaches in our move south, I find that more of our possessions than not are wrapped, bubbled and labelled.
I remember when Stirling and Alex were wee ones and Ken worked for a furniture retailer. In those days, we also often found ourselves surrounded by boxes, but for different reasons.
As everybody knows, for small children the box is as intriguing as the gift at birthday or holiday time. On many occasions, Ken would cart home refrigerator or television boxes and they became places to build magical fantasies and family memories. In fact, for Alex's seventh birthday we even constructed an eight-foot tall ship hull to grace the front yard and introduce the party's pirate theme.
These days, it is Smokey who has made empty boxes into his playground. Yesterday, when I assembled and stacked 50-plus empty boxes to expedite the moving process, Smokey was in kitty heaven, leaping and tumbling from one box to the next. It provided a much needed light-hearted moment at an otherwise hectic time.
Until the next time I can report back from the moving circus . . .
Georgia is gaining ground on Florida as a preferred relocation and retirement destination for snow birds and sun worshipers alike. At least, that is the conclusion to be drawn from the recently released United Van Lines' annual migration study.
Specifically in 2006, United statistics showed that for the first time ever more people moved out of Florida rather than into the Sunshine State. United, the nation's largest mover, finds that its results often mirror state and federal demographic statistics. The company has been evaluating this information for the past thirty years.
Why do so many folks have Georgia on their mind?
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NJ: Fran and I are both professional refugees of the B.C. As two Jersey girls, when we decided to get together for lunch earlier this week, it made sense to find a midway point in our state to rendezvous. Due to the hour time difference between charming Middletown, her neck of the woods, and Basking Ridge, mine, we had to do a little research to find a location. To our good fortune, we discovered the perfect spot in the quaint and tasty Metuchen Inn (above).
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For those living in the Northeast but with dreams of moving to warmer climes, there is an upcoming travel show you won't want to miss.
From January 19-21 at the Hilton in Parsippany, New Jersey, Living Southern Style magazine will be hosting the Live South Real Estate Show, the largest resort and retirement real estate show in the country. Meet experts, attend seminars on topics from building your dream home to selecting the right location, and visit exhibitors from Delaware to Florida, South Carolina to Virginia and every state in between.
Just the Facts
The Live South Real Estate Show is from 5 - 8 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. on Sunday. Attendance is $15 per person at the door, but is complimentary if you pre-register by calling 1.888.248.2989 or online at www.livesouthshows.com.
In spite of being enamored with my new rustic memory stick 
(it arrived yesterday and is true perfection!), I told a friend earlier this week that I felt like there will be a backlash sooner rather than later of people becoming exhausted with the expectation (their own or others) that they will be connected 24/7. Apparently I was more prescient than I realized.
In today's USA Today, Janet Kornblum writes about a small but defiant community of "tech-no's" who are perfectly pleased with not being so easily accessible to others.
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