Driving half-way cross country

As I mentioned at the end of this previous post, Chase and I left Switzerland at the height of the pandemic and went directly to Omaha, where Nate had been living the previous 4-5 months. Between Christmas and New Year's, we found an apartment in a town in southern CT called Fairfield. This town has good schools while being on the train line into NYC and close to the highway to go east further into CT. So, a few days after the new year, we packed everything into the car Nate had picked up in Omaha in early December and drove east. Since this was the height of the pandemic in the US as well, we tried not to go out of our way to meet anyone, but did make a stop to see Ivan's plot of land south of Chicago where he is building a house.

We made the trip in three days. One day to a hotel south of Chicago, one day to a hotel in eastern PA, and finally, a day to our new apartment in CT. Overall, it was a pretty easy drive and Chase kept himself entertained. During the trip, we had to figure out utilities, school sign ups, and DMV appointments. When we finally got to CT, we had to quarantine and take COVID tests before we could go to any of those appointments.

 The timing was quite fortunate for Chase because the school he was to join went to in person schooling (half day) the day he was supposed to start in mid-January. Even more lucky for us was that there were multiple after-school options with remote lessons and bussing from the elementary schools. After years of struggling with childcare in Switzerland, it was astonishing how easy and available (and cheap!) childcare was here in the US... at least for this age group.