A Taste of Harrogate

After a week of podcasts, books-on-tape, a hundred bathroom stops, and the most lovable road trip partner, we’ve made it to our final destination. We are officially moved in to our new apartment in Harrogate, Tennessee. And we spent all weekend exploring this little town. (And by “all weekend,” I mean one hour. Because that’s how long it takes to see all the sights.)

I’m currently drafting up this post on Sunday night at the pizza place (one of 2 restaurants in Harrogate) across from our apartment. We won’t have wifi up and running until Wednesday morning, so we’ve been going to the coffee shop or the pizza place…or just attempting to survive without it.

Ankur starts school on Tuesday after the holiday weekend so we’re trying to get as much done while both of us are available. Although…I imagine I will have more than enough time this week to take care of things. There’s not much to distract me out here!

Let’s recap the weekend, shall we?

Friday:

We left the hotel in Memphis. Not before indulging in the breakfast buffet. This kid loves breakfast. In fact, he made sure to search for only the hotels that had “free breakfast” listed on their website.

We drove for 3 hours and then stopped in Nashville to have lunch with Eric and Hilary at Hattie B’s. I’m not big on chicken wings or fried chicken. But this place is GOOD. It was also really nice to catch up after so long. Knowing that there are friends nearby makes this transition a lot easier!

After lunch, we made the 3.5 hour trek to Harrogate. It was still so surreal to me that, in such a short amount of time, we would be reaching our new home. Every once in a while, I’d look over at Ankur and say, “This is our home.”

I counted more churches than homes. More cows than humans.

Yet, this is our home for the next four years. And I’m confident that these four years are going to be the most memorable years of my life.

My first time living outside of California.

My first time living nowhere near a Starbucks.

My first time living in a dry county.

My first time in a brand new home as a newlywed.

When we walked into our apartment, our landlady told us that some mail had been delivered for us earlier in the week.

Sister knew exactly what I needed after a week of traveling. And she knew that wine would be hard to come by in a dry county!

We wasted no time in breaking open a bottle of white wine. (Thank goodness 2/3 of the bottles were twist-off as our corkscrew was packed in the moving truck!)

After we put our things away, we went to Gondolier across the street (the same pizza place I’m sitting at now as I type up this post) for dinner.

There’s definitely not a lot of variety when it comes to eating out, so I imagine the next four years will consist of a lot of experimentation in the kitchen! Good for the pocketbook. Good for the belly.

Saturday:

We woke up and straight to the coffee shop. We needed access to wifi to take care of some things for the apartment (water, wifi, etc.).

It was a little unsettling to find out that there were no Starbucks nearby. But this coffee shop was so cute and quaint that it was pretty hard to be upset about it. I predict that I will be spending a lot of time here!

We went grocery shopping and bought some essentials for the weekend until our kitchen stuff gets here with the movers. My tummy was so happy to be fed fresh veggies after a week on the road.

After our quick dinner, we went to the local cinema and watched Finding Dory. Such a good movie. So much underlying meaning. If you are in education (specifically, special education), I highly recommend it!

On our drive home, I caught sight of this froyo place and had Ankur do an illegal U-turn so we could go try it out!

It’s no Yogurtland. In fact, they don’t even have a Plain Tart flavor. But it’ll do. The chocolate was pretty tasty! (As the name of the place suggests)

Sunday:

Most places were closed. Church Day. (I honestly don’t know how people here decide which church to attend. There are HUNDREDS to choose from). So we spent most of the day lounging at home waiting for my car to arrive. We read a few chapters in Harry Potter #6. And something terrible happens. And I don’t want to talk about it. Because every time I talk about it, my eyes fill up with tears and my heart breaks a little more.

So, I closed the book and I refuse to pick it up right now because I’m feeling rather emotional. Luckily, my car arrived 15 minutes after I threw my Kindle across the room.

We spent the next hour or so unpacking the car and putting things away. We ended up with quite a few boxes and had to drive 15 miles to the dump to throw them all away.