From Tbilisi to Mondovì

Dear ones all,

Good news first:  we are about to embark on the next of our “once-in-a-lifetime” journeys.  The road trip that begins on Tuesday, July 24 combines leisure with adventure, as well as some time to “look calmly around us, for a little.”  Sad news next:  we are leaving Tbilisi much earlier than expected and will miss living in this lively, beautiful, fascinating, frustrating, old-and-new city.  We will miss the many friends we have found here, and we regret the unfinished projects and undiscovered places in Georgia we leave behind.  We may return to visit but we will never again come home to Tbilisi.  Our time was too brief, but it was rich beyond our most extravagant imagining and we are glad we came. 

And now a few details:  we will be driving from Tbilisi to the Piedmont region of Italy, where we hope to rent a small apartment and look around to see whether we might like to stay awhile.  We’ll be back in the States for three or four weeks, beginning sometime around October 10, to visit family and friends in DC, NYC, LA, FL, maybe other points to be determined.  After that we’ll head back to Italy and continue our researches into possible happily-ever-after places.  Jim may get some work somewhere along the way—short-term consulting, proposal-writing, etc; and I may hang out a shingle for English-language conversation—but we hope to ease our way into some form of retirement, or at least a way of life that centers on pursuits that reward us with more than money.

And that’s all we know for now.  The movers are in the apartment, packing our goods for storage in Tbilisi and eventual shipping to an address to-be-determined.  We have retreated to the terrace, where the awnings give deep shade and a light breeze blows.  Tomorrow morning we will be on our way, and if you like, you can track our progress via an online trip journal.  I’ll be as diligent as I can, depending on internet access.  With any luck at all, we should be in Vicoforte (a small town near Mondovi) around August 10.