We are now official transplants with an apartment near Austin, Texas. We’ve survived the grueling five-state 24-hour road trip, and are ready to restart our lives in this new exciting place.

Again, here’s a recap of why we left our decent jobs and okay lives in Michigan:

• Weather
• Lack of opportunity for upward mobility
• Little excitement and much predictability in our lives

Now we are living with no jobs, no furniture, no Internet or television, and we are as happy as can be.  So how did we do this?

• We researched the perfect place for us (suburb of Austin, TX) and spent a spring break here to make sure we really liked it.
• We scouted apartments and reserved the one we liked.  Once we decided to move, we transferred utilities in our names.
• We researched the job outlook, made a few connections, but decided we will take any jobs for now to pay the bills.
• We decided to only buy household items of high quality.  No more yard-sale couches, chipped hand-me-down kitchenware, and TV sets that tint the picture green.  We agreed that the next TV set will be bought when we can really afford it and it will be a 42 inch plasma hanging on the wall.
• Our car was professionally inspected to make sure it can handle the 24-hour trek.  I performed all necessary maintenance jobs and fixed all “tails” myself.  Among things inspected and fixed were tires, belts, ground clearance, suspension, leaks, coolant, etc.  I made sure I had emergency repair parts and kits.
• We mapped out the route and planned stopovers at friends’ houses.  We knew exactly where and when we were going.

More – later.  I’m still scamming the “free Internet by the pool” thing.