What Is My Comfort Zone?
- home
- family
- friends
All Set, Ready, Let’s Go!
The defining moment for me recently was moving to Prescott, AZ. I had lived in CA for 35 years and made friends as close as family. They replaced my family when Mark died in 1994 and Mom died in 2006. Randy, my only other immediate family member was still in Portland, too far away to leave.
Vince has always loved the high desert and had wanted to move since we got married over 20 years ago. We had a home on an acre in CA near my closest friends in Woodlake. His son in Sacramento came to visit regularly. I had no intention of ever moving. EVER!
When Vince turned 73, I noticed that the upkeep of our home was not only exhausting him, but with his never-ending projects might break the bank. LOL (We bought a 1966 Ford DUMP TRUCK as YARD ART for our new 1/2-acre garden!) And that was just the beginning of the newest ideas he had.
I entertained the idea of moving. We were in the middle of COVID.
My friends and his son tried to talk us out of it, but the more horrendous things that happened to our home in 2020, the better it sounded. There was nowhere in California I wanted to move close by except the coast. We looked at property in Sacramento and Ventura, CA and passed on those ideas.
In July 2020 our realtor agreed to go on a road trip with me to check out Prescott, AZ, where Vince and I had tentatively chosen to move. We got a 2-bedroom suite and spent four days looking at homes while Vince tended the animals and the GARDEN. We texted pictures back and forth, talked on Facetime, and narrowed it down to a few choices.
Vince made a couple of trips after that. In October, he found a condo for his sister to live and us to move into temporarily when we got there. I looked at the pictures and said yes. We started talking to a builder, then backed off until our house sold. Our house was still torn up after our ruined air conditioner/flood disaster and the septic tank repair that tore up our beautiful front yard.
Our neighbor Carmen and her sister planned and executed our garage sale, which was more like a community estate sale with me as the butterfly hostess hugging everyone who came to say goodbye. (I didn’t take the 6-foot distance seriously.)
On November, Vince drove all of Cindy’s belongings in a rental truck. Cindy and our realtor’s husband left the next day with her dog and Prius of stuff. I stayed until the movers left, cleaned what I could after the furniture and all the vacuums were gone, packed our three animals and a few things into our Prius and left my beloved home, Bellavista, for good.
I called Vince as I pulled away headed out for the nine-hour drive at 3:00 pm. He suggested that I stay at my friend, Sally’s for the night and head out in the morning. I called her and two minutes later – literally – I was unloading my animals into her guest house.
Have you ever tried to sleep with two outdoor cats and a dog in a strange house? Size doesn’t matter. Normally the house would hold 6 or more people, but my cats were not used to being inside.
After their prescribed traveling drugs wore off, they had to be with me constantly.
After little sleep, I took off for my new home in Prescott. We had no family or friends in Prescott.
It was an adventure WAY outside of my comfort zone!
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
52 responses to “Bloganuary #3: My Last Departure”
As you can see, I’m surfing through your Bloagnuary posts, Marsha. If you had to move away from BellaVista, at least you and Vince chose an amazing retirement area in Prescott! This was the right call for you both, and I’m glad we were smart enough to land on a half acre at age 61. We never expected to leave Sacramento either and I was shocked when Hans was ready to move away from his beloved Delta and windsurfing lifestyle. In the new place, I’ve shoveled snow twice in two days and Hans is out now with the new snowblower! Plenty of work! I really enjoyed both your homes and look forward to when I can come back to Prescott again!
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That makes at least four of us, right? There is so much to do here. I’d love to visit you in Spokane, too. we will see what happens to an August road trip to Oregon.
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Definitely!!
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I know how emotionally “moving” that moving can be. 🙂 I trust you are getting to feel more at home in Prescott and that it is becoming the home you expected it will come to be.
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We celebrated one year in our home two days ago. We love it here.
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Loved reading about your move Marsha. We have moved so many times that we do it without thinking but we had one move where I felt as you did and I understand how difficult it must have been to make the decision and carry through with it. Glad to read in comments that it was a good move for you and that you have made some good friends there.
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Hi Irene, It’s sooooo good to hear from you. It’s been a long time. How are you doing. I’m going to come visit your blog right now.
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Great to catch up Marsha.
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Yes, we will have to do more of it! 🙂
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I admire you both for taking such a big step, but I have to say that based on everything you’ve shared of your new home area it looks a super place to live!
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Sarah, you are absolutely right. It is a fabulous place to live. I feel so blessed, and we are both super happy here. I was motivated by a huge supply of inertia and the love of friends that kept me in CA for so long. That and the weather and my beautiful home.
For the stage our lives right now, this is much better. Services are all within 3-4 miles. The most we have to go is about 8 minutes from home to get anything. And many of our closest friends have visited us here at least once. We are only nine hours away by car.
Living in rural CA we lived 20 miles from the outskirts of the nearest large town but only five miles from Woodlake where I was friends with almost every business owner in town. That had its major perks. We lived only three hours from the beach, which I loved.
I guess you could say that I am a very blessed woman to have lived in such amazing places.
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I think as we get older being in easy reach of services becomes a major factor in choosing where to live. I know people over here who’ve retired to beautiful rural villages but they are many miles from essentials such as medical services. I wouldn’t want to do that, however pretty the home!
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Exactly. My mom was furious when we moved there. We had been a five-minute walk away and a ten-minute drive from the hospital. She did not move with us, of course, but it was an adjustment to have us 25 minutes away.
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That’s quite a story Marsha! Your new home looks wonderful. I hope you wlll be very happy and contented in it for many years to come. A Very Happy New Year. Cheers. .
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Thanks, Joy. So far, so good. It’s been a year today. 🙂
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Goodness bravely done!
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Glad you made the move and are now settled.
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Thanks, Aletta. We love it here. 🙂
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😀
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Bellavista is gorgeous!!!! Must have been very hard to leave. Now we need a photo of your new digs.
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Thanks, Judy. Our new digs are super comfortable but small. It’s hard to photograph inside small rooms. I posted one of our living room and dining room. The condo has no yard, but it does have a beautiful patio. https://alwayswrite.blog/2021/12/22/wqwwc-54-joy/
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So glad that all ended well 💜
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Yes, it was super amazing. We are in awe no matter where we go, whether it’s on our patio or down the road to the store, on a hike, or a short road trip to Sedona. It’s unbelievable. 🙂
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Bless 💜💜
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Same to you, dear Willow. 🙂
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💜💜
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that was a big move, but it seems like it has worked out well for you. And how nice to have a realtor friend accompany you to look at houses in Prescott!
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Patti turned out to be a much closer friend during that time than in any of the many years we’ve known them. They have visited us since we got here, and we hope to have them back again. Like I said, our friends are marvelous. There are no better people in the world than all the wonderful people I have met (both here, there, and online through my blog.) I am a blessed woman no matter where I live. 🙂
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you are lucky indeed to have such good friends!
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I truly am, Jim.
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👍
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Well done Marsha. A great and moving tale 🙂
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LOL, Brian. I caught that! 🙂 Thanks for reading such a long post. 🙂
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Wow, Marsha. This really brings home to me how emotionally difficult the move was. You had your chin up and your smile on and never let on. So glad you had so many friends to help you through it. It could have been really rough! I do hope to see you in Prescott. Somehow, some way.
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You will see us soon, I’m sure. Sorry I’m not coming out there. I canceled my flight and all my hotel rooms. With all the flights being canceled and COVID threatening to spike this week or next, after talking to you I realized it was just foolish of me to travel right now. Plus I had a miserable CT scan – the scan was fine but finding a good vein is never easy. The techs didn’t believe me when I told them they needed an ultra sound – – until they did. Once they got a nurse, it was easy. That brief experience made me realize that I do not want to jeopardize all the good work that has been done on my behalf. I don’t like to admit to being fragile, but I am resigned to being cautious. 🙂 See you in the spring for sure.
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That is a big change after so many years moveing to somewhere so different. As long as you are happy- that is the main thing. New friends can be made anywhere. Enjoy your new home!
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Thanks!! We have made some excellent friends here, Ute and we love it!
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Wonderful! ♥
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🙂 We should chat and catch up. Do you ever zoom or do Face time or anything?
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Hi Marsha, I do Zoom with my sister or Whatsup. 🙂
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I do Zoom, we should pick a mutual time and chat. 🙂
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And you made it through! Well done to the pair of you.
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Yay! We did make it with bells on. We love it and have made some excellent friends. It was a great move.
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This is a very impressive jump out of a comfort zone. Prescot looks so beautiful!
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It is a fabulous place. A new kind of comfortable! Thanks for reading, Donna!
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Wow! I have lived in California my whole life – and our home for almost 30 years – and have no intentions of moving. BUT, I do fantasize about offloading a lot of stuff and traveling the world. Sometimes we just need to shake things up a bit in order to feel fully alive.
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I have made 4 huge moves. You are well grounded. I bet you have tons of friends.
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Such a beautiful story and so happy you are so happy in Prescot so gorgeous.
Love all of your pictures Marsha!
💖
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Thanks Cindy. It all turned out well! ❤️❤️❤️
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sooo well! 💖💖
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Yes, soooooo well! 🙂
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💖💖👏👏👏
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