We Will Move 1200 Miles

I have never lived more than 26 miles from where I was born, so I am very excited and a little nervous to be moving over 1,200 miles away. How does one prepare for such a big change? I always research a destination and try to imagine it before I see it, but this time I am not researching a vacation. This is the place where we will make our new home.

Instead of seeing the Rocky Mountains our relief will be the foothills of the Appalachians, the Allegheny Plateau. We will share the same zip-code with everyone in town. I will struggle with pronouncing the town's name, Chillicothe (Chill-uh-kawthy), and always wonder how the Shawnee said the word. I will hope to meet one of the rare descendants of the Hopewell culture, 0.34% of the Chillicothe population today, and ask them to teach me about their ancestors.

For my husband, this will be like going home. He hasn't lived so close to his birthplace in almost two decades. He has a dozen known relatives nearby, and likely a hundred more, for many of the Bishops have lived in Ohio since their arrival in 1807. This will be a good time to visit courthouses and interview great-aunts and uncles to learn more about my husband's roots.

All I know about the area through facts and maps can be learned remotely, visually. I've visited Ohio a handful of times, but I have never been there long enough to learn how to recognize the special flora of the region, to know what the seasons will bring from one year to the next, to estimate an early frost or the coming of rain. It will be a pleasure to embrace this new place with all of my senses and to continue my learning and growth in southern Ohio.