Change of locality here

I started this blog in January 2007, as an outgrowth of my desire to write. I wanted to spend more time on my writing, but alas, I still had my day job to fall back on. Well, to make a long story short, I took a new day job in Virginia, so I am a state and a district (what do you call Washington DC, a non-state?) away from my wife and home. Now I drive back and forth each weekend, and believe you me, being away 5 days a week is strange. So we are quickly putting together a plan for us to move ASAP preferably. It takes a while getting adjusted to a new city and state, so my blog may get off topic here. I hope I can interest you in our move 140 miles down and to the left (on the map).

To begin with, I knew very little about DC/Northern Virginia. To be honest, my only brush with northern Virginia was Arlington, which I had visited a dozen times before, and enjoyed it every time. And besides Arlington, I only knew I-95, which I had used to drive through many times.

Yesterday, after work, about 6 pm, I had a chance to try out that new invention, the private toll road, on a trip up to Leesburg, Loudoun county, where my wife and I want to live. I do not know the history of the Route 267 Toll road that runs from the beltway all the way to Leesburg, 30 miles or so. But I know it was the only way to get to Leesburg in under 90 minutes. I heard it was surprisingly popular even though it costs $3.95 cents to use it for the full length, and yes it is popular. The first 5 miles nearest the beltway were either stop and go or slow. After that it gets better and you can reach Leesburg in 35 minutes or so, after you leave the beltway interchange. It seems to relieve a lot of traffic going northwest through dense population centers like Reston and Herndon. It also serves the Dulles Airport. After the first 15-20 minutes of congestion, it moves pretty well and seems to be a sufficient, if not ideal, way to get to Leesburg and points west.

We want to keep horses and still be able to commute to a job in town. I am okay with it, so far. I have not attempted the morning commute to work on it yet. I shall find out and report back on it soon.