UPDATE: new car & changes to first leg of journey

First order of business: buy a new car!  As luck would have it, we found exactly what we were looking for on our first day: a 2006 Lexus IS 350 with black leather interior and all the bells & whistles.  It has 58,000 miles (soon to be many, many more), but it looks like new because it was previously a company car.  It was a perfect compromise since I wanted a four-door sedan and Tom wanted a sporty coupe.  The background is my parents' lush neighborhood in Charlotte.

On a separate note, as we started plotting out our route, we decided that it made more sense to do a mini loop of the cities on our relocation short list before tackling the big U.S. loop.  So, the order of travel for the next two weeks is: Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC, Wilmington NC, Charleston SC, Savannah GA, and Asheville NC.  We'll loop back through Charlotte to get our permanent license plate, hit the triangle area again for Tom's mom's birthday, and then head south toward Key West with numerous stops in Florida.  More to come once we get to Wilmington this weekend!!