Mary is a former elementary school teacher, who traded the ocean for the mountains more than twelve years ago. Born, raised, and having lived in Rhode Island most of her life, she packed up a Penske truck, put her car on a car carrier, and headed west two weeks shy of her 40th birthday. Mid-life crisis, you might ask? Not exactly, but she did need a change.

In her own words, It was as if I had grown all I could, like a potbound plant, I desperately needed to be transplanted.