Where do you live? And why?

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Exactly. The threads about why you live where you do, NOT about why the other guy is a jerk for living where HE lives.
 
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I think that all parts of this country have advantages and disadvantages. I wish I had the time and money to check out the South, the West and other areas for myself. I've never been to the South, other than Fort Polk, courtesy of Uncle Sam or to the West Coast, but I'd sure like to visit all these areas. And I'll bet Vermont and New Hampshire and upstate New York are awesome, from pictures I've seen. :D
Oh, I was in South Carolina for about a month on a job. Fantastic eating down there. Love that southern cooking.
 
Shinbone said:
I think that all parts of this country have advantages and disadvantages. I wish I had the time and money to check out the South, the West and other areas for myself. I've never been to the South, other than Fort Polk, courtesy of Uncle Sam or to the West Coast, but I'd sure like to visit all these areas. And I'll bet Vermont and New Hampshire and upstate New York are awesome, from pictures I've seen. :D
Oh, I was in South Carolina for about a month on a job. Fantastic eating down there. Love that southern cooking.
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Being a Californian I would highly recommend a visit to the west coast as a vacation. Take a week and fly in to San Francisco and rent a car to drive up the coastal highway to Mendocino and you really won't believe the breathtaking beauty. Take time to cross the central valley and see Yosemite, mind boggling.

The east coast is fabulous as well (only visited, Boston and region). Lot's of history there, people are fantastic and just a great place to visit. No need to rent a car in Boston, great public transportation and it's best to just walk the city. Fabulous, and the lobsters are to die for.

Dan
 
Born in MI. Moved to WI at 4. Spent much of my life in WI and moved outside Nashville 7 years ago. Wish I would have moved here a long time ago.
 
Oh, I was in South Carolina for about a month on a job. Fantastic eating down there. Love that southern cooking.
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I was down there for two weeks on vacation a few years ago. I damn near started putting out applications for jobs, just so I could eat that seafood every day!
 
Currently located due to proximity of mother-in-law, formerly due to the proximity of grandmother. My parents are most likely going to migrate up this way. Wife and I graduated from college here - nobody else we graduated with could afford to stick around. This area has been extremely cruel to me over the years; an obvious sign of my own self-inflicted punishment. However there is a job, there are mountains, rivers, hunting, fishing, outdoor activities that keep me here, away from the vast majority of everyone else. Now if I could do something about that pesky job, I could do a lot more fishing and hunting...
 
In the words of that immortal Californian,"Can't we all just get along?"
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He died a couple of months ago...:scrutiny:

I was born in Bakersfield, CA and spent all but five years of my life here. We're a generally conservative oil and ag community 100 miles from everything - the Sequoia mountains, the Pacific, Los Angeles. We're two hours from Yosemite. It gets hot here, and we have a bit of winter fog.

We also have 300+ days of sunshine, lower housing costs than most of California, and fresh produce in abundance. The wife and I have good jobs, a fine house, and lots of shooting opportunities. We also have three parents, two siblings, three sons, two DILs, and four grandchildren here.

Just like everywhere, there are positives and negatives. If I won the lottery, I'd move - until then, I'm happy here.
 
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S,W. Florida is not paradise but close to it. Well, except for the occasional hurricane, but nowhere is perfect. Great weather, good gun laws. Right to work state, but plenty of liberal-thinkers and other fools to provide minor aggravation. Not a good place to raise kids, but a great place to avoid giving your tax money to socialist politicians (this coast only!). Plenty of illegals to go around but some of them will actually mow your grass. Not enough public ranges but we're working on that. Good fishing, OK hunting (no woodchucks) if you like little deer and feral hogs. Lots of public land and Marco Rubio. What's not to like? A former tax & regulation refugee from Western New York, I am happy as can be here!
 
Exactly. I've deleted some posts to clean this thread up. I'll start deleting members if it flares up again.

No more warnings.
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Thank you. Enjoying this, was really disappointed to see it going downhill.
 
I was raised in South Florida (Palm Beach County), back when it was paradise - the 50's and 60's. Gradually it began to get crowded with people from other parts of the country ( and Caribbean). Lots of pavement, stores, condos blocking beach access, bales of dope washing up on the beach, skyrocketing crime rates, houses where we used to go shooting and hunting before, traffic, traffic, traffic.
My wife and I wished, hoped, and prayed to get the heck out - to a place that has more churches than bars.
Finally, thanks to a corporate restructuring that closed the warehouse where I was employed we managed to make our escape via a company relocation. That was 1995.
Today, I'm still employed, but with a different company, and we have a small farm on a dead end dirt road 6 miles outside a one stop light town.
She's got the horses and chickens she always wanted, I've got my very own patch of woods to roam. Life is good.
Cows make the best neighbors.
 
North Idaho, CdA area.

Why?

Uh, well, there's a story . . .

Born east coast. Can't tell you much about that.

Early memories begin in Ohio. Trailer park, then a small farm. It was the early fifties. We went to school in Danville, which was a long-ish bus ride.

Around age seven, we sell the farm, buy an old school bus, convert to mobile hovel, complete with wood & coal burning stove for cooking & heating. Move to Alabama. Dad bides his time until he lands job at Redstone Arsenal, home of the Atlas rocket.

Around age nine, we follow Dad's career west. He works at Aerojet General, home of the Saturn rocket, putting dudes into space. However, even though it's a bunch closer, my parents elect not to move us to Sacramento, but instead to park the family in a little Sierra Nevada foothills town, Placerville, where we will spend the next nine years in a very outdoors-friendly community, with orchards, mountains, hunting, fishing, and all that.

My dad commutes fifty miles each way for nine years so that we can grow up in a small town rather than a metro area. Like any other kid, I completely have no grasp of the sacrifices my parents make for that child rearing environment. It will gradually dawn on me, but I will be in my fifties before it registers.

After I graduated, and the space program cutbacks began, we moved to Tucson, but I wasn't there long. We will skip forward over the Air Force years and the decade of overseas volunteer work, and resume with parachuting into Las Vegas in the early eighties.

New career, new town and, after a couple of years, new wife.

Twenty years later . . . work takes us to Phoenix for a couple of years, then back to Vegas. It doesn't take long for us to wonder to one another, "what are we still doing here?"

And we move north (and west, as it happens -- did you know that Reno is west of Los Angeles?). Carson City, commuting to Reno, for another four years.

We figured we were done moving.

Carson City is acceptably rural, the region is gun-friendly, it has a hunting/fishing/outdoor culture, and it is situated in a seriously gorgeous place. Half hour from Tahoe. Four real seasons. Mild winters, but a short drive from hard core skiing. What's not to love?

Well, we took a vacation, finally, and visited a buddy of mine with whom I had worked in Vegas but who was now living 35 miles from the Canadian border. We drove around Bonners Ferry, Sandpoint, Coeur d'Alene , Post Falls, and the Panhandle area, and we came to a conclusion: we agreed that, in the unlikely event we ever had to move again, this would be the place.

You know, sometimes you have to be careful what thoughts you cast loose in the universe . . .

A year and a half later, events had conspired to make it necessary for us to move.

And here we are.

We live in an area that is, seriously, all about the outdoors. We live among communities of people who are unwitting "preppers" -- survivalists if you prefer -- but who don't actually realize that their culture is a survival/prepper thing. It's just how they live. We've got significant populations of Mormons and Mennonites up here, and I'm totally fine with that. One bunch is all about being prepared, the other is all about living off the land.

The "Aryan Nation" crowd are long gone, and the folks here are surprisingly "normal," using the same measuring stick I would have used in my youth.

(Kind of a funny aside: when we came up here the first time, we were doing some window shopping for property up around Bonners Ferry, and one of the homes we looked at was being sold by the Mennonite family who had lived in it for years and years. I asked them why they were moving, after all, I said, they had ten acres that was ten miles out of town, with the nearest neighbors a half mile in one direction, and nearly a mile in the other. Their reply? "It's too crowded here; we're moving to Montana where we can have more room." Because, you know, ten miles to town and more than a half mile to your neighbors is way too cramped. Oh -- in a couple of the Mennonite homes we toured, there were rifles just kind of stood behind the door, leaning against the wall. 'Cuz, well, you might need one. I grew up with that; kinda never expected that I would ever see "casual guns" again.)

I keep my annual membership in the local (Fernan) shooting club up to date, even though finances and work have kept me off the range for more than a year.

I commute 35 miles each way. I am frequently asked why I don't just move to Spokane. I don't generally give a complete answer, and nobody I know in Idaho ever asks that question.


So, why?

Because it's gorgeous here, it's not the "big city," and I'm surrounded by self-sufficient people who, in the main, value gun ownership and gun rights as much as I do.

 
Arfin- That was a great post, well written. I have been thinking more and more about leaving Alaska for the land of free shipping [lower 48.] I am getting a little old for Alaska hunting. What are the winters like in your part of Idaho?
 
jim in Anchorage said:
Arfin- That was a great post, well written. I have been thinking more and more about leaving Alaska for the land of free shipping [lower 48.] I am getting a little old for Alaska hunting. What are the winters like in your part of Idaho?
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Well, it varies. I'm sure that will come as a shock.

I've only been up here for five complete winters, but two of them had a respectable amount of snow. The winter of 2007-2008 started in late November (well, the snow did, anyway) and piled up to depths of two and three feet on more than one occasion (unshoveled snow got to be four & five feet deep where we were). There was much shoveling that winter.

The 2008-2009 winter started late, but right after Christmas it stacked up again. We had the "pleasure" of moving in the last week of 2008, and the house we moved into had been unoccupied for months. The snow in the driveway was more than four feet deep.

In 2009-2010, we got a decent snowfall, and had a white Christmas, but it never got over two feet deep, and we had a really wet spring.

The winter of 2010-2011 was "average" I guess. Modest snowfall, depending on where you were (two-three feet), although it was slower to melt off, and spring was wet again.

This last winter, 2011-2012, was possibly a little light, although I did get to run the snowblower a couple of times with snow over a foot deep.


These numbers are for Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene. If you lived in Hauser, Twin Lakes, or Spirit Lake, things got a bit deeper. Spirit Lake always seems to have more snow than we do, and it's only twenty-something miles away.

We're at about 2,700 feet. As you go up the slopes, the snow starts to stack up pretty good. There are a number of ski resorts within easy driving distance. A number of the local lakes freeze over, so there's ice fishing.

So, the winters are real without being too obnoxious.

And, of course, in the summer you get to appreciate that there's a lake on every street corner. I recently did a map grab from my DeLorme software and posted it somewhere else online for illustration of the density of our lake population. Theres a butt-load of lakes in the map segment. I'll see if I can dig that up.

And here it is.
Inland-NW-Lakes.jpg

 
I can live with snow. After all I lived 22 years in Buffalo and 17 in Anchorage. But what are the temperatures like? This last January was brutal. Day after day wake up to -20. Average temp for whole month was +1.7. a all time record low.

And whats the normal hunting style there? Are there Lot's of places to hunt? And how do you access them? Road, 4 wheeler, airplane?
 
jim in Anchorage said:
I am curious over the location of THR members and if it shows a trend. I will start. My parents moved to upstate NY when I was 6, ended up in Buffalo in 1972 where I graduated HS 1974. I hung around, always wanting to go West till 1995 when I put my tools in the back of my trunk [I'm a mechanic] and left alone for Alaska. Did not know anyone here, no real idea if I would be able to find a job. And here I still am.

Why Alaska? Well I think anyone on this forum will understand.
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I just stumbled on to this thread and would like to add my .02 cents................................

Born in far northern Illinois (just a few miles from the Wis state line) in the last quarter of the great depression. Fortunately, we lived in a very rural area, on a lake so I literally grew up from the age of (9) with a fishing rod in one hand and a rifle or shotgun in the other. During WWII ammo was hard to come by, but with the help of neighbors and friends that didn't shoot much, I was able to help mom with the menu almost year 'round: fish, pheasants, squirrel, dove, rabbits, ducks etc.

Lived there until age 18......started college 180 miles away with 2 part-time jobs to pay for a large portion of the cost. Hunted pheasants, quail, rabbits & ducks in the few spare hours during season in the fall and winter (Iowa)..............Graduated in 4 1/2 years...... (spent part of that time in the hospital)...being the result of being a front seat passenger in a convertible that hit a tree---2 dead, one lived...me.

Started work (7) days after graduation (had a wife and a child by that time).

Moved to CO in 1965--way too crowded in IL.... (to live in the foothills of the Rockies & have a couple of horses to facilitate "pack-in hunting trips" into the back-country for deer, elk and bear......... added big game hunting (had started handloading in 1960) to the all-consuming sport of bird hunting....both were pretty good in CO in those days. ... Had a job that required travel about 75% of the time not only in CO., but into WY; ID; UT; NV; AZ; B.C. and Alaska...............An outdoor nut's dream job!!
Moved to MT in 1980 (10 miles out of town), tight up against the Bitterroot Mountains.
Kept the same type job (different company) and continued to doing the large amount of travel......(sure helped getting to know folks in those different states (particularly AK) that helped line up hunting opportunities).
After 39 yrs & 6 months of traveling....I retired and have continued to LOVE living where I do, in the home I built 33 years ago) .........still 10 miles out of town: good hunting; good fishing; can shoot on my place--still like to work up loads; lots of privacy, wildlife and QUIET!...........At this age, I feel "I've Paid-My-Dues" and just want to live out my days doing what I love to do........was married 51 yrs before I lost my wife,.....so in recent years it's been "me & my Brittany".

CARPE DIEM my friends........."we don't get any "do-overs" so do it right the first time!!
 
Where am I from? Bloomington,IN
Where Do I live now: Prescott,AZ. , downside is all my family pretty much lives in Indiana, besides a few in Ohio and Iowa.
Why? I am within driving distance (Less than 5 hours) of places like this (and many many more including Las Vegas):



Sedona:
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Grand Canyon:
GrandCanyon022.jpg
GrandCanyon056.jpg
Lake Powell:
GrandCanyon010.jpg
Flagstaff:
007-1.jpg
019.jpg
Mexico:
mexico010.jpg
 
When I was 8, my family moved from a small town outside of Boise, ID to central PA. We eventually settled to a 100 acre farm near Stormstown, PA. We hunted white tails, turkey, rabbits, pheasants, and squirrels on our farm and the surrounding areas. It was a pretty nice place to grow up. The winters were brutal. One winter it was -20 for a week. The next there was so much snow we had to shovel it off the barn to keep it from collapsing.

I went to high school and two years of college in State College, PA. After that, I transferred to a university back in the west. All that time back east and I never stopped pining for the west. Anyway, after I got my masters, I took a job back in the Boise area and have lived here since the late 80's. Hunting and fishing are fantastic. Lots of places to ride dirt bikes and horses. The weather is great. Schools are awesome. Idaho is the original "run with scissors" state, and that is just the way I like it. The only downside is that property taxes are very high, we have a state income tax, and a sales tax. Job prospects are not great. The feds own too much land, and the BLM is run by complete idiots. There is no perfect place, but ID comes close.
 
I live at the southern end of the great megalopolis, BosNYWash, in southern Maryland, the so called, 'Free State'. Nothing free about it of course but it's been home for more than forty years. Gun laws suck here but we do have the finest politicians money can buy.

I've collected too much stuff to easily move so I've settled in for the duration. Lots of retirement travel allows me to enjoy visiting many states and savor a taste of what they have to offer.

Life could be tweaked a little to better suit me but I ain't complaining. Compared to how most humans on this planet live I've got it far better than 99+% of those living today or those who've ever lived - in all of human history. It's a wonderful time to be alive in this great land of ours.
 
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