Why do you live there???

[Poppa]

OK, this post has been sitting on the back of my mind for a while now. I notice that we have people from around the world, including; Australia, South Africa, Turkey, Croatia, and Ireland. There might be even more that I have forgotten. As far as the states go, I believe that I have seen at least one post from each of the fifty except maybe Hawaii, I can't remember one from there.

So, during some of the posts I hear about some of the difficulties about the various places. There have been posts about wacky weather, tornados, and record breaking rain.

There is usually a good post about some adverse flora or fauna. Right now there is one about Poison Ivy that makes me itch to read it and one about yellowjackets that has me waving a hand around my head. I've heard about Fire ants and learned about mud daubbers. Snakes and bears.

And then lets not forget about how sometimes the land is just cussed. AndyM is fighting flooding and Junkman gave me a lesson on "Ledge" that had me shaking my head. And more than one of you has posted a pic of a large rock being moved by a small CUT.

So what I want to know is: Why do you live there? Did you grow up there? Is it all you know? Is it all you want to know?

I ask this because I consider myself a long term itinerant. Don't know if that makes sense so I will try to explain. I grew up in Southern California and hated it. I spent twelve years in Western Washington and liked it but in the end the constant rain drove me out. In fact the year I left I had just returned from a month in Hawaii. It proceded to rain 93 days in a row. After day fifty I told my wife we were leaving. She was happy as a clam because she hated the rain from the day we moved up there.

I live in Eastern Colorado now in what used to be called the "Great American Desert". Probably a lot of rebounding effect in that neither me or the wife wanted to see a tree or a rain drop. We picked a good place. We both like it here and think it is a pretty good place to raise the kids but I can't help but feel that in ten or twenty years I am going to be ready to head somewhere else. Maybe the southest. Might be ready for some trees and humidity by then. So, for me everywhere is home and yet I have no real deep roots. Makes for good and bad. What I like the most about eastern Colorado is a hot summer day with thunderstorms brewing over the Rockies and the hit or miss way they drop their rain before they mosey off towards Nebraska and the strong smell of wet dust and sage when they decide to drop the rain around my house. What I dislike the most about eastern Colorado is a forty degree day in December with a constant thirty MPH wind. The roaring of which will actually make you feel like you are going insane. With the girls now, I miss being near family but not enough to EVER move back to Southern California even if I did win the Lottery and could afford it. I also like having family visit me out here and being able to show them exactly why I needed to get away from that megopolis.

Anyway, if you don't mind, tell me why you live where you do. What do you like best? What do you like least? Do you wish you lived somewhere else? Will you ever move?

I'm not looking to start geography wars here. There are no right or wrong answers, just answers. I'm not making a list of where I might move to next, I want to know why YOU live there.

Sorry, one last thing. If you could post a Picture that sums up why you live there I think it would be great too

Thank you, Mike

 

[Junkman]

Please write your essay between 1000 -5000 words, single spaced. You will be graded on content, originality, and candor. You will receive 50 points for just spelling the name of the town where you live correctly. You now have 2 hours to complete this assignment and at the sound of the bell, pick up your keyboard and start typing. At the sound of the second bell, please stop typing, no matter where in the sentence you are. The blue books will be collected by passing them from left to right and picked up by the proctors.
Those receiving a passing grade will continue on with their education at TBN University.

 

[daedong]

Please write your essay between 1000 <font color="red"> Hi I live in south Australia, it is a great place to live because every one here has a sence of humour. </font> 5000 words, single spaced

 

[txdon]

One picture = one thousand words.

 

[theonlybull]

clementsport, Nova Scotia, Canada here.
born, rasied, and probably will die here, i love it, we're close to the water, surrounded by trees, nice ppl and plenty of hunting and fishing. life's a comfortable pace, low cost of living, and i just have no reason to be anywhere else.

 

[yonahforge]

Northeast GA mountains - moved away from Atlanta 8 years ago when our rural community had grown so much that you had to wait for several minutes to leave your own driveway.

Of course right now were getting into tourist season. Anybody know the daily limit? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

One of the reasons we're here is this is attached. This is about 2 miles from the house, and pass it every day. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Boondox]

Short answer = love of a wonderful woman.

Long answer = After serving on several warships and even a submarine I have this strange love of open spaces. Grew up in San Diego but travelled the world in the military, and when I got out I settled back in SD. But with over a million souls in the area I found it just as claustrophobic as being on a tin can. But I was teaching, on the tenure track, and it had to be something REALLY good to pry me away.

Her name was Tamara. Lived in the sticks of Vermont. Still single in her thirties from caring first for her mother who died of leukemia and then for her aging grandmother. We met, we got to know each other, we wed. She came to San Diego and lasted half of one semester before homesickness sent her packing. I finished teaching that semester and gave it all up to join her. Never regretted it one instant, and life just gets better and better as we embrace each other's numerous quirks. Here's a photo of one of hers. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Pete

 

[riptides]

We tried to escape the suburbs for more open space. Why drive 1 hour to work when you only live ten minutes away?

Now the open spaces are consumed and being developed rather quickly around here, but it is home. The seasons are the reason for being in this geographic area. We get it all, and we get the extremes. From -15 degrees one winter to 105 degrees hazy, hot and humid.

I have this desire for more space, I am greedy for it, but I am not ashamed to say so.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

This is a scene of the backyard this winter.

And here it is a few weeks ago.

I still drive 1-2 hours each way to work. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Figure that out? Look at the pics for my answer.

 

[Golfgar4]

As a kid, my family did a lot of moving around because of my father's work. We lived in Illinois, Colorado, Wyoming, then back to Illinois, moved to different suburbs of Chicago three times and then finally to Wisconsin when I was in Junior High School. So moving has never really bothered me.

After getting into college, I won the ONLY lottery I've ever won and ended up in the Navy. During my tour, I was home on leave when I met my wife. She was a local girl who had never been out of her home town. Everything worked out well and we got married, and we moved out to Washington D.C. where I was stationed. We both were looking forward to getting away from the hometown.

Well, after living in D.C. for 3 years, we never so glad to get out of there and get back to our home town! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Now that I'll be retiring next year, we've been discussing what we'd like to do. Both of us would love to move someplace else, but she's having a real hard time dealing with the idea of leaving her parents. Both of my parents are gone, but we're real close to hers. And she's worried that now that they're in the mid 70's, their health may start being a problem and she feels she needs to be here for them. I understand what she's going through, but I also keep telling her that we can't let our lives be controlled by others.

Will we ever move? Yes, I think so. But not necessarily out of state. We've always loved Wisconsin (except the taxes /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif), and we probably will end up buying our acreage in the country within a reasonable driving distance of her folks. It'd be nice if it was on a lake or river, but that would be pretty expensive.

Sorry, no pics to attach right now. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Gatorboy]

The main reason is the ideal seasons. When you think of the stereotypicial seasons in your mind, Maryland pretty much pegs them all.

: Winter's are not harsh like Illinois (where I grew up), but we do get snow and cold temps.
: Spring is such a beautiful time of color and growth in the trees, grass, etc.
: Summers are generally perfect (high in 80's low's in 60's) other than the occassional heat waves of high temps and humidity.
: Fall is when the air gets crisp and the leaves turn to the beautiful orange, red and yellows.

Each season brings upon new activities and chores which breathes new excitment into life. When I lived in Florida, it seemed as though you never had anything different to look forward to. Even trying to remember when past events happened was hard without the contrast in seasons to help jog your memory of when you did what.

I enjoy being within a day's drive of many historical places and day trips.

I have no intentions of ever living anywhere else. There may be better places, but there is no reason to gamble on that when I'm already happy and content. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[hillslider]

We moved to West Virginia 5 years ago from northern Wisconsin. If we ever moved again it would only be back to Wisconsin for us. We both love the outdoors and love ling out in the country. Plus the wife would not have a place to ride her horse Bo if we did not live in the country. Living in WV is great. Taxes are low...alot of scenery....good people.

 

[Poppa]

Junkman, the winking smiling face is kind of freaky. Must say that though your response is not surprising, it was a little disappointing. You see, Connecticut was a perfect example of my own ignorance of certain US geography. I look at a map, see CT smack dab between NY City and Boston and just assumed the whole state was a bedroom community for those two cities. Bunch of two-story, clapboard sided, houses, a strip mall with a Gap, an Old Navy and a Walgreens, two gas stations and a Dunkin donuts. Then I see some of the Pics you have posted and the pics from (I believe) Steve in CT showing open spaces and it strikes me as odd even though all it really did was highlight my own ignorance. Heck, when I looked at your profile and saw you had 15 acres I started to wonder just how big a percentage of CT you actually owned.

Anyway, Glad you were able to have some fun with the post and if you ever fell like talking about why you live there, well then I'll be here to read that as well. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

TXDON, I should have put in a disclaimer for Texas. Why anyone lives in Texas is obvious, it is merely the best place on earth. Anyone who has ever been to Texas knows that living there is enough reward to make up for any wrongly perceived short-comings. I would live there tomorrow but the wife will not go.

Boondox, classic example of making assumptions about people. I see Vermont for your location and just assumed you were a lifer there. Didn't know anyone ever moved to or from Vermont let alone from San Diego, WOW! Your answer has been echoed by Gary and others and is also part of my answer. Wives. Good ones are worth following to hell and back. Bad ones there is no return trip. I would love to move farther East and see more of the country but my wife is now a thousand miles from family in CA and she will not move any farther away. Because of what she means to me, that is just fine.

MikeZ, I honestly do not know how you get into a vehicle and drive away from that to work. Vistas like that would have me glued to a chair with a cup of coffee. Absolutely beautiful. And that goes for Hillslider as well. And Gatorboy, I have seen pics of your place in other threads. Your's too is fantastic place.

Thanks for the responses so far and hopefully everyone will keep them coming.

Mike

 

[MarkV]

I bounced around a bit from Illinois, Florida, California and ended up in Georgia for the last 17 years. The Southeastern climate and people seem to suit me though I could do with out a couple of the summer humid months. Met my bride and were pretty happy with Atlanta city life for the first 10 years. As the city got bigger and my patience shorter we built a weekend get away house in the N.E. Georgia mountains not far from Yonahforge's photo. Found that we spent more time there than our big expensive house in the city. Decided when retirement came we would get that country dream place with some land. The wife parents are having some health problems in their senior years and we were spending more and more time near them in N.W. Georgia. Stumbled onto the near perfect, for us, retirement place near her folks and put the retirement cart before the horse.

Sorry no photos so I'll just have to say that I am sitting here typing while I look out at the ducks and deer across the 5 acre pond in the middle of our 32 acre wooded tract.

MarkV

 

[Harv]

I've lived in Northern California all my life. The climate is such that tennis is pretty much a year-round sport. In my somewhat younger days I would scuba dive in the Pacific and ski in the Sierras, sometimes in the same week. Outstanding schools and hospitals (something for the kids and something for me /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif).

Our governor is also an action figure. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

To be totally realistic, though, I'd have to say that this list is pretty accurate. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[pd444]

I've got ancestry traced back to the Creeks and Choctaws along the upper Gulf Coast. I've also got some ancestors that whacked them on the head and sent them into the swamps and off to Oklahoma.

While the whole story is a bit more sad than I have portrayed, one way or another, my family has been in these parts for hundreds of years.

The picture shows you a spot I hold dear and defining.

P.S. to Gatorboy: Since you brought it up…There is something to look forward to in Florida--all the Northerners going home. Thanks for doing your part.

 

[fenneran]

Lived in N.J. as a kid, then grew up in Orlando. Hot, flat & crowded is how we always described it. My wife and I had always talked about living in the mountains of Virginia, but then careers, kids, relatives and other things got in the way. We decided that we would probably retire there. Then, driving through the Shenandoah Valley on the way home from a family visit in CT, we felt God was telling us that now was the right time to move. We pulled off at the next exit and camped for a couple of days to get a lay of the land. I stopped by the chaber of commerce to get a list of companies in the area. That was September, 1996. By November, I had gotten a job and moved up. The house was on the market and we were on our way. (A year after moving up and renting a house, we actually bought a small farm about a mile from that campground!)

What we found was not hot, not flat and not crowded. We get three months of every season so when you are about tired of one, the next one starts. We're in a small town where you can stop at the gas station and chat with your neighbors for an hour, yet close enough to D.C. (2.5 hour drive) to see the museums and things. In Florida, you had to drive for hours just to start your trip. Here, we can be in five different states in a matter of hours.

Unless the good Lord has other plans, I am going to die here.

-Frank

 

[Chuck52]

I'm an academic-type with a specialty that requires a fair-sized university to have a place to do my thing. Both my wife and I are from East Tennessee (note the capital E in East - it isn't the same state as Memphis), and we moved from there to Norman, Oklahoma, then to the suburbs of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and finally to the middle of Missouri, as my career meandered along. I can't say I'm strongly attached to Missouri, though the southern part of the state is nice and reminds me of home. I would retire back to the mountains of East Tennessee, western North Carolina, northeast Georgia, or the corner of Virginia, if I had my wish. However, we now have locally produced grandchildren, and I suspect we are rooted here. Three years ago, we moved out of the small city where the university is located onto about 10.5 acres, far enough from the city limits that we expect to expire before we are annexed. I miss mountains and clear running streams. This part of the state tends more toward muddy creeks, many of which only flow during spring. There are some beautiful areas around here, and I like my little homestead, but I fear I am one of those people who will always feel a strong pull by the old home place. It always seems to me that there should be a mountain just over there a little ways, and it's not there.

Chuck

 

[chim]

I have lived in 4 places (in a small town) before getting married almost 34 years ago, and 3 places (out of town) since then. All of these are within a two mile radius. I have been to Arizona, Florida, and places in between. I spent a week in Ecuador and one in Hawaii.

I like it here because of the seasons, familiarity, family nearby and the terrain. People from the northern part of the commonwealth call us "flatlanders", because it isn't nearly as hilly as up North. Real flat land, like Florida or out in the western part of the US doesn't appeal to me at all. Wifey and I have thought about pulling up stakes and relocating to the area around State College or farther North at times just because we want to be farther from the cities and towns that are creeping nearer and nearer.

I can still walk out back and try different loads in the pistol without disturbing anyone. I like it that way. We don't dislike people, but do enjoy living with enough space so the neighbors don't hear us when we flush the toilet /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif................chim

 

[KubotaSteve]

Born and raised in WV and love the peace and quiet of the country although with our crazy county commissioners, they are trying to turn our county into more of a city type place. I travel back and forth to Washington DC to work and wouldn't live there if someone paid me. The trip by commuter train is about 1.5 to 2 hours each way. It makes for a long day but watching my kids running through our land makes it all worth it. I have pictures of my tractor and land in my office and the people I work with who live in the DC area are just amazed. The funniest thing is about these crazy cicadas. DC has them all over the place and I haven't seen a single one at my place knock on wood. People around me have them on their property but not one on mine yet.

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Pacific Northwest, rains all the time, traffic is terrible, prices are out of sight, full of mean spirted people, nobody lives here it is to crowded. Stay away at all costs.