My apologies for the length of this post. Because I withheld details before our trip, there is much to share with you here about our decision-making process. My intent is not to portray the following area in a bad light but to share what made us decide it would not be a good fit for us. There are people who are very happy living there and other folks who may find it fits their criteria for relocation. Each of us needs to find the best fit for ourselves.
Before we left for our trip, I'd hoped to get a post done on how to do research to find a new home. I ran out of time and now I'm glad I did. We have been pondering the relocation issue for well over a year. My sweetie has been doing most of the research*, working from a list of criteria we developed and continue to refine. We'd find potential places only to do a little more research and discover some aspect that made it unacceptable.
Last year, he started pushing for Missouri. I resisted, especially after the flooding in that region. I've also spent no time in the Midwest other than driving through it so I was completely unfamiliar with the area. For family and employment reasons, we eventually decided to stay in Arizona and spent months researching our options. When we finally got to the point of looking for a place to buy, reality smacked us upside the head; we couldn't afford anything other than a real dump in a rural area with a horrible commute. We considered having my sweetie live in a Tucson apartment during the work week to reduce the driving but we've done that before and hated it. It would also severely limit his time for gardening.
It was back to the drawing board. Again, Missouri emerged as an area that met many of our criteria. I still had some concerns. One was cultural differences as religion figures more importantly in the Bible Belt than it does here. Political differences also concerned me, especially since forming community would be important in our future. We narrowed the search down to the northern half of the state since the Columbia and St. Louis areas are more liberal and open to religious and cultural diversity (so we've heard and read).
Due to city size, the search narrowed in on the Columbia area. It has some real appeal. Their Farmer's Market boasts twice as many vendors, in a city of 100,000, as does ours here in a city of 1,000,000. Local harvest shows a lot of local organic food activity for the area. The city even has a vegetarian restaurant whose chef and baker has a tasty little blog. The weather is obviously conducive to growing food, although the summers are sticky and humid and the winters chilly. Chilly, that is, to a desert dweller, but not as brutally cold as Wisconsin, one of the other states long in the running for relocation. It is not, however, immune to tornado possibilities and, in fact, had potential severe weather forecast for the afternoon of the day we boogied on out of there.
In addition to good soil and plenty of water, a big draw to the area was cheap housing and low property taxes. We initially looked at smaller towns and somewhat rural areas. We both fell in love with a property online: a 7 acre parcel for sale with beautiful house, shop with power (that could be converted into housing for my mother-in-law), barn, and irrigation well for less than what a ratty little house on a normal lot in a rural desert community here (with no jobs) would cost. We threw all our eggs in the basket and decided this was it, we were moving to the Columbia area.
My sweetie arranged vacation time from work, I made the travel reservations, and even began pulling up roots here. I informed my CSA that we hoped to find a place on this trip and be moved by the end of June. We hauled all of our good finished compost to a friend's garden. I contacted Peak Oil Hausfrau to arrange to visit on our way through her area. I emailed lots of questions to bloggers in the area: Jennifer (another vegan!) in Columbia, and several others in St. Louis. All were very nice and I looked forward to eventually getting to meet them in person. I checked out the great local resources Jennifer lists on her blog's sidebar and felt like we could make this area work.
As the time to leave drew closer, doubts began to crop up. Could we deal with the culture shock? I mean the Midwest and the Southwest are pretty different! Could my sweetie deal with the hot, humid summers given his predisposition to overheat in hot temperatures? Could I deal with the lack of mountains? Would we freeze to death in January when the average high is 39 degrees and the average low is 19? Would we be able to find a place for us that could squeeze in my mother-in-law as well, if she decided she could deal with living in the Midwest?
We started discussing whether a place with enough acreage to be more self-sufficient (5-10 acres) was more important than living closer to the city where we'd be able to develop stronger community ties. We gradually shifted to thinking community was more important, which leads to higher property prices for smaller lots. Still, my sweetie found a couple of 1 acre places almost in the city and several other 1-3 acre places within 15 miles that were (barely) in our price range. We decided to take the leap of faith and trust that we could find a suitable future home.
I have to be honest. Missouri did not make a good impression on me in the first hour or so on the freeway. We'd driven through long, boring, radio-dead stretches followed by the prettier mountainous areas in New Mexico, the smallest chunk of Texas possible to drive through (the northern panhandle), and Oklahoma which was prettier than we expected. As we drove through Missouri, there were lovely trees in bloom but it was hard to fully appreciate them amidst the barrage of double-decker billboards. And what is with all the adult superstores on the freeway? I'm no prude, but I was shocked at the number of advertisements, and stores, located right on the interstate.
Still, I was trying hard to keep an open mind. At the end of another long day of driving, we pulled into our hotel in Moberly, some 30 miles north of Columbia. I couldn't find a hotel room in Columbia for our first five days there due to some event in town. We headed into Columbia the next morning. On the way, I noticed a place with a for sale sign and mentioned it. It turned out to be one on our list, so we went back to take a look from across the highway. It looked like a possibility, although it was a good 15 miles outside of Columbia on a highway.
Keeping the place in mind, I noted there was a fair amount of traffic. No, actually there was quite a lot of traffic. Still, it had potential because there was a nice wide shoulder on the highway where we could safely bike. That is, until we got to the outskirts of Columbia where the shoulder completely disappeared. Bikes would have to be in with traffic, still at high speeds, and in an industrial area. This was not looking so good anymore. No worries, more places left on the list.
As we drove through town, I spotted a bike store and we pulled in to get a map. They were out of bike maps but assured us it was a bike-friendly area and lots of people biked. We explored the city a bit and stumbled across the visitor center where I picked up a city map and lots of local information (but no bike map there either). We saw a few people walking around but not many, except in a city park which was packed with cars and people walking for exercise around a little lake. Next, I wanted to see where the vegetarian restaurant was in the downtown area. As we looked for a parking spot, I noticed there were only a few bikes locked up outside of the stores and we saw only one person on a bike (riding on the sidewalk).
Being able to bike to get around is a high priority for us and will be increasingly important as peak oil eventually drives gas prices back up. Despite the assurances from the bike store, that was not our observation. The only other people we saw on bikes were a guy riding in the park and one commuter. There were no bike lanes on the roads. The painted symbols indicated bikes were riding in with traffic. From what we could see, the drivers did not seem very bike-aware, although it's hard to say since we saw no bikes on the road with the cars! The traffic was bumper to bumper, though, with people zipping in a lane as soon as there was the slightest space available (just like in Tucson....but we have separate bike lanes). All in all, it did not feel or look bike-friendly to us. In fact, we saw more bike commuters this morning on our .8 mile walk with the dog here than we saw in all of Columbia.
Still, we did not want to discard our plans yet. Some testimonials online indicated at least a few people did commute by bike. We headed out of town to check out another potential area with several homes listed for sale. The road leading out had a shoulder for a brief time, but it was rough. Then it disappeared entirely and we were left on a narrow two-lane country road with twists and turns (read: blind corners) and fast traffic. This is not a safe combination for bike commuting. We went another direction to check out another house and ran into significant construction that looked like it would be going on for some time. The house was no longer on the market either.
One concern I voiced before the trip was the lack of mountains. I'd decided this was something I'd simply have to get used to because we really didn't feel staying in Arizona was an option, financially or for climate reasons. Driving through Oklahoma, we both realized the lack of mountains at the edge of the horizon was strange. After a while in Columbia, my sweetie mentioned that he felt disoriented without mountains to help him determine direction. I knew just what he meant.
In Arizona, there are small mountain ranges everywhere. Any direction you look has a mountain range in the distance. (See pictures from the Bosque post for examples of this.) Here at home, the Rincons are to the east, the Santa Catalinas to the northeast, the Santa Ritas to the south, and the Tucson Mountains to the west. A quick glance to the horizon makes a compass unnecessary for normal everyday travel.
Despite these various concerns, we probably still would have been willing to give it a go except for one last thing. It just didn't feel right. We have learned to trust our instincts over the years and we both had the feeling that this was not the right place for us. We could live there, of course, but we knew we wouldn't be happy living there. Quality of life is important, even in the search for a place that will fare well through climate change and peak oil challenges. We sadly decided this was not our answer and we spent our last day sightseeing. The subsequent incident with the dogs just confirmed our decision.
So, what now? We're not sure. We've decided that we'd be happiest staying in the Western states. The Southwest won't fare well with water so we'll be looking northward. Home prices are higher there so we plan to wait another 6-12 months for prices to drop, hopefully, within our range.
Was this trip a waste of our time and money? It's easy to feel that way, but, in all honesty, it was not. It taught us that what seems good on paper may not be what we really want in person. It gave us the opportunity for a much-needed vacation and we truly enjoyed meeting and visiting with Peak Oil Hausfrau and her family. We appreciated getting to see the countryside in the Midwest and had fun birding along the way and in a great little park in Moberly. We learned our dog could be quite the trouble-maker given the opportunity. The experience has re-affirmed the importance of remembering to find someplace we can live happily, not just someplace we can survive.
*For those of you also still researching options for relocation, here are some of the resources my sweetie recommends:
RealClimate & Global Change Research Program - for climate change predictions. Also read new studies as they come out.
Wikipedia - lots of good trivia about places
City-data - good demographics & community information
Chamber of Commerce & City websites - community information
Fema - flood maps
EPA - Superfund sites
LocalHarvest - CSAs, farms, farmer's markets
Google and Mapquest - maps
Once you are ready to look at real estate, here are a couple resources:
Foreclosures
Realty-trac
Zillow - good for value comparisons, but their actual numbers tend to be on the high side for the current market.
And some advice: You have to look at a lot of sources to find all of the houses in a market. Check local newspapers and realtors found through Yahoo searches. A lot of MLS searches get filtered through the realtor site that you use to link into the MLS. Not all area MLS sites allow direct public searches. So you need to access the MLS through multiple links to get a good picture.
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51 comments:
You have a wonderful outlook on your trip. It was a learning experience either way. Good for you!
Re: your comment that you decided to be closer to town to feel more part of the community. There are ways to connect even if you're rural. Our farmers' market vendors are all rural, but they meet 1-2 times a week for our market days and these market days are like mini festivals giving them the opportunity to connect with other farmers as well as dedicated and new customers. I've had some of the farmers tell me they love the market for that reason. Anyway, something to keep in mind: there are ways to connect even if you're not physically close...
Two Texan first to post! :-D
I have to tell you something and I don't want you to take it wrong.
There is no Eden, and anywhere you go, you're going to have to make some seerrious adjustments to what is normal and what you can accept. You always have to look on the bright side.
In Houston, we know it's not perfect. We know the weather SUCKS (but I must say the plants love it), the crime sucks (though it isn't violent crime at all), the racisim sucks (but we have a better ethnic palette than everywhere else I've seen), the traffic sucks (so don't drive), the poverty sucks (but we're not oblivious to it!) and it's pretty much ugly. But we're proud. There is even a spin off of Austin's keep Austin weird slogan: Keep Houston UGLY! Truth is, I find beauty every day.
Everywhere you go you'll have to learn to deal with hardships. You choose an alternative lifestyle and it happens. Go somewhere that at least 5 people are living a lifestyle similar to yours and learn to accept the crappy aspects. Houston has an AWESOME vegan community, several vegetarian restaurants, tons of thrifty minded folks (they're having a class on eco-knitting using recycled material at the library), bike commuters at the grocery store every time I go, and, of course, a big urban farmer community. I am happy every day I'm here, even if I'm stuck in traffic or reading about human trafficking or wading through puddles.
Just my two cents. Try to see things in an open light.
And stay away from violent dogs. :-)
Hi Chile, I was telling hubby about your trip to look for new digs. He was really surprised that you would want to be away from the mountains of the West. But, you gave it a try. And, you are so very correct: trust your instincts. When it's not right, it's not right. Life is not a dress rehearsal, so make it the best today that you can. We know there is no such thing as Utopia, but I hope you find something close.
Look at this as an opportunity. The lesson to learn will reveal itself. Good luck, my friend!
One thing you really learn looking for home is that even scenery can't replace good community and the right feel. I've lived in 16 different locations mostly round the same city but only two have felt like home. Even the place I grew up doesn't feel like home much as I love to visit.
The right place will turn up probably when you least expect it :)
viv in nz
If you'd gone slightly sw toward Defiance, MO you would have had the Ozarks to check out. They're gorgeous.
I had wanted to meet up with Jennifer on our trip but our plans didn't work out.
I found many of your observations to be true about bicycling in MO. However, the freeways paint a completely different picture than rural and other side roads.
If you want to haul ass again, check out Southern OK. It is conservative in the traditional sense (religion and political), but there is a fair number of bicycle advocates and riders that we met. The beauty is absolutely stunning.
And I have a view similar to Ruthie...there isn't an Eden to be found. There are better places (for example no kids and dogs are being abused in my current neighborhood), but it won't be perfect.
I'm glad you learned so much though.
Heather, one of the things we thought about with being rural is that even if we would be happy to bike to visit others, they might not be willing to bike to visit us when gas gets expensive. But, yes, I can see the farmer's markets being a great social opportunity.
Ruthie, we know there's no Eden or Utopia. However, we want to find the best possible fit that we can and the Midwest was really, really stretching the fabric. We've lived in a lot of different places. Some have felt comfortable right off the bat and others have always felt like we were just biding our time until we could move.
Maggie's Meadow - mountains are crucial for my sanity, even if I'm not off hiking in them. :)
Viv - we were looking for serendipity on this trip. Didn't happen. Now we're looking for it elsewhere.
Beany - no road trips for a while. Yikes. I just can't face sitting in a car for such long drives for a while. We thought about a little more sightseeing but wanted to cut our expenses as much as possible. (Still no word on the cost of the car repair.)
It sounds like your gut confirmed what your head knew -that is a sign of a good decision! If I were to move to the US for some reason, I would move to Oregon I think. But I will stay here near Edmonton for now :) All the best with your future research and searching -I know the right place is out there for you and your family! (And you do get used to the cold, really you do!)
Theresa, fyi it's not all it's cracked up to be (the beaver state, that is!)
Chile, I wanted to ask you about the mountains before you got to that part of your post. I kept thinking "isn't the terrain KILLING her?" We almost moved to Virginia once and I remember the heartsick ache I had every day when I looked out and nothing but trees. Without the mountains (the Cascades for me) I cannot get my bearings and feel somewhat "lost". I wondered if you had the same problem and then I found out - YUP.
If I could move anywhere in the US, I think I'd move to Ithaca, NY. Awesome, awesome town, and I think it has a lot of what you're looking for. And you do get over the cold thing. Really, you do.
Theresa - yep, trust the gut. (Except when it wants chocolate.)
Meadowlark - heartsick is exactly the right word.
Allie - beautiful, yes, but we'd be miserable in the summers and freezing in the winters. And there's too many damn trees in the way of the view. ;-)
Too bad your trip didn't result in a new home, but it sounds like you learned something valuable. Paying attention to those intuitions (having it "feel right") is important. Community is important.
We had much the same experience when we were house-hunting, including a "wasted" trip, and the sense of it just not feeling right.
We ended up here almost by accident - a place we had visited on vacation and thought, "What could it hurt to look at it again with a view to whether we could live there?" The feeling of community was what sold us.
If you decide to check out the north west, drop in for a visit!
Wow, Chile! I'm sorry that you didn't get the results that you were hoping for...but it was good that you put so much thought into it early on. Trusting your instincts is always a good way to go.
I love that you were able to come away from your adventure with something positive!
"Home" will turn up in the place you least expect it.
Oh sweetie... Ugh. I'm refraining from saying any bad things about Missouri b/c I don't want to offend anyone. I was born there and many of my relatives still live there, but it's just.... I agree it has that "not right" feeling. I wish you'd come through here (Lawrence KS), it's similar in that it's a college town but a totally different feel than Columbia.
About the biking- I think that anyplace where it is frequently way hot, way cold, or pouring rain (basically most of the midwest) isn't ideal for biking and therefore doesn't have the bike lanes and whatnot. I could be wrong about that though.
Hello - I've been lurking here for a while, and this post finally convinced me to contribute. A year ago, my husband and I decided to look around for most of your same reasons. We live near Atlanta, in a suburb which just doesn't seem like the best place to face climate change and peak oil, at least not for us.
We checked out Burlington, VT and Ithaca, NY. Our first impression of Burlington was not great - lots of goth college kids, nowhere to park, seemingly few small children, always overcast, etc. Luckily, we stuck around a bit and discovered that the touristy area we'd first visited wasn't all there was to the city. I can't even list all of Burlington's advantages, suffice to say that we now love it.
Long story short, upon returning home we spiffed up our house, listed and finally sold it, and are buying a house in Vermont!
We have a lifetime's worth of friends here in Atlanta, a beautiful home, and work. But we (I, especially) felt a strong urge to leave, and to lay down roots in an area that might be better for the kids down the road.
What I'm getting at is although there's no Eden, if you get to the point where you feel you really HAVE to move, try again. More places will look good, or at least better, and hopefully you'll find a great place that does feel right. With some nearby mountains, let's hope!
Chile, I had to laugh reading your post and then the comments! When our kids were babies we packed up everything we owned and drove to Utah planning to find a place to live. When we got to Salt Lake there was a housing shortage and I absolutely hated Salt Lake and told my husband to turn around and drive back to North Carolina.
We did actually end up staying in a little town about an hour east of Salt Lake and I fell in love with the mountains. A few years later we moved to Virginia and I kept getting lost. Couldn't see where I was going for all the damn trees!
Hope you find what you're looking for and fall in love with it. I am looking forward to living on my dream boat so I can just pull up anchor whenever I want to move!!
I'm sorry your trip wasn't better. It took us 3 trips here to find a house that we like and had most of our criteria. I'm sure you know no place is perfect. I still think you should consider Athens, GA. It has pretty much all of your criteria. We are about 15 miles outside the city and can see the mountains. Athens itself is a liberal college town with lots of biking, organic food, etc.
You may want to consider some of the UT and CO towns. The culture is familiar and you are used to desert conditions. We lived in Moab for 20 years and recently went back to visit and found it to be quite progressive (with 12,000 ft mountains at the edge of town).
We loved TN when we were there for 3 yrs of grad school. There is rain and mountains and diverse community and mild weather. Though as a westerner the culture was very different, and I missed certain cultural aspects like food (vegitarian seemed to be a bad word). There are also some great locations in North Carolina.
You have a lot of decisions ahead. If you want rain and cheap prices, there's a trade off for a westerner.
Wow - Columbia must have really changed since I was last there - I remember being so impressed by the bike lanes - even into the more rural areas. I guess that all went away.
You're right - ya gotta go with your gut.
Sorry it was such a bad trip for you.
Keith - it's good to hear others have been through the same experience and then found what they were looking for somewhere else. A visit would be great if we end up close enough.
knittinandnoodlin - our brains are tired from all the thinking. ;-)
Adrienne - a volunteer at my CSA is from MO and tried to warn me, too. I guess I should have listened. I have been warned against Lawrence, so you can't tempt me. LOL
c22arole - Thanks for delurking. It's great you found what you were looking for! AnnaMarie who blogs at Corgi Hill Farm has also tried to convince me Vermont is the place to be. I think we'd freeze to death in the winter. We have desert blood.
Pirate Farmer - a year back East taught me that trees make it hard to get your bearings. Are you still lost? When is this boat dream gonna happen?
Christy - it was a long shot for us to find a place we loved in a quick trip to somewhere we'd never been, but we've been feeling rushed to get moved. It's time for us to step back and slow down.
Verde - Moab? That's dry, dry, dry! We're trying to get away from places that dry. Colorado's a possibility although the plains get tornados. Winter in the Springs wasn't too bad.
artbystrongheart - we saw no separately marked bike lanes in town. There were painted symbols for bikes in the middle of the traffic lanes and no shoulder for most roads in town, although some of the larger ones had shoulders when crossing freeways and all the freeways had good shoulders (along with heavy and fast traffic). I really wish we could have found a bike map for reference, but it still doesn't change the almost complete lack of actual bodies out on bikes. I did errands in Tucson today and saw plenty of cyclists - commuters, roadies, DWI riders (forced to ride a bike because they lost their license), and people doing errands by bike.
Hey Chile,
Sorry Columbia didn't work out for you. I would have liked to have you for a "neighbor" (albeit a couple of hours away). You're right--a place can sound great on paper and then something you never even thought of can be a dealbreaker. My aunt and uncle picked their perfect retirement town... and AFTER they moved there, they found out it was a big poultry town, and my uncle had an unsuspected allergy to chicken feathers. At least you figured it out beforehand. Hang in there, you'll find a good fit.
You didn't see the prettiest part of Oklahoma. :) But yes everyone thinks Oklahoma is well Kansas lol. Eastern Oklahoma is super hilly and green and beautiful.
Also I'm so sad to hear you came through Oklahoma and I didn't see you. And it's funny that you have met an Oklahoma blogger and I haven't haha.
No one believes me when I say this but you get use to tornadoes. We have great warning systems and people in tornado alley know what to do. The weather man will even tell you what road the tornado is on lol.
I love Oklahoma. Missouri is also beautiful, I love the Ozarks. But if you didn't grow up here it takes getting use to. I was raised by Californians so it's still a bit for me at times. Some days I really want to move to some where more eco-friendly but then I go to some of my favorite parks and see spring here and I don't want to leave.
I'm hoping I can help Oklahoma become greener. My husband wants to move but it would most likely be to Missouri (where he was born), Colorado or Texas. MAYBE Arkansas.
Sorry it didn't work out as you'd planned, but I am glad that you listened to your instincts. I'm sure you'll find just the right place. :D
Honestly you'd only freeze 3/4 to death the first winter, you'd survive *lol* We slowly acclimated to the cold over the winter and I learned that layering clothing is best. Now when it's 30 degrees out this morning I just throw a shawl over my nightgown and grab slippers over my bare feet and inspect the peas. You really do get used to it. Vermont also has loads of mountains.
I am going to second you looking at Burlington or even many of the smaller towns in Vermont. It's lovely here and there are farmer's markets everywhere.
In fact... I have a meeting Saturday with our local FM folks who are starting a new one just 4 miles south of me and I'm going to be vending this year. I'm excited as all heck and it should be fun, fun, fun. At least that's what having 500 tomato starts tells me....
It sounds like the trip was a success in terms of ruling out a big part of the country. One can always make a home where they are, but if you are lucky enough to have the choice.... well, you are lucky! Best wishes in your continued search.
cathy c
For bike friendly midwestern open-minded cities, Madison WI would be my choice but then I grew up in rural northern IL and have lived in several more central/southern areas of IL and wouldn't find it "brutally cold." And while I enjoy mountain scenery, hiking, vacations, I find the mountains on the horizon thing sort of claustrophobic in the long term. I never owned a car and biked everywhere, bike lanes are real rarity in the midwest even in university towns where a lot of people bike and it simply is not safe to ride on the shoulder . . . you just have to claim your place in traffic and stick with it. As for bike maps, I would guess that's even more of a rarity. I think it's hard to evaluate how bike friendly a town is when driving around, I've visited Tucson (with a rental car or borrowed from my local relatives) and that experience would not have led me to say Tucson was bike friendly. That said, I'm shocked when I visit my mom with how much traffic there is on "country roads" these days. Good luck Chile ... (Missouri would never have been my choice.)
Maybe you didn't like it because it's NOT the midwest.
I kept laughing through your post every time you called Missouri the midwest. It's the south. If you are in the Bible belt, you are in the south. I grew up in SD, MN, and now live in WI. *This* is the Midwest. Anything south of Iowa is in the south. LOL
Instead of mountains, you can use a glance at the sun to determine direction (as long as you know what time it is). Plus, in the real Midwest, most roads run n-s or e-w which really helps.
I still vote for WI--it's not brutally cold! That's farther north (but I'm not one to talk--I'd move to Alaska....)
Ruth - how awful for your uncle. I assumed they moved as soon as possible? And yes, I'm sad I didn't get to meet you.
Lisa - are you in OKC? We spent a couple nights there (one each coming and going) but our time was pretty limited due to long drives each way. Sorry I missed you!
I think people often gravitate towards the places they grew up. Familiarity of home issues.
Katie - when we ignore our instincts is when things get rocky. :)
Anna M - but I don't know if Angel could deal with the cold. She's a little heavy to toss in the snowbanks. Cool beans on the new FM!
cathy c - yes, we are blessed to have the option to choose. I do however envy folks with a lot more money than us who have more choices.
SusanB - we've lusted after Madison but simply can't afford it. And I do agree that it's hard to tell bikeability from a vehicle. The lack of actual cyclists was a clue, though. And, after taking up biking, I changed how I drive and look at traffic. I closely study routes, drivers' behavior, and other cyclists whether biking or driving. It's been quite illuminating!
AnnMarie - this climate change map does include Missouri in the Midwest. :)
What draws you towards Alaska?
Oh, I should also mention that I can't ski. I've tried, more than once. I am good, really good, at falling down. I learned to be really good at getting back up, only to fall right back down. This was true of both downhill and cross-country. I've never tried snowshoing but suspect the slower pace might work for clumsy people like me.
My husband and I were in a similar boat as you - we relocated last fall from San Diego, CA with similar concerns about the long-term viability of the Southwest. I grew up in western WA (and left as soon as I could for sunshine), and we have family in OR and WA. You might seriously consider looking at some of the areas in OR, especially. We took a road trip 2 years ago through N. CA, OR, and WA to find our "best place" and we both fell in love with Ashland/Medford OR. It really sounds like what you are looking for - small community with a college that is pretty liberal. They have a world-renowned Shakespeare festival that makes the area triple in population for a month every summer, but is largely a sleepy little area. It's very bike friendly, mountains nearby and lots of recreation, great agriculture in the area (Harry & David is headquartered in Medford) and the properties in the are are wonderful little farms if you stay outside of Ashland proper. There are 2 local grain mills and the Dagoba organic chocolate factory in town. Everyone bikes everywhere because of the college and it's a really safe area. We eventually decided against it for family reasons - we have young children and decided that it was more important to be near grandparents and cousins. We ended up in a neat rural area in Eastern WA (apple country!) that is day-trippable into Seattle and close to lots of extended family. Other places that you might consider - Eugene/Springfield OR, and outskirts of Portland, OR. Since you want sunshine, I'd recommend staying out of Western WA, though parts of Eastern WA might float your boat (Twisp and Winthrop come to mind, perhaps Wenatchee). There are quite a few funky little liberal enclaves in WA and OR, and it's beautiful country with lots of water (think hydro!) and mountains. Good luck in your searching! I know I felt *so* relieved and safe when we finally moved out of San Diego in the middle of the credit crisis and into a house on 2 acres with lots of water and family nearby.
Well, I too have been lurking on here for a while and was moved to post about the trip you had. First of all, I’m a Missourian, I grew up a half-hour north of Moberly and attended MU for my undergrad degree (meaning I lived in Columbia for four years). I got my grad degree from the UofA – so I first started reading this blog for the Tucson nostalgia.
I can’t help you out with the mountains – and since I moved to the bay area after Tucson, I was completely disoriented by them for several years, I kept telling people to head south into the sunset. And, I know you’ve ruled out Columbia, but I think the Midwest is a hard nut to crack. Although Columbia is a college town, outsiders have to pay their dues for a while before the town will open up and reward you with its little gems. I only found the halal Muslim grocery, with all kinds of interesting ingredients, in my last year of living in Columbia.
About the biking, a bike-obsessed friend of mine works with this organization: http://www.pednet.org/, and she said that just last week she took her first ride of the season – that might tell you a little something about the weather. My recollection is that as soon as the weather is bearable, all the students start biking.
I think you are right to be looking for a town with a university – the MU Extension Center has excellent resources for gardeners, including classes and helpful tips on local gardening challenges.
Also, I think anywhere in the US you have to get off the interstates to see anything of any worth. If I judged Arizona by the I-10 between Tucson and Phoenix, I wouldn’t have a very good impression either. However, if you take the side road and go through Florence, it’s stunningly beautiful.
I love that people are delurking!
Anonymous - yes, there are beautiful places in the Pacific NW. One concern is the cloudiness as we both struggled some with Seasonal Affective Disorder while living in Eugene for a year. (There were 5 - count 'em, FIVE - days of sunshine throughout the entire winter!) We've spent time in Ashland but unfortunately missed the Festival.
I love the Yakima valley in Washington and could really go for the fresh fruit up there. Living in the shadow of a volcano? Not sure, though.
Deebswriting - I'm a HUGE fan of using the Yellow Pages and had already noted the number of ethnic and natural grocery stores in town. (The one you mentioned is Campus Eastern Foods, right?)
Maybe we were there too early for the cycling season but it was gorgeous weather for our visit.
Yeah, the interstate in Arizona can be pretty damn ugly! LOL Unfortunately, one of our experiences with a country road in MO turned out to be the worst of the trip!
Chile,
Like Ruth, I was looking forward to having you as a "neighbor." As a MO resident who relocated from Seattle nine years go, I can definitely understand the "not right" feeling of not having mountains (and in my case, water) to help me orient myself. I can also understand your fears about culture shock - many things took quite a bit of getting used to, and there are some things (discrimination, poverty, etc.) that I've deliberately chosen not to get used to.
At any rate, I am glad that you and your hubby decided to spend a period of time in the area before you took the plunge, as it sounds like Columbia just isn't the place for you. I definitely wish you luck in the search when you've recovered enough to pick it back up again...
I think, in line with deebswriting, that throughout the midwest you have to pay your dues to crack the "cool" part of town and it's really hard if you don't have local contacts in the area and you have to work harder at it if you are looking for something apart from church/conservative politics. Another midwestern place I've always lusted a bit after Bloomington IND, especially after wandering into an AI/Russian house party while in town for a convention (when I was in grad school elsewhere). I was offered a job once in Knoxville TN and bailed after a horrendously hot and humid August weekend of house hunting and dismal social activities and superbly boring eating. Later I read that despite the large Indian population associated with Oak Ridge, at the time the only way to get an Indian meal was to get invited to someone's house.
It's a really tough process, finding a new place that you like.
I still vote Colorado. For my own selfish reasons, of course! Just kidding!
Anyway, there is more water closer to the mountains (I've live against the foothills, and have lived 30 minutes east of them, and the water difference is pretty significant!)... AND tornadoes on the front range are exceedingly rare. I can only think of ONE in my 10 years here, and it was a weird fluke. Eastern Colorado is pretty dry, and VERY conservative. Plus, in Colorado there is enough natural rain adn snow fall to keep my bluegrass lawn relatively healthy and green for most of the year without extra water. :) I KNOW you can't do that in Arizona. It's not the prettiest lawn, and it does go dormant in the summer, but it hasn't died yet in five years of neglect.
It sounds like you are going to have to compromise on SOMETHING to find what you want. I can't think of one place with moderate summers and winters, AFFORDABLE housing and land, and lots of water. WHAT you will compromise on will be the key for your decision, I think... and it may turn out to be not a compromise afterall, but an opportunity in the long run.
Best of luck! These decisions are hard. I sort of fell into where we are living, and like it a lot. But, I don't know where my first choice would be if I had one!
Thanks for posting aboutyour trip, chile. I wondered how you were making your decisions to move and this answered some of those questions.
I've never been to Missouri, the only part of the country I've really seen in the MidWest is the Tulsa Oklahoma area which is quite green and pretty.
Unfortunately, interestates aren't the most scenic parts of any state or city.
I lived in maryland for 5 years about 20 years ago and I loved the greenness and the natural water and the spring. But the trees and buildings blocked out the open sky and when I saw sky it was clouded over or a hazy blueness.
I was glad to have the Arizona blue sky above me when I moved back. and I also missed what mountains we have when I lived in the east.
Peace,
shamba
Thought I'd pop in to the conversation for a second, considering I'm a Columbian...
First off, Chile, you're completely right--Missouri part of the Midwest. We're north of the Mason-Dixon, for one, and I go to school in Arkansas, so I would know ;)
Traffic flows really well in Columbia, so I'm surprised you had trouble with it, but Mizzou events definitely make parts of town unbearable on occassion. And there aren't many bike lanes, it's true, but there are more every time I come home from school. My parents live on the west side of town, and I find that most places I need to go are easily accessible by bike--albeit by the Katy Trail (it heads right into downtown), not a bike lane that follows the road. It is a pretty spread out, car-dependent city, as are a lot here in the US.
And yes, the billboards are excessive. They make me want to vomit. Especially the Mizzou ones on the way out of town toward St. Louis--no one needs a billboard for EACH LETTER. Bleh.
I really love my little city, especially when I'm stuck at college in a town with NO public transportation and so many other shortcomings... the good thing is that wherever I go, I see more and more signs of progress.
...We'll see how I feel about living in the States when I come home from living in an ecovillage for 3 months... I have a feeling if won't be pretty.
Arizona - thanks for clarifying that. I'm from Texas and we've never considered Missouri the South either. During Civil War times, I'm not sure they would have been the North, either though. Were they considered the West at that point? Anyway, I was glad to hear I'm not the only Southerner who wouldn't claim Missouri :)
Heather: I thought Texas was it's own country...separate from all things U.S. :)
Beany - there's still trying :)
Did you make it to one of the intentional communities or Dancing Rabbit ecovillage, while you were up there?
If I didn't have to have a job, or send my kid to school, I'd live in northern Missouri in a heartbeat. The east side sure *looks* like Eden. But if you have to have a job it's different...there's a reason it's so cheap to live there.
Heather and AnnMarie,
We're right smack in the middle! Definitely in the midwest region, although southern Missouri does identify with the South culturally.
Missouri is either the northern-most southern state, or the southern-most northern state. It was a border state in the Civil War, and sent soldiers to both sides. As for the east/west divide, St Louis (the "Gateway to the West") is supposed to have more in common with east coast cities, while Kansas City has more in common with the western cities--you can even see a difference in architecture, with KC having more prairie-style roofs, etc, that you don't see in St Louis. You could say MO is where all the regions come together.
Word verification = moler (MO -ler)
OK a thought: Before we started being "sent" places, I wanted to find an intentional community. Have you considered it? There is a clearing house website where you can choose your criteria: from religous fanatical (no?) to eco sustainable housing.
Here is one example http://www.bhfarm.org/
Thank you for being so honest about your experience! MOving can really suck but at least you are taking your time to figure out what will work for you both in the long run. I have lived in Michigan, Texas and here at home in Colorado. I also don't like being without my mountains.
Just wanted to comment on Colorado as a possibility. The eastern plains are definitely tornado prone but if you are in the foothills of the mountains (Boulder, Lafayette) it's just not an issue.
Good luck with your search.
Lori - thanks, and I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you in person.
SusanB - my sweetie and I talked a lot about the challenges we'd face there without a religious affiliation and also without children. People with diverse beliefs can bond through the common denominator of having children going to school together.
Jennifer - Colorado is certainly mountainous with water. We ran into some conservatism in Co. Springs but it was nice overall.
We know we have to make compromises. The hard part is choosing what to compromise. :)
Shamba - I had the same reaction to Maryland when I lived there for a year. Could never see where I was going. I also noticed the different quality of the sky, even when clear, in Missouri. Arizona truly does have "blue skies" (as well as gorgeous sunsets). If only we had more water and less summer heat...
arizona - please don't take my comments on your town personally. What works for you and 100,000 other residents there just didn't work for us.
Heather, Beany, & Ruth - carry on. ;-)
Rosa - no. Wasn't even aware of it.
Rosa & Verde - We have mixed feelings about intentional communities, and I'm not sure we'd fit in.
Tia - I hear the wind blows all the time in Boulder... Between the two of us, we've lived in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, and Oregon, plus a couple of full summers in upstate New York. We've been happiest in the Western states.
Don't judge the liberalness of Colorado on Colorado Springs! It is NOT "average" for a city/town in Colorado on the Front Range! (It and Boulder are polar opposites... both are just that far off of average). Try Northern Colorado along the mountains, instead. I'm not saying that there aren't conservatives here, but we voted overwhelmingly for a democratic rep, a democratic senator, a democratic pres. last election here in Central/Northern Colorado. :) Just thought I'd clear up the "Colorado Springs as normal" issue. It IS the home to Focus on the Family... which explains part of the lean right.
"Yakima valley in Washington and could really go for the fresh fruit up there."
Fresh fruit, yes. Pesticides everywhere, yes. Water issues, yes.
Again no Eden.
EJ
Well, I'm glad you went with your gut and think you're right about the idea of staying in the west - though I don't know how far north you can tolerate being! All of your reasoning made a lot of sense to me, and I think you're right about the community thing. One of the hardest parts when we were in the middle of nowhere in the desert has being so far from anyone that wasn't shooting people up or just pretty crazy.
By the way, you're right about the mountains, I still visualize the ones by home when I'm figuring direction, even out here in Maryland.
LOL, Roy. I got so disoriented in Eugene because the mountains were in a different direction that we had to buy one of those goofy compasses to put on the dash. Sorry we won't be moving closer to Maryland.
Such a great post! We discovered the research vs. reality aspect of relocating from one state to another as well. However, we knew we were moving to Oregon because I lived here as a kid and I love it. But what area? What community? Homes on line are so different than they are in person. I do kind of wish I'd worked a little harder to locate a more liberal and religiously diverse community- we landed ourselves smack in the middle of the Oregon bible belt!
So, the adventure continues. You are wise to wait until you find a place you'll be happy in. That is such an important factor.
Oh, I definitely didn't take your post personally--I thought it was a great look at what Columbia needs to work on. You hit a bunch of my issues with the city, but I just wanted to add a little side note. After all, I'm not going to be living there after I graduate, so that says something, I guess... I still do have an attachment from growing up there, though ;)
I think it's at least worth visiting some intentional communities - I *loved* Sandhill Farm, but it's really, really small. We visited Dancing Rabbit (these are both NE Missouri, not too far south of the Iowa border) and I didnt' care for it at all, but that was nearly 10 years ago and it's a lot different now.
The problem with small towns & rural areas is they're generally pretty conservative, politically, and also can be really insular - intentional communities have a lot of the same issues but are usually more up-front about what they're selecting for. I think it's worth at least visiting them, when you're in the area - among other things, the concentration of vegans is WAY higher.
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