Which state does everyone like the best?

ugh...used to experience the black flies and deer flies in Canada on camping trips in early summer...brutal...they would take chunks of skin out; we have moderately bad ticks and mosquitos here in Central Ohio though, so I am used to that

I would not care about internet so much as having cold, snow and distance from people...I really hope that you guys don't get a huge influx of people up there to destroy the quiet and wilderness though. I hate seeing that happen

 

yep...MI is number one on our list of retirement places so far! Just hope that a bunch of people don't follow!! I want it all to myself!!!!

 

Good friend is beta testing Starlink right now. I am running a direct wireless solution available in a few places, but it's not as fast. Don't care since about the only thing the big screen gets used for is Sox and Bruins. Libe has plenty of DVD's and books even.

 

WV isn’t full, and there’s a reason. Better to visit.

 

Don't come to Arizona, we're full.

 

Been to all 50 states and and each has good things .... but GA, TX, FL, NC, SC (best for me) ... maybe AL (by the Gulf) ........ I like warm weather.

Lived in Canada and Finland and much toooo cold for me now ... like the warm weather.

 

Check out Wheeling, West Virginia. I have friends who live there and love it.
You should be able to find plenty of work in and around Wheeling, including just across the Ohio River in the State of Ohio.
Tennessee is another State that people are moving to and are glad they did.

 

Go dirty Jersey!!! Best state to live in! As a resident of this state I have to say, they are WAY off!

https://www.nj.com/news/2021/06/nj-named-best-state-to-live-in-by-national-website.html

 

As a resident of northern WV, I can confirm that Wheeling is a dump. The only reason people go there anymore is for the crown jewel of WV, the Cabellas.

 

@FreshPots My first time to check your thread. Saw the "no 50 response polls allowed" on page one.

Have you narrowed it down enough for a smaller poll?

Just glancing through see a lot of votes for Tennessee. I live in the very southern end of Indiana and have spent time in TN. I'd agree Eastern TN is a good prospect. Nashville area too expensive. I had some family in Johnson City for a while. Nice area, but it is a little hillbilly, but I'm okay with that being a Midwesterner. Other parts of the country claim to be "live and let live" up until they meet some hillbillies. Midwestern folks walk the walk in that regard.

I also have family that has a vacation house in Western NC near Boone. Same comments as TN. May just come down to real estate pricing and work.

Still some areas of Eastern NC that aren't completely taken over by wealthy North-easterners downsizing for retirement. I lived on the coast there for several years. Loved that area. The area between Raleigh and the coast maybe. 4 hrs to mountains, 1-1.5 to the coast. Look up the Wilson, Goldsboro, Kinston, Greenville area.

 

Any updates? Hope it’s all working out for you

 

I’m feeling too lazy to get into all the in’s and out’s but let’s just say I feel pretty qualified to take part in this thread because I’ve actually lived in a lot of the states mentioned, and if I haven’t lived in them I’ve at least visited them enough to have a pretty good idea of what they’re like to live in because I have close friends or relatives who do live there.

I’ve also physically been to every state in the lower 48 except for Washington. So just to give you an idea I’ve actually lived in: NJ, CA, OK, PA, TX, ME, MI, NM, MN. Also lived in Europe for a few years but that’s neither here nor there for the purposes of this discussion.

I’m tempted to mention the states that I’ve visited for extended stays either through work or friends/relatives but they are too numerous so I’ll leave them out, but let’s just say there’s a pretty good regional cross section and I’m pretty familiar with most especially if they border any of the states already mentioned.

I’m just not in the mood to type up a long list of stuff right now but if you have specific questions about any of these places, PM me and I’ll be happy to expound on them. I will say that some of the places I’ve seen mentioned here I wouldn’t go near for various personal reasons. Maybe those are reasons others might not care anything about.

Some of the places I love, other people might hate due to their own personal needs or likes. I’ll tell you straight if I know. If I don't know I’ll tell you that too. Some people get really butt hurt about their states so I really don’t want to do that here openly. I have no dog in the fight with any of them and will tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly regardless.

I’m already retired and live in NM as a compromise with my wife, but the states I’d move to right now if I could afford to live wherever I wanted would be, ID, MT, WY, UT. or SD, probably in that order. My preference is to live in clean, outdoorsy, rural areas away from others, yet close enough to places that have all the necessary amenities available when needed.

As an honorable mention if politics and cost of living were not an issue, any small town in Minnesota or Wisconsin would be right at the top of my list. My son and grandchildren live in Waconia so I spend a lot of time up there. The people and general quality of life is second to none!

Because you asked about it specifically, I lived in Maine for eight years. The winters are brutal, especially depending on where in the state you live. I lived in a very rural section in the north western mountains. Coldest temp I’ve ever actually experienced was -58 below F. That’s not wind chill, that’s actual temp. Even colder than where I lived in the UP of Michigan which had equally challenging winters.

Maine summers are nice but the black flies are BRUTAL. Taxes are high and the politics in some of those little towns are very weird, as are the locals. Mainers are a strange bunch in general and very suspicious of outsiders. If you’re not born and bred there you’ll never truly be considered a Mainer. Having said all that, I love Maine and would probably still be living there if it weren’t for family considerations.

However, you have to really want and enjoy the unique things the state has to offer - as I did - to live there happily. Most of the guys I know who weren’t from the state grew tired of it pretty quickly due to some of the many downsides, many of which I haven’t even mentioned.

The one most important thing I’ve learned from having lived in a lot of different places is that there really is no one place that is perfect. It’s all compromise. There will always be some things you really like mixed with some things you really hate, or at least don’t like so much. The trick is to decide what you are most looking to get out of a place so you can find the right balance between the good and the bad. If the the bad things aren’t so overpowering that they creep in and start to take away from the good things, you’ve found your Nirvana.

Also don't let the romance or reputation of a particular place sway you into making a hasty move without really digging in to the realities associated with life there. That’s a huge pitfall I’ve seen a lot of people fall into - myself included.

Good luck with your search…

 

I was in C-Bus a week ago to visit the zoo with my daughter. GREAT zoo, but you're right- the city has changed. Lived there for a couple years in the 90s and it DID feel like a small town. Now traffic is just as bad as Indy(where I'm at).

Speaking of Indiana, nobody has mentioned it. For good reason- keep looking! If you are are only interested in a low cost-of-living it may be the place for you. However, I've learned in the 40+ years I've been here that there's always a compromise for that. Our roads suck because we are 'the crossroads of America'. This means every semi trailer in the country drives on our highways and docks at one of the thousands of warehouses/distribution centers. Our location is great for logistics because we are a day out from 80% of the population of this country. NOT great if you don't like hearing trailers backing into docks because every field around the house you built 20 years ago is now a warehouse!

When my daughter graduates next year I will be moving. Living in Indiana I've had to travel to see interesting things so I've been to a few places. I've not been out West yet so I'll be taking a couple trips this year to scout areas. I'm thinking either northern New Mexico or Utah. Michigan is the only place out here I would move to. I go there every summer for a week or so and will probably return even if I'm far away.

 

He must be busy moving

 

Hi everyone! I am indeed alive! Trip was 6,800 miles in 24 days and was awesome! I'll be doing a proper write up this weekend when I have a second, soon as I got back it was back to work playing catch up and haven't really had time to sit down and transfer stuff from my notebook to the computer. Once again I appreciate everyone's input and thoughts about where to look!

 

Looking forward to reading your write-up................

 

Just to bring this full circle from the OP’s other thread

Good luck with the move.

 

Well, here it is. Sorry about the delay everyone. I'm a huge procrastinator so sitting down to type up my journey has not been high on my list haha.

Day 1: Drove 13.5 hours, 780 miles. Left Grants Pass OR and headed east! Eastern Oregon is beautiful in its own way, it's all high elevation desert. Not a whole lot of civilization which makes for some great camping! Hard to find gas though. The literally only time I was worried for gas this entire trip was when I passed through Lakeview OR without topping off. I was about 3/4 full having filled up in Klamath Falls and a sign said gas ahead 35 miles. Well that gas station was closed, hurray! Options were turn around or power through the remaining 140 miles of nothing. And power on we did! By far the emptiest my truck has ever gotten. Eventually we hit a gas station in middle of nowhere ($6.00/gal) and I got enough gas to make it to the next town. We crossed into Nevada and for about 50 miles there was a crazy grasshopper plague! Literally everywhere, road was covered, fields were covered. Looked like something out of the apocalypse haha. Crossed through Nevada without incident and ended up stopping in Evanston Wyoming for the night. Now I don't like to talk shit....but fuck that particular hotel we stayed in. Expensive and shitty. Had no hot water in the morning. Refused to refund me any money. Going to avoid that place for the rest of my days. And for some reason the whole town smelled of rotten fish. Not a pleasant place.

Day 2: Wyoming is beautiful, literally no trees though. At least where we were passing through. Gotta say the windmill farms are super cool though! Not as many as out east but compared to Oregon there were tons. Crazy how big they are up close. From Wyoming we ended up in Kearey Nebraska for the night. Interesting little town. Found a cool little hole in the wall brewery and had a super tasty oatmeal stout and a mexican lager. A train went by the brewery about every 5 minutes. It was crazy!

Day 3: Nebraska....flat and blegh. No thanks. Dipped into Iowa for a minute and then passed through that into Missouri. Missouri was a lot of green and super tight knit forests. It was nice to pass through. Stayed in St Charles Missouri for the night. That hotel lost power in the morning, definitely having bad luck with hotels on the trip so far.

Day 4: Pretty much driving non stop. Drove through Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Stopped at the Bulleit Distillery and got a shirt and mug. They weren't doing tours sadly. Kentucky was honestly maybe the greenest state we encountered. I feel like everything there was rolling hills with super manicured grass lawns. It was interesting. Very pretty. We ended out day by crossing into West Virginia and stopping in Huntington.

Day 5: Now West Virginia was the first state we really wanted to check out as a potential spot to move. I was really interested in the forests/mountain and cheap land. I know it gets a bad rap as a state but it was very beautiful there. Humid as hell! Sadly most of the towns we went to seemed...poor and desolate. 2/3 of all the buildings were boarded up, vacated. The people were nice though and we had a good time exploring Huntington, Charleston, Parkersburg, Wheeling, Morgantown. All in all though we decided it was too humid and just not for us.

Day 8: Headed to Pittsburgh PA. Super fun city! Explored the city and surrounding areas for a couple days. Enjoyed Beaver Falls and New Brighton a lot. Bout 30 minutes north of Pittsburgh, close enough and far enough away at the same time. Had some amazing Thai food at a little hole in the wall in Beaver Falls. Cheap housing. So far this was the number 1 spot we had visited. Went and saw the Dodgers v Pirates in Pittsburgh, went the Natural History Museum (who doesn't enjoy dinosaurs!), the zoo, really enjoyed the area.

Day 11: Went and visited my sister out in eastern PA for a couple days. Nice area but expensive. I forgot to write down what the name of the town was lol.

Day 14: Passed back west through PA and started heading to Michigan to go visit a friend who's out there doing an internship. Now Akron OH had been on the list of places to visit only for the fact that housing is cheap. Like dirt cheap. Like $135k gets you a 3bd 2bth home on 1/3 of an acre and the home was remodeled. However at this point I was hungover and not too interested in going an hour out of our way to see a place in Ohio because well.....Ohio....however my girlfriend convinced me that it's on the list and we're out here. May as well go check it out. Dammit...she was right. We loved it. Akron itself was ok but the surrounding area, Cuyahoga Falls, Kent, Highland Square, it was all super cool! So many parks and good places to eat and unique shops and breweries, so many breweries! We decided to stay in that area for a couple days and check it out. Met some people at a brewery who took us bowling and showed us around. It was an incredibly happy time. Everyone was out riding bikes and walking their dogs. We were just in time to go check out an Irish Festival that happened in Cuyahoga Falls where they closed down all of downtown and there was tons of live music, everyone walking around with their beers haha. It was a blast. This area officially became out number 1 choice for the move. In fact we enjoyed it so much that we started talking about calling the trip early and going home because we were pretty set on moving there. It's cooler in the summer compared to where I am in Oregon which is a huge bonus, it rains a lot (I like the rain) and it gets actual snow in the winter. Sounds great to me!

Day 18: We headed to Michigan to check it out. (Our buddy had to leave for a family emergency so no camping with Oregon friends in Michigan, booo!) We checked out Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo and honestly was not super impressed with either place. Also the road...oh my god the roads are so bad. Like I would be terrified to ride a motorcycle in Michigan. We did do some nice camping on Lake Michigan though which was fantastic! Never seen a lake that size in my life and water was cool and clear!

Day 21: Despite really wanting to check out upper Michigan and do some more camping we decided to start heading back west. Girlfriend wasn't feeling too well, I was feeling homesick and pretty tired of driving and we had basically reached our budget for the trip. It was a hell of an experience and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Day 25: Made it home safe and sound. Tacoma did great, had no issues on the trip, in fact learned that I get SHIT gas mileage at home due to the mountains. I get about 13-14 here around where I live and I was averaging 17-18 on the trip. Now I'm sure part of that is the fact that it was mostly highway driving but still. Looking forward to that when I move.

All in all we decided that Cuyahoga Falls/Akron OH area is where we want to end up. Sorry again it took me so long to do a write up of my travels and I appreciate everyone's input on this trip and my other thread asking about towing an enclosed trailer cross country for the move haha. The goal is to be out there by November 1st. Trailer will be delivered Tuesday. Currently looking for an apartment (for temporary living while we scope out houses) and a job (my current employer may hire me to do purchasing remotely, fingers crossed). Thanks again everyone!

 

Finally got off my ass and busted out the trip journal! lol

 

My man you missed the best part of WV our mountain counties! 20 minutes east of Morgantown it’s 10° cooler with a near constant breeze and views for miles, humidity is related to whatever weather pattern is coming through as it shifts back and forth nearly every week since we’re at the collision point of Northern air and Southern air. Good news is you’ll be close enough to visit the mountains being in Ohio. I used to spend a fair amount of time in CAK, it’s a great spot for sure you’ll enjoy it! If you’re ever in need of camping suggestions this way drop a line.