Looking to relocate to AL - Birmingham or...???

^^^This^^^

If God were to give the earth an enema, Montgomery is where he would stick the tube. Birmingham is crowded and everyone is running fast and mad. Huntsville and surrounding areas are nice. Cost of living and crowding are less than B'ham.

Auburn is good. War Eagle. (1976 Chemical Engineering). Tuscaloosa, not so much.

 

Here's a couple quick photos -

Made it to the state line


Our friends backyard looking south


Our friends front yard on the left and their neighbors house on the right that is for sale...


Couldn't resist getting a pic of the piggly wiggly

 

Birmingham is great, dude. Fantastic restaurants, lots of hiking and camping, excellent schools in the suburbs, museums, top notch health care, centrally located, and easy airport access. It's not crowded. It's not even a really big city.

 

I agree with great restaurants (Highlands! Yum!) but I can travel there for that, and top notch health care. My mom lives in Hoover and is currently at UAB for cancer surgery. But otherwise, camping and hiking? Maybe you can travel to it. The only museum there that interests me is the Barber Motorsports Museum, which is world class. I am a member there. Shuttlesworth airport may be convenient, in fact, I landed there once with engine trouble so it was quite convenient that evening. However, prices for commercial flights out of there are expensive enough that we used to drive to Atlanta for flights. "Not crowded" is relative of course and depends on what your expectations are and what you consider to be a "convenience". When I am at my sister's house and on the patio listening to the drone of traffic on I-65, it makes me glad that I moved to rural Georgia, so far out in the woods that I have to go towards town to hunt.

Peace, different strokes. Now let's hear something good about Montgomery. Lee

 

Well, I got nothing positive to say about Montgomery. We do have great hiking and camping in BHAM though. Oak Mountain, Tannehill, Red Mountain. Heck, even the Preserve. And I’ll give you that ATL has better flight prices, but it sure is nice to have the option. You can definitely find some more “rural” options if you’re willing to go to the edge of the metro area. Pelham, Hueytown, Calera, Trussville, etc.

 

What area did you end up deciding on OP?

 

What area is your friend's place in?

 

They are in Sylacauga county just off the 280 about 10 miles south of the town itself. We are leaning towards something in that area. We know it's hit and miss with the houses out there, some stuff that is just great mixed with good stuff and then a single wide with broken down cars in the yard just down the road a ways, so that is something we are thinking on.

I know a commute to BHam would be pretty far and the best bet to land a job but the very small amount of looking I have done, there seem to be some good opportunities in Talladega but again, much more digging and information gathering needs to take place.

Looking further into the schools is important as well but we have already been talking about home schooling or private school even if we don't move.

 

Holy shit you drove a VW bus from Colorado to Alabama? Totally hippy weed smoking vehicle.
Birmingham is a cool town. Alabama versus Auburn rivalry is pretty fierce. A lot of incest goes on
in the back woods of Alabama. Watch out for the KKK. They are still strong in the deep south.

 

It was a looooong drive! But too damn cool and fun.

Any local info on the Sylacauga area in general?

The KKK??? I know you put the laugh after it but along with the question above, we are not interested in the KKK nor being associated with a certain thinking just because of the area we live in. Is there a real worry about that?

 

There is nothing to worry about in Alabama except people that are overly nice and hospitable. It doesn’t matter where you are from or what you look like in the south, we are all family and will help each other out any way we can (this is majority speaking).

There is no public KKK presence anywhere in the state, I say “public” because i would be a fool if I said it didn’t still exist here or anywhere else in the country for that matter. But it is not something you will ever run into unless you go looking for it.

 

I second this. @ThaiChillyTaco was either joking or ignorant on the matter.

 

Totally get the forehead slap! I feel like a dork for asking but just want to make sure is all. Thank you!

The overly nice and hospitable environment is all we experienced the entire time we were there and it was very refreshing to be around people that would actually say hi first or say hi back and even converse on many occasions.

 

I was joking slightly all kidding aside Birmingham is a cool town. Last time I was there I got to play golf at Shoal Creek Kountry Klub.

 

OP i read through the thread some and I work in Lincoln, which is 15 miles from Talladega- avoid like the black Plague unless you just want to deal with way more than you bargained for ( tote a gun wherever you go even to check the mailbox) Sylacauga is ok if you want to deal with white trash on one side of the town and old money on the other ( unless your born there you won't have a good time they have 2 bars that i know of) it is in close proximity to some places but not a lot if you're real adventurous ...if i had the means to move somewhere i would live near Guntersville or Hunstville way more stuff to do and far more interesting... pretty much the rest of the state is either have fun sitting on the front porch with your land or deal with over crowded roadways....I've drove all over this state and you're either to far or to close not a lot of in between because people around here for the most part don't move and have multiple generations of family living on the same property or they own all the land from one house to another which is usually a good bit of land...good luck man