Not bad to visit...

[LazyK]

Tracking around on an old D4D in a friends pasture, in Santa Barbara CA, I decided there could be less inviting places to be visiting.
Here, it's 76 degrees, light breeze off the water, cobalt-clear blue sky, incongruous Christmas decorations, halter-topped women and guys in shorts shopping to the strains of, "White Christmas"....At least back home in Washington State the almost ice-rain is blowing horizontal
as it should be, so my wife tells me.
Lately, all this sissy mild weather in SoCal makes me long for those years in Alaska...my 1050 JD hooked up to so many plug-ins it looked like it was in an intensive care ward. Ah yes, plowing snow with no place left to put it...shoveling snow off the roof before the build-up stoved 'er in...
tearing the cardoor molding off when you opened that sticky door in a hurry...figuring out how to un-stick your kid's tongue from the metal hand-rail...finding an open door and complimentary frozen pipes (busted, but not leaking cuz they was still good and froze!)

All considered, maybe this boring warm weather can be tolerated a little longer.


Lazy K - Chip

[Thomas]

LazyK,
I'm not sure I would compare good old Alaska weather to women running around in halter tops and shorts. [img]/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif[/img][img]/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif[/img]
I agree its nice to visit these place but home is where the heart is,so finish your business and give a [img]/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif[/img] to the women for me and head home.

Thomas..NH [img]/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[WVBill]

Chip:

Having lived both in Washington State (Whidbey Island) and just down the coast from Santa Barbara (Camarillo), I'm very familiar with what you describe.

But we've found "home" now. From the John Denver song: "Almost heaven, West Virginia. Blue Ridge mountains, Shenandoah river..." Couldn't pry me out with a crow bar (or was that a "Johnson bar"?)... wait, that's another thread...

In the long run, "Home" is always better than "Visit".

WVBill

[DONOTDELETE]

WVBill,

Have you read a book called "I Found Shangri-La"?

Some guy, apparently with money to burn, travelled/searched the planet looking for the perfect place... considered everything, topography, climate, politics, scenic beauty, availability of services, etc., etc.

He chose the San Juan area...Vancouver Is., I think!
( I'm kind of a boat-geek, so that area, Seattle, etc. appeals to me.)
See you've lived on Whidbey. A friend is retiring to 5 acres there in a year or so. I'm a Miami-born transplant to Oregon ( been here about 25 years). Have a nice place in a good location here, but always open to new info (greener grass?).

At a healthy 60, I'm planning on another 40 or so :-) , and I'd like to hear more (if you're willing [ LHSMITH@wvi.com ] ) about your "almost heaven" West Va., and the Shenandoah...
not travel-brochure stuff, but why YOU like it.

Anyway, glad you're happy there!

Larry

[bpence]

The snow and cold and grey skies here in Michigan during the winter can get to you at times, I have to admit. I've been fortunate in my work life to travel most of the U.S. and have seen some beautiful places and met some terrific people in all of them. And SE Michigan may not be the prettiest or most perfect place, but it's the gateway to the rest of Michigan, which I do believe is one of the prettiest states there is. The wilderness country of the U.P. (another world unto itself), the splendor of the Great Lakes (especially Lakes Michigan and Superior), the unsurpassed quality and quantity of the inland lakes, the rolling hill country of the norhtern lower penninsula, the endless woods, the spectacular farm country, and did I mention the terrific State Park system?.......guess that's why we're still here. I love the mountains of the west (especially the Tetons), and the coastline of California is beyond compare, and the Carolinas still take my breath away, and New Mexico could easily hold my attention. Spring, summer, and fall in Michigan - simply the best. I guess winter is the price we pay. It seems that every other great place has a price to pay for living there, too. Could be hurricanes, maybe the ground shakes, high heat and humidity. All prices to pay. When it comes to Michigan for my wife and I, it's home and you're all welcome to come on up for a visit. But, unless you snowmobile or ski, I'd recommend you wait a couple of months.

Bob Pence

[Bird]

Larry, I've seen at least some part of every state except Hawaii and I'm convinced there's no perfect place to live (at least year round); however, every one of the states has some great places to be at different times. It's darned difficult to decide which places are best. I really like Seward, AK, in the summer for the fishing (but my wife's afraid of water), also like Port Aransas, TX, for the winter fishing. Sure like to play golf at Pipestem State Park, WV; love the winters in the Tucson, AZ, area . . ., oh well, here we are in central Texas because we have more family around here, and I don't play in the snow like so many of the forum's members.[img]/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif[/img][img]/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

Bird

[WVBill]

Larry:

I haven't seen the book but I guess I question the theory that one can "travel the world" and decide on the perfect place to live. In other words, I think you need to LIVE in a place - not just visit - to decide if it's right for you.

I was an aviator in the Navy for 21 years so during that time I lived in Pensacola FL, Oakland/Alameda CA, Whidbey Island WA, Stuttgart Germany, Whidbey Island (again), Camarillo CA, and Fairfax VA. Two or more years in each place.

This gave me a good opportunity to see and learn about the areas and decide where I wanted to settle down.

Each of those places has both advantages and disadvantages. We ended up here in West Virginia which we discovered shortly after I left the Navy and still lived in Virginia.

It will take me some time to compose my thoughts, but I'll e-mail you my thoughts on WV.

By the way, notwithstanding the John Denver song, the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah River are in West Virginia for only a VERY short distance.

WVBill

[jyoutz]

WVBill, Last month I spent two weeks in the Blue Ridge Mnts. Virginia at Shenandoah NP. I am on a national wildfire rehab team (Dept. of Interior) and we were assessing effects of a recent wildfire there. So I got to travel around, hike and also fly all over the area. I have to admit, this is an extremely beautiful place and the people are darned friendly to boot. If any place in the East could entice this westerner to move that way, the Blue Ridge Mnts. would be it. I can see why it feels like its almost heaven to you. My problem is that I travel around and see lots of good places in rural America, and darned if I don't like them all. Can't figure out where I want to live when I grow up. One thing's for sure everywhere I travel -rural Americans are just the greatest of people.

[WVBill]

Jim:

That fire burned for quite a while and the local TV weather people liked to show how the smoke plume showed up on the weather satellite pictures. As you know, we had a good amount of rain in the spring & early summer then hit a dry spell duirng which the fires hit.

If you're ever out this way again give me a shout on the board here and we'll have you up to "sit a spell".

So how bad did it look up there? Are we going to recover?

WVBill

[jyoutz]

WVBill, The Shenandoah fire ended up fairly large (24,000 acres) but really didn't burn very severely, due to good soil moisture. Lots of vegetation was top-killed but will sprout back since roots weren't damaged much. Some white pine was killed and will not be very common in the burn area for a while. Eastern hemlock was severely damaged and in some cases removed entirely from the forest. Mostly though, the native forest will recover nicely. We do have some concerns that some of the forest area that had pre-fire gypsy-moth related tree kill, could now be susceptable to invasion of non-native weedy plants. We are proposing to seed some native grasses and herbicide some of the undesirable plants. That's really about it. Thanks for the invite. I will keep it in mind. Sure is a real nice place.