In Other News

+1 on being this guy

 

For me, I want to escape that big city feel which includes traffic congestion, people driving crazy fast, rudely, and in a hurry, high crime rate, unfriendliness, and generalized crowds. The attitude here sucks compared to most other places. The first thing you notice when you get a way from here is how friendly people are.

Phoenix is just a modernized Los Angeles. It's a beautiful city, though.

If/when I leave here, it's gonna be a small, sleepy town for me, or bust.

 

True

 

The people in Phoenix, in particular, refer to Californians as "devil worshipers".

 

Honda's are typically more American made than fords...the lines are blurred.

 

Considerately aggressive. I back this m.o.

 

Clearly, it depends on how far away you are from Motor City, Michigan.

I haven't owned an American made car in decades (well, one and a half decades).

 

Don't forget the Land Rovers and the giant lifted trucks and pimped out Jeeps that cost near 100k that have never seen dirt that the soccer moms drive.

 

You mean the "grocery getters"?

 

They got nanny’s for that in da SCV...

 

I get that, but it's completely irrelevant in places where "them damn foreigners took all our jobs..."

It's a strange world out there...

 

Salida, Colorado.
You're welcome.

 

I'm with you on that. Another thing us "devil worshipers" pay out the ass for is the weather, or lack of (this week notwithstanding). Wife and I are tired of it, and looking for a place that has some weather, a good honest four seasons. Of course like many CAians, cashing out the crazy real estate prices for something more reasonable, too.

 

Been looking (virtually) a little south of there, along 160 from Durango to South Fork. Some cool little towns/country along there. Will check out Salida. You went to school in Durango didn't you?

 

So between Salida and South Fork is the San Luis Valley. That's where I lived in high school. I lived on the east side of the valley at the bottom of Kit Carson and Crestone Peak, about 20 miles due north of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument. You probably (virtually) traveled highway 285 over Poncha Pass then along the west side of the San Luis Valley through Saguache and then picked up the 160 in Del Norte. So yeah - I know the area really well.

And then yes, I went to college in Durango and lived there a bit after I graduated.

 

What @SnakeCharmer said, pretty much nails it.

 

Then I offer you the same recommendation.

 

Along with being a groovy old-west town, Salida has prime riding, yakking and nearby snow sports. It's like Prescott with better recreation. +1 on that reco.

 

How are the Winters there? And the Summers,...

 

Oh yeah, you don't like snow or snow sports. Winter in Chaffee County can get a bit rough, but Salida is not too bad. Nearby Monarch Pass gets great snow! Summers are temperate with highs in the 80s max, with very low humidity. The Arkansas River runs through town - so whitewater kayaking and river rafting are huge there. And there are fantastic mtb trails right in town and nearby. Think of it as a drier, less trendy Bend.

You don't enjoy fly fishing do you?

 

I could learn to!

 

How small? How sleepy? Would Downieville be acceptable? That place has one main street with a HALF block of essential businesses. It's so sleepy that some places close down for the Winter.

 

If I leave here with the purpose of getting away from the Big City thing, I plan to also include leaving Cali. I need to get away from the crazy taxes and crazy Liberals.

 

You won't ever sweat at night.

 

Looks like summer monsoonal rain pattern there. And yeah, those night temps are great!

 

Weirdly, small towns have less privacy than large. Gossip is the main recreational activity for yocals.

 

Pros and cons about living anywhere. In this case, the pros outweigh the cons to me.

 

I like this Salida idea. Would be an easy (well, at least pretty and fun) drive to Eagle where my wife's sister is. Will add that one to the ever growing fantasy list.

 

I didn't grow up in anything so populous as a town... But the next one over still publishes every traffic ticket in the local paper. Your neighbors will know that Amos ran the stop sign with his tractor.

 

You know you're from a small town when the moving violations are issued to tractors and horses. We'd get stories in the local paper (The Mountaineer) a couple times a year about someone getting arrested for riding their horse, drunk, on Main Street.