As promised yesterday, here’s my choice of WitSec relocation:
- Close to a large body of water
- Small town but not a small-town mentality
- Interesting downtown with lots of eclectic stores and restaurants
- Quite a cosmopolitan population, for a small Midwest town
- Four proper seasons — warm summers, cold-but-not-frigid winters with lots of snow, and glorious spring / fall weather
- Decent gun laws, and more importantly, local county sheriffs who have the right ideas about the Second Amendment
- Nice airport, with short hops to Chicago (for dinners, shows etc.)
- Short drive over to Canada, where I can buy cheap prescription drugs / drink coffee at Tim Horton’s
All that said, I was last there several years ago, so if any of you are locals / near-locals, feel free to educate me if the place is going / has gone down the shitter.
A very pleasant place, indeed. Good choice.
My ex-wife lives there, however, so it’s out of the question for me. I could introduce you.
That’s not even a small town, at all.
Look at that picture.
An airport? Please. There go the property taxes.
That is a metropolis through and through.
Not too dissimilar to where we fled from 13 years ago.
While communism may not be the order of the day in Traverse City it is most definitely on the way. Bet on it.
Having said all of that, we’re presently reviewing a 13 acre property about 95 miles north of there, on the UP. Colder, but less people. And as we know, people are the root of all evil, and way over rated.
“That’s not even a small town, at all.”
Depends on your point of reference. My idea of a city is London, Paris, Milan, Prague, Vienna, Amsterdam etc.
Compared to those, Traverse City is barely more than a village.
And I prefer having some people around to none at all. I’m no hermit.
> An airport? Please. There go the property taxes.
My home town has an airport. It’s been there for 50+ years, gets maybe 3 commercial flights a day. People would rather drive to the real metro areas and use the larger (cheaper) airports there.
> That is a metropolis through and through.
Look at that picture again. The tallest building is *maybe* 8 or 9 stories. That is NOT a metropolis.
It’s enough of a metropolis to keep me away…
Traverse City to Mackinaw. All beautiful country. Harbor Springs is gorgeous. There, and Cheboygan are high $, but lots of surrounding land that would suit all your needs. Like Chicagoans, many Michiganders go north every weekend. For good reason.
For a more temperate climate, the mountainous areas of Arkansas might suit me.
Beautiful country, good people. A colleague of mine, in her late 60s, asked to take some emergency leave a few months ago to return to Michigan to help her 93-year old mother to recover from a broken hip. “Is she in a nursing home?” I asked. “Hell no, she was up on her roof shoveling snow and got blown off. “.
Hill Country of Texas for me.
+1 😉
Hill Country: too hot, too humid, too much of the time. Also bugs, snakes, etc.
Well we do have some bugs here in the Hill Country of Texas, I live in boerne NW of San Antonio and we do have a few snakes but I yet to see a very big one. When the temp in Dallas is 100 we are about 92 and in the summer we cool down into the 70’s because the humidity in the summer is south of us and we are kind of dry. In the winter it sometimes gets into the high 20’s but in the last five years I have only seen about six or seven days when it did not get above freezing.
We live too far South for tornadoes and too far North for hurricanes and we have some nice scenery as for seasons, not so much January is the only month I did not mow my grass and now it needs to be cut every two weeks. If I had my choice of places to live it would be right here and I have lived in about five different states and three years in Europe.
I enjoyed every place I lived most of the time because attitude beats geography but at my age Texas,right here, will work just fine to run the game on out.
All that together, still better than dealing with masses of dindo nuffins. And where be my reparations?
My only complaint with Traverse City is that it gets pretty touristy during the summer and especially during Cherry Festival weekend (that gets way too people-y). Other than that, there are far worse places to be stuck in WitSec.
I’ll stay where I’m at, thanks. 40 acres, near to a small city, nearer a small town, nearest neighbor a mile or so away, and none in line of sight. Deer and turkey are plentiful, there’s fish in the pond, the lake is less than 10 minutes away. The sunsets are gorgeous, and the night sky, well, yea.
Shoot what I like, when I like, off the back deck – naked, if I like. Life is good.
I’d like to move to somewhere near Littleton, New Hampshire. Beautiful country, gun-friendly, no sales or income taxes.
Kim,
I live about 5 hours south of there on Lake Michigan in a small town named St. Joseph. Have been up to Traverse City many times, it is still a beautiful place in late Spring, Summer and early Fall. As I have intimated a while back, this modest abode is available to crash at if you decide to drive up for a look.
Where things go sideways:
Winter can last a 4 solid months and sometimes a bit longer, there are times of bitter cold (like this winter) and little snow (we only had 2 real snow dumps, now green grass albeit frozen solid ground). Cabin fever is setting in big time for me.
Gun Laws in Michigan are under assault by the left, though the upper part of the lower peninsula and the UP are solid hunter havens, do tend to not bother one too much. That said, Detoilet region just elected a D governor over our objection (most of the state is red except around the industrial hubs and Lansing – our local armpit of governance). She immediately wants to restrict gun ownership. There is still a R majority in the senate but too many rinos.
Timmy Hortons is all over Michigan, you don’t need to go to Canukistan for that. The meds would be an issue but mail order is your friend if you are into that.
As someone mentioned above, very touristy in summer (as is my town), we get a lot of FIPs ( F-ing ahem, Friendly Illinois Persons) in summer which makes for a lot of hassle to the locals.
Honestly, I am looking at Arizona highlands over staying in Michigan as I grow older. There you get 4 seasons, snow but not too much and is very gun friendly. Will see what the future brings.
No. AZ…….Got snowed in over the last half of FEB.
Even Prescott had businesses closed because none of their staff could get out of their homes due to snow.
I’m partial to higher altitudes myself. I’ve got family SE of Traverse City near Stratford Ontario. I expect the climate is similar and it’s too hot and muggy for me for much of the summer. Sweat. Shower. Repeat 4 times a day at least.
Go west young man, to the Rockies. West Montana and the Idaho panhandle are fabulous. Sandpoint is one of my favourites.
Getting to a point where I think snow is over rated.
Pretty, yes, but it is shaved ice. ice creates falls which are not good for older people.
Idaho has some areas I really like. But would have to relocate. Beginning to think a motor home might be a good idea. Stay in one spot for a time and then move.
Chadron, Nebraska. Quiet town. Lots of space. Small state college there. An easy drive up to Rapid City, S.D., if you need real restaurants, etc., plus the Black Hills for recreation.
We lived in rural northern Michigan for two years. We had planned to spend the rest of our lives there. It was hell. The locals are a bunch of batshit alcoholics that spend the entire winter stabbing each other in the back. F***ing pricks cost me $150,000 and ruined what used to be my favorite place in the world. To be perfectly blunt, anyone with any hope of making something of themselves has left. Leaving the stupid, the emotionally crippled, the drug addicts and alcoholics, the welfare queens, etc. It makes for a really crappy culture and a terrible place to raise kids. I now tell people, it’s a nice place to visit but I would never ever recommend living there. The locals are smart enough to behave themselves when the tourists are around. How else are they going to sock enough money away to drink themselves stupid all winter?
Traverse is the only city in the area big enough to buck this trend even a little. And I’ve run into enough batshit there that I don’t trust those people any further than I can throw them.
That’s not even getting into the miserable winters, followed by two weeks of nice weather, then so many f***ing mosquitoes that you can’t go outside until it freezes again.
Came close to costing me my marriage too. F*** that place.
My choice? Somewhere I can play golf year-round at a reasonable cost.
Las Vegas metro area seems reasonable.
Unfortunately both Las Vegas and Nevada have the cancer now. Too many nest foulers escaping their handiwork and bringing it to my home town and state. Breaks my heart.
Visited my mom in Caribou, ME. They boasted a Tim Hortons. They bragged their coffee was imported… from Buffalo, NY. WTF? I’ve had Tim Hortons coffee. Not impressed. Grind my own Dunkin Donuts beans and use in a french press. Yum.
And, it is a one-hour drive from downtown Traverse City to fantastic shooting. Known in the past as the Second Chance Combat Pin Shoot, and now as just The Pin Shoot, you can spend a week blasting bowling pins and winning loot.