Best place to move?

[WRO]

Cheyanne Wyoming should be on your list, close enough to your wifes friends in Denver, good hunting, and its growing like a weed.

 

[kfili]

I can understand you not liking Charlottesville, unfortunately most major cities across the country seem to be the same way. But it is close to mountains and public land though, so at least for the next year you can explore a bit.

Q is right about looking into other parts of Va if you like it here but don't like Charlottesville. I'm fairly local to Lynchburg. Its small, decent, lower cost of living than Charlottesville, but lower pay also. I don't know the income possibilities of medical careers here though. We have 2 hospitals. One is a general hospital the other is for birthing and mental patients.

Hunting is mostly private land here, but if you're willing to drive an hour or two you can find a good bit of public land and mountains. I don't know how affordable leasing is, as I'm too broke, so I only hunt my small piece of private and the surrounding public. Good luck in your search.

Plenty of public in this area, but shhhhhh

 

[FGB]

Have you gotten out into National Forrest much? You live like 30 mins away from a significant amount of public land with plenty of deer and bear to be had, I periodically do backpack hunts out there and rarely run into others once a few miles in.

 

[WoodlandCritter]

Logan Health in Kalispell is the most expensive in the state and has the highest infection rate. Its also a pretty fugly town. When I was moving from OH to MT, I stopped in Kalispell on the way to my new house (bought sight unseen, had never been to the area I moved to). When I saw Kalispell, I was really really worried I had traded one ugly, urban craphole for another as Kspell is the closest city to where I now live. Fortunately I'm two hours further NW and its lovely out here. Now I appreciate Kalispell for being a grey ugly city as it makes me feel less homesick every few weeks when I drive down for a Costco trip.

 

[mhabiger]

Hey yall, my wife and I recently moved from central Montana to Charlottesville, Virginia. I absolutely hate it. Fortunately, we are both nurses (ER/ trauma ICU and orthopedics) and can basically get a job anywhere in the United States without much difficulty. We are stuck here for one year but plan to move immediately after our contract ends. I’ve began researching potential places to move to next and am posting to see if anyone has any opinions or advice that may be helpful.

Essentially the only requirements for a place to live is 1. Near large amounts of public land 2. Near mountains, 3. Reputable hospital nearby (leveled trauma centers preferred), 4. Younger towns preferred but not required (I’m 24, she’s 26).

The current list of potential options I have gathered is as follows;

Helena, MT
Kalispell, MT
Boise, ID
Couer d’Alene, ID
Colorado Springs, CO
Denver area, CO

Appreciate any input yall have!

Bottom 4 were on my list 4 years ago along with Casper. Access to large tracts of public land, water and mountains were on my list of concerns, along with generally not being too left leaning. After a year of visiting different cities, looking at political trends at local and state level, comparing cost of living and arguing with the wife (she hates wind, likes 4 seasons but not too much snow and wanted to be near a metro)...we moved to Northwest Arkansas. We visited one weekend and moved 30 days later.

Technically our mountains are an eroded plateau but I'll take it! Weather is pretty great year round and you still get 4 seasons. Millions of acres of public land to recreate on between the Ozark and Ouachita NF. Plus lots of reservoirs for fishing/boating and some good trout fishing downstream of the dams. A decent amount of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico can be accessed in under a 16 hour drive for elk, mule deer and antelope hunts.

 

[MtnW]

Bottom 4 were on my list 4 years ago along with Casper. Access to large tracts of public land, water and mountains were on my list of concerns, along with generally not being too left leaning. After a year of visiting different cities, looking at political trends at local and state level, comparing cost of living and arguing with the wife (she hates wind, likes 4 seasons but not too much snow and wanted to be near a metro)...we moved to Northwest Arkansas. We visited one weekend and moved 30 days later.

Technically our mountains are an eroded plateau but I'll take it! Weather is pretty great year round and you still get 4 seasons. Millions of acres of public land to recreate on between the Ozark and Ouachita NF. Plus lots of reservoirs for fishing/boating and some good trout fishing downstream of the dams. A decent amount of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico can be accessed in under a 16 hour drive for elk, mule deer and antelope hunts.

Yeah but you have the Walton family who are greedy, self righteous, supporting the Obama regime and all other walmartians running a small NW AR metro area. The left wing entitled Walton children just gave Obama a check for $400K to speak for one hour at their billion dollar tax shelter owned, Crystal Bridges Art Gallery owned by Alice Walton net worth 108 bi

 

[ZMT]

I appreciate everyone’s input! Addressing a few common points

1. When I mentioned “central Montana”, I meant Billings. Which I guess is technically south central, but regardless I had worked in the ER there the last two years. My wife just isn’t a big fan and crime was ridiculously bad at times, although I lived in the nicer part.

2. Denver is mainly on the list due to my wife’s friends living there and my wife wanting to live near friends. I’m not a huge fan of the city but happy wife, happy life. Right?

3. I’m pretty set on moving back out west in 1-2 years. I only came this way to get experience at a top hospital in the country so I can get a life flight job easier, which are incredibly competitive. While much of my frustration is probably just part culture shock, I don’t anticipate living out here for the long haul.

Again, great input and I appreciate yall

I'd 100% recommend Anchorage. We moved here from the East Coast the the hunting/fishing opportunities are unlike anything down south. People joke about Anchorage not being Alaska, but you can drive about an hour or two and find and the hunting/fishing is leagues better than anywhere in the lower 48.

Providence Alaska has been excellent to my wife and has level 2 centers. Pretty soon she'll be working on the NICU life flights it sounds like. They work hard but are unionized, so pretty well protected. She's had friends work at hospitals without unions and they've had hellacious experiences.

 

[Brewski]

Hawaii and then fly to Alaska to hunt.

 

[AK Troutbum]

Hawaii and then fly to Alaska to hunt.

And fly back to HI and continue to hunt.


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[BuckSmasher]

Bottom 4 were on my list 4 years ago along with Casper. Access to large tracts of public land, water and mountains were on my list of concerns, along with generally not being too left leaning. After a year of visiting different cities, looking at political trends at local and state level, comparing cost of living and arguing with the wife (she hates wind, likes 4 seasons but not too much snow and wanted to be near a metro)...we moved to Northwest Arkansas. We visited one weekend and moved 30 days later.

Technically our mountains are an eroded plateau but I'll take it! Weather is pretty great year round and you still get 4 seasons. Millions of acres of public land to recreate on between the Ozark and Ouachita NF. Plus lots of reservoirs for fishing/boating and some good trout fishing downstream of the dams. A decent amount of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico can be accessed in under a 16 hour drive for elk, mule deer and antelope hunts.

Where did you come from? We considered N. Arkansas S. Missouri as well. Underrated area.

It was serious enough we looked at real estate but we finally concluded either rockies or saltwater.

 

[mhabiger]

Where did you come from? We considered N. Arkansas S. Missouri as well. Underrated area.

It was serious enough we looked at real estate but we finally concluded either rockies or saltwater.

It was a short move, lived in Kansas City for 15 years, grew up in MN. Spent time hunting all over Kansas and central Missouri but somehow missed exploring the whole southern part of Missouri and Northern Arkansas.

The wife and I liked Colorado Springs. The downgrade in how far our "house" dollars would go was a negative but the deal breaker for me was the steady 20 year swing toward being a deep blue state.

 

[Phaseolus]

I love being able to hunt elk by walking a 1/4 mile from my house with a B List cow tag. I wish I had decent fishing that close.

 

[Chris in TN]

I've told my wife that if we ever move, east/central Oklahoma will be on my short list, precisely because nobody else really *wants* to live there. It's closer to western hunting, has relatively affordable deer hunting land to either lease or buy, has some decent public access places, and.....again, nobody else wants to live there.

 

[griff383]

OK and MO are hidden gems, or at least that's what the internet told me. Just kidding.

I've been adjacent to those states a few times and always asked myself why I didn't spend more time there in the outdoors

 

[ztbrowning]

Wow. I hadn’t got notifications from this thread in a few days and assumed it died. Appreciate all of the input from everyone.

To clarify on a few things;

Both me and my wife are in great financial spots. Zero debt, we live off of my income and invest hers, no real financial obligations, and are generally good with money. We were both fortunate enough to have college paid for at a high end conservative private school. I hope (and think) we aren’t the typically snobby private school kid though. Due to this, high COL areas do not affect us nearly as much as others. We can pretty easily afford to buy a home or rent at the median housing price at any city I listed before. While I would love to live in a lower cost of living area and buy a superb house, I would 100% be willing to cough up some cash to live in a more desirable area. However, the comments about Jackson, WY and similar cities are a bit excessive with COL (3 million median home price is wild).

In regards to just serving my time and going back to CRNA school and then moving, that is somewhat the plan. I was very close to applying to med school and looking at trauma surgery, but my uncle (30 year surgeon at Duke University) was pretty adamant that I should do flight nursing and go to CRNA schools once I get burnt out on the trauma that provides. I’m listening to him and getting a year in at UVA’s trauma ICU and then applying to flight programs until I want to get a cush 200-300k job. I’m a bit of a trauma junkie and routinely joke that if my patients aren’t about to die, I’d rather not have them.

Love all the input and I am currently using quite a bit of it to put together a detailed list for my wife and I to look at together for options and then fly out to our top 2-3 options this summer before sending out applications. Flight programs are incredibly competitive so it somewhat limits my exact choice, but I’m not opposed to just working in an ICU/ER setting for a bit longer. I can get a job basically anywhere in either setting due to my resume, which helps with the moving.


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[cowdisciple]

If SE AK would be of interest send me a PM.

 

[HilltopHitman]

California.

 

[Pworrell]

If you are still deciding OP, I’d say Alaska. It’s far to travel when visiting family. But family loves an excuse to come see you in Alaska lol. There’s a couple of big hospitals in Anchorage, and you are minutes away from great hiking.

 

[Coopsdaddy]

Yeah but you have the Walton family who are greedy, self righteous, supporting the Obama regime and all other walmartians running a small NW AR metro area. The left wing entitled Walton children just gave Obama a check for $400K to speak for one hour at their billion dollar tax shelter owned, Crystal Bridges Art Gallery owned by Alice Walton net worth 108 bi

We are looking at nw ark in a few years.We are just a few hours away now.
No way im moving to Bentonville.
Can you imagine if Walmart ever sold out and moved.
NW ark would be cheapest real estate around.One company would devastate it.

 

[Coopsdaddy]

OK and MO are hidden gems, or at least that's what the internet told me. Just kidding.

I've been adjacent to those states a few times and always asked myself why I didn't spend more time there in the outdoors

Ok and gem have nothing in common.
Been here 50 years.
Other than it’s been good raising our kids here in a small town im ready to leave asap.
It’s got good values,cost of living,people and political views but hardly no recreation.
Yes we have some public land,a few hiking trails and lakes.
What we do have is ticks,heat and lots of cows.