Why we live where we do?

[coldfeet]

If this is not appropriate to this site please delete.

Just curious after reading about the many fascinating places where so many members on this site live it got me thinking about how people got there?
Did work bring you to an area and you fell in love with it?
Did family emigrate there and you stayed?
Travel around and decided where to call home?
Paddling was great and you stayed?

Thinking I'm a little jealous because my family grew up in New York City and I thought this was the best place in the world. It has many positives (food!), it's just a feeling that I have now that maybe I should have grown up in a more rural area and enjoyed the great outdoors at a younger age. Guess I'm getting tired of having to drive 300 miles to go paddling and camping. Wife giving me a tough time discussing a move up north in a few years. Oh and the beard idea just isn't a discussion she said. Health and happiness.

 

[dougd]

I was born in PA and ended up at a young age in NY, small town outside of Utica called Clinton. Small town and not far from the foot hills of the Daks where I spent a lot time hiking, rock climbing, introduced to canoeing. At some point I ended up after a long journey of a few states living here in Penacook, NH. Took a lot of years but finally got my own home, well me and the bank share it for now. And living on a road called Blackwater Rd kind of fits all the canoes littering the lawn at times.

A job did bring me to this area and moving from job to job I decided this was a pretty nice area to live. I was slowly getting back into canoeing at the time. Currently been at my job for twenty-seven years. After a couple of trips that helped define things in my life I knew I wanted to stay here. When we bought our house it was the fact that I can't throw a rock and hit a neighbor, five and half acres of field is sweet, the land behind me is owned for forty acres by a guy who every fall comes over and plants no trespassing signs, behind that hunk of land is a power company hunk of land for the lines, behind that is a state forest.

Within a fifteen minute ride from the Humble Hovel are three rivers I can get on. Other rivers are within less then an hours drive. To me this is the best place to live and I wouldn't trade this for anything right now.

dougd

 

[Robin]

I grew up on Long Island, NY. We had a family friend who owned a 500 ac farm in Cobden, Ontario with a mile of lakefront. I was lucky to spend my summers there roaming the fields and paddling a canoe on Muskrat Lake. Later, my job on LI offered me a position in Hartford, Connecticut in 1980, we packed up and headed north. It was a great move, we lived inside the city limits of a small town, which was great for my wife and the 3 kids, good services and we had tons of outdoor areas to explore nearby. We also made many trips back to Cobden as a family. After our kids moved on, my wife and I bought a fixer upper in a small town in the hills of NW Connecticut, 14 ac. surrounded by protected land, I finally had a barn and paddling is good nearby.

 

[memaquay]

My dad was in the air force. I was born in Prince Edward Island, then we were transferred to Gimli, Manitoba. I lived across from the Viking Statue when they first put it up. Me and my friends used to climb up on it and look under the kilt to see if the Viking had any dingle berries. Alas, we were disappointed. From Gimli, we were transferred to Nova Scotia. When I took my education degree, there were absolutely no jobs in NS, so I ended up working on a fly in reserve in Northern Ontario. After a couple of years there, I sent my resume out across Canada. The Principal in Geraldton phoned me in April and asked if we were on the Goose Break. At the end of April, the school would shut down for two weeks while everyone went goose hunting. I was indeed on the goose break, so I flew out on Deathwood Air, the name we gave to the airplane line, to Thunder Bay, and drove up to G Town. After they hired me, I realized I had landed in paradise, unlimited hunting, fishing, canoeing opportunities. Been here 27 years and not going anywhere.

 

[yellowcanoe]

We loved Maine from helping run a kayak camp for the AMC in Georgetown but the drive was a PITA from Connecticut after work on Fridays. In CT we had done a lot of varied paddling including whitewater kayaking and canoeing and sea kayaking. There were year round paddling opportunities. But in 2000 a job opportunity came up in Falmouth just outside of Portland and we had eight days to move. We were getting really tiired of Connecticut traffic after the casinos got going.
I found a waterfront academic rental ( $700 a month for a three bedroom lakefront cottage) on Little Sebago. Over the next couple of months we hunted around the area as it was relatively affordable..
We found 2 acres non waterfront that also came with shared ownership of another acre waterfront that was not buildable.. Our main property backed up to a timber company land.. 17 years later that land is now conserved for public use its 500 acres cannot be built on ( to be fair part is a cliff!)
We aren't waterfront as there is a dirt road between our property and the water but crossing the road the water is another 100 feet away.. Our taxes are less than half the waterfront rate. Plus we have our little shared area where we have a dock that again we share ownership with the neighbors.

We are four hours from the Allagash. 2 hours from Moose River Bow trip. ! hour from Mt Washington. ! hour from the ocean and half an hour to the Androscoggin or Saco Rivers. We have 31 boat launches within 45 minutes.
One canoe trip goes right by our house.. and down to Sebago and the Presumpscot River and then to the ocean. It is a formal canoe trail with portages.

 

[Grandpa Paddler]

Was transferred from Pa to WNY in 1989. My daughter was still in high school and had no choice. Boys were in college and remained 'legal' PA residents. Over the next couple years both boys ended back with us for various reasons, met their wives and started their own families. When I retired nearly 10 years ago, I was ready to move back but Grandma said no way was she moving away from the grandkids.

 

[Canotrouge]

If this is not appropriate to this site please delete.

Just curious after reading about the many fascinating places where so many members on this site live it got me thinking about how people got there?
Did work bring you to an area and you fell in love with it?
Did family emigrate there and you stayed?
Travel around and decided where to call home?
Paddling was great and you stayed?

Thinking I'm a little jealous because my family grew up in New York City and I thought this was the best place in the world. It has many positives (food!), it's just a feeling that I have now that maybe I should have grown up in a more rural area and enjoyed the great outdoors at a younger age. Guess I'm getting tired of having to drive 300 miles to go paddling and camping. Wife giving me a tough time discussing a move up north in a few years. Oh and the beard idea just isn't a discussion she said. Health and happiness.

From what I've seen you look a rock toss away from a lot of water!!!!

I moved up here for the winter and cold... I use to run dogs for a living and thought up here it would be better.... Since then a lot of things happened and I don't have sled dos anymore, but Stayed when others have moved... I have a wife and a daughter that love the place( the wife more than anybody else) we met here but she's from Quebec, different part but the same lol....

Its been over 20 years now and I don't think I could be happy in an other place, that said I wouldn't mind trying a year on the Island( Vancouver Island in British Columbia) or the Sunshine Coast of BC.... Who knows, Now that I'm almost done with he "dream" shop, I don't even see myself moving house lol!!

 

[Iskweo]

I grew up in farm country around Niagara, on the shore of Lake Erie. I spent a lot of time fishing. At 19 I joined the military and ended up in Calgary for 8 years, then West Germany. When my contact finished I went back to Calgary for another 10 years. Next stop was my partners home reserve in Northern Manitoba. It was ok but not much work so we moved to Winnipeg @ 2000 and I have been here ever since. I came for the work and stayed for the outdoors. I live in a small town of about 600 people now and love it.

 

[latremorej]

If this is not appropriate to this site please delete.

Just curious after reading about the many fascinating places where so many members on this site live it got me thinking about how people got there?
Did work bring you to an area and you fell in love with it?
Did family emigrate there and you stayed?
Travel around and decided where to call home?
Paddling was great and you stayed?

Thinking I'm a little jealous because my family grew up in New York City and I thought this was the best place in the world. It has many positives (food!), it's just a feeling that I have now that maybe I should have grown up in a more rural area and enjoyed the great outdoors at a younger age. Guess I'm getting tired of having to drive 300 miles to go paddling and camping. Wife giving me a tough time discussing a move up north in a few years. Oh and the beard idea just isn't a discussion she said. Health and happiness.

I joined the military after HS and traveled a bit. I ended up in Brooklyn and now live on LI too. I have been having the discussion with my wife also. Growing up in northern N.Y. in the woods... no street lights, no cable, no sidewalks or public trans of any type... I can say as a teenager, it wasn't always pleasant. Getting to hang out with any friends was all but impossible. But, the outdoors was always there. I took it for granted. Now, I can't wait to get back. Too much traffic, too many people here in the city area.

anyways, this is where the money is, hopefully I will be able to afford the move back up north when the time comes! Good luck with those "discussions" with your Mrs.

Jason

 

[coldfeet]

Thanks for sharing, I'm going to be day dreaming while sitting in traffic for the next 70-90 minutes. And yes the mighty Atlantic is only 20 minutes away from me but for some reason those twisting turning rivers with the hills in the background has caught my eye. Health and happiness to all.

 

[Guest]

My biggest reason is that South WNY is where I have lived all my life-it's home. I love the people, the seasons, the hardwood trees, the huge amount of wild woods, and pertinent to this site dozens of great wild flatwater paddling options within 1 hr of here. I also am a short distance from 2 great solo canoe builders-Colden Canoe, and Hemlock canoe. Lots of fellow solo paddlers here.

 

[yknpdlr]

Was born here, lots of relatives here while growing up. Grandparents on both sides from Eastern Europe moved here (Tug Hill lake effect area near the Western Adirondacks) in the early 20th Century. I grew up in the outdoors here and know the countryside well, would not want to start over someplace else. Briefly moved away for military duty (time in California - ok for a year but then no thanks, then Ohio - total yuck) before returning to this area for assigned military duty (from which I retired), then a local federal civilian job (retired). Was a 30 mile commute to work, including a couple of stop signs and 3 stop lights that only took me all of 32 minutes daily. Played with and Cared for aging parents (both sides) for years, brought up a couple of terrific kids who appreciate what they got without city life negatives. Far from the city influences here, we thrive without that social scene and associated negatives. I literally hike and ski directly out of my back door and I'm ten minutes from miles of canoeing water, only a little further from all the Adirondacks has to offer. My home was long ago paid for and I have new land on a motorless Adirondack lake ready for me to put up a cabin. I play in the snow and mild summers with our 4 distinct seasons. NY is a no-income tax state for me, since NY does not charge income tax on government pensions.

 

[Waterspyder]

Simple answer is I don't know better. Grew up in Patchogue, Long Island roughly 60 miles east of NYC. Parents house was a few hundred feet from a lake and salt water was about a mile away. Ended up going to college on Long Island and then graduate school at NYU so education and jobs kept me on the island. Along came a job in Westchester County and plans to move to the Hudson Valley. But with my having a company car and flexible work hours we decided to take our time finding a new house. Well twelve years later we were still in our first house about 10 miles NE of where I grew up. Time to change jobs and join the commuters on the infamous Long Island Railroad. Heck the pay was good and the travel around the country took me to 43 different states along with the occasional foreign trips. Saw literally hundreds of places I'd would like to live the only thing missing in many of them was the ocean and salt water. Now with the grandkids living nearby getting my wife to move off Long Island is not going to happen. Not much canoeing on the island but being surrounded by salt water it's a good place to kayak. Which ends up with having canoes for when I go off island and kayaks for local paddling. OK, enough about me, the sun is out temperature in the 40's and the ocean is 15 minutes away so I'm heading to the water.

 

[Jatfomike]

I was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts to a military family and literally grew up all over the world. My family moved to Dayton, Ohio as part of my fathers final posting. I finished high school, went to college where I studied geology, and then in 1989 started at the Dayton Police Academy. Long story there. 28 years later I am still working for the department. Retirement is just around the corner, I am actually eligible to retire now, but my wife and I decided it was more prudent to work a little longer. 15 years ago, I would have told you that I would be leaving the area after retirement. Now, I am not so sure. My son finished college and lives in Columbus. My daughter graduates from college this year and will probably stay in the area with her BF. No grandkids in the near future, but I think that will change in the next 5 years. Once that happens, I know my wife will not leave the area. We do not have mountains, oceans, or large wilderness areas here. What we do have is a mid sized city going thru an amazing rebirth. I actually live in a small neighborhood within the city limits. My neighborhood is nestled in between two rivers, both of which are great paddling and fishing. They meet at the end of my street and are joined about a mile further downstream by a third river. From my house I can walk downtown in about 25 minutes or ride my bicycle down there on the riverside bike trail in about 10 minutes. The cost of living here is really good. I can be on the gulf of mexico in 12 hours by car. Duluth, Minnesota in about 11 hours drive time. The Smoky Mountains or the Michigan UP in 7 hours. One area I have not explored much, but hope to this summer is the Adirondacks. I think we are headed there in June.

Mike

 

[flyingbison]

I grew up in the Buffalo, NY metro area, went to college there and worked for another couple of years after college before moving to the Lexington, KY area for four years of grad school. Then I relocated to Columbus, OH for work for one year, and then made my way back to WNY (Niagara Falls, Brockport, and Buffalo) for the next 9 years. About 14 years ago, I arrived in my current location (Green Bay, WI). I didn't intend to stay here for long, but after a couple of years I met someone more tied to the area, bought a house, had a kid, etc. We did a lot of camping (and a little canoeing) when I was a kid, but for most of my young adult life I thought I was too busy for much outdoor recreation. It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I began to rediscover my love of hiking, camping, and canoeing. Wisconsin has a lot of great natural resources for these things.

 

[Alan Gage]

[h=2]Why we live where we do?

[/h] That's a question I often ask myself. Most of the time I don't know the answer.

Alan

 

[memaquay]

Aren't you next door to a Spam factory or something? Sounds good to me!

 

[Guest]

Born and breed on a truck farm in northern Baltimore County. I have probably lived in 25 or 30 different places, all except one in northern Baltimore County. Knew that for the school system, and the woods, streams and rivers, this was where I wanted to raise a family.

Had a good job at good pay with constant advancement in, eeesh, downtown Baltimore. Just shy of the Pennsylvania line was as much a 40 minute commute as I could handle.

That begs the second question, why do you stay?

Geographic familiarity mostly. I know most of the special wood and water places within a couple hours drive in any direction. And hundreds of others within a 4 hour radius.

Flora and fauna familiarity as well. Between the mountains, the coastal plain, Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic shore a lot of species range this far south, and a lot range this far north. With an interest in natural history the overlap is special.

So is the couple hour overlap in very different paddling opportunities, from not for me extreme whitewater in the mountains to not for me open ocean paddling in the Atlantic.

For me though, a usually floatable trout stream a few minutes away, lots of Class I and II stuff west and north and nearly 60 rivers and creeks on the eastern shore, including Cypress swamp and Spartina marshes. Add in the edges of the Chesapeake Bay and more tidal bays and sounds than I could count and I will never paddle all of it.

And, with a predawn getaway I can be paddling in the Adirondacks or coastal Carolinas in 8 hours.

 

[Alan Gage]

Aren't you next door THE Spam factory or something? Sounds good to me!

Yeah, but a lot of good that does me and there are no carrot farms around here!

Alan

 

[memaquay]

I have to change my avatar, cardiologist says I have to give up the Spam. Sad day indeed. Might have to join the ranks of the plant eaters.