Moving south

[Patrick NC]

I moved to North Carolina from the north country of northern New York in 1998. Took a couple of years to find a spot I liked. I highly recommend western north carolina if you decide to move.  You are welcome to come visit awhile to see if you like it. As others have said, mid summer will be a good bit hotter than you are used to, but that's what they make fans and air conditioning for!

[Ianab]

I need to outfit a van or build a truck camper like I want.

There's a significant number of folks around NZ that live that way. There are of course downsides to having "no fixed abode", but a decent size bus or truck can be set up for pretty comfortable living. 

The local "Fair Ground" / Speedway track is set up for motor homes, and there are probably a dozen or so parked up there at any one time, some basically "permanent". Or they might vanish for a few months 
 chasing seasonal work in other areas. It basically came to light when Covid hit, and NZ had the first lockdowns. Basically you had to go home and stay there, except for "essential" things. Cops turned up at the A&P grounds and said "Hey, you all need to go home". Guy points at the truck behind him, "That's my home".  

"Ohhh, OK. Well park the motor homes  ~50ft apart, then we can tick the call off as "isolating at home", and we won't have to hassle you again".  

[thecfarm]

One of my friends parents was homeless like that. 
They was retired and just traveled around the USA.

[Southside]

Not all that long ago people worked their whole lives so they could aspire to live full time in an RV....

[WV Sawmiller]

   I have a USMC friend from my last duty assignment who sold everything he and his wife had and bought a motorhome, set everything up for check to bank for his retirement checks and regular payments and they just travel back and forth across the USA. It takes a different mindset to live like that or on a houseboat or such but they have been doing it several years now and seem to like it. They use mobile phones and e-mail or other internet social media to correspond with family and friends.

[Peter Drouin]

I think I would stay and find something else to do.
I have a lifetime of tools and [stuff]. Way too much [stuff] to move I want to keep.
And friends I would not see again If I moved. Family too.
The townspeople all know me. Good and bad.
I'm good friends with all the Firemen and policemen in town having been on some town committees over the years.

I wish you the best of luck in whatever you do.

[Resonator]

One of my friends parents was homeless like that. 
They was retired and just traveled around the USA.

When I drove truck met a few drivers who lived out of their truck on the road full time. They didn't care when they got "home" as the truck was their home. Their permanent address they only visited a few times a year, and any paper mail went to a PO box. All their banking and bill paying was done electronically, showers and laundry were done at the truckstop, and an occasional stop to any Walmart nationwide to restock the fridge. Calendars didn't mean much as days blurred together, only days that counted were on the drivers log when to take a 34 hour reset. Some never saw snow, and the furthest north they ever wanted to be was the slow lane on I-40 west.

[barbender]

I could totally get into the mobile lifestyle, at least for a few years. Ain't nothing around the home place but work, anyhow☺️

[WV Sawmiller]

  Its certainly a different lifestyle and needs a different mindset.

  When I left the USMC and we moved here to WV and came to roost permanently my daughter made new friends who had been here all their lives, as had their families. One asked her how she could stand to move around every 2-3 years and lose all her friends. Her response was very astute IMHO "I have made a lot of new friends by moving around. I have never lost any. Some I don't see as often as before but they are still my friends."

  Military kids learned significant people skills at an early age because they learned they and their friends would be moving around quickly so they did not wait to make the first move. My kids would see a moving truck driving slowly through the base housing or the subdivisions near base where lots of military families lived. They would see where the truck stopped and run introduce themselves to the new kids, watch them unload the truck for a few minutes to see what kind neat toys, bikes, etc. they had then they'd show them to the neighborhood playground or a neat tree in some kids yard to climb.

    While the parents supervised the unloading of the truck and unpacking my kids and theirs were already playing. We'd meet the parents and talk with them about schools, shopping. churches, etc and note if they had older/teenage kids who might be future babysitters.

  I still am usually the first one to make a comment about a book someone is reading in an airport or something they are looking at in WalMart and that breaks the ice and pretty soon we find we have common interests.

  Yes, you can't haul a complete auto workshop and toolroom around with you so RV life style is not for everyone unless you can find new hobbies to enjoy. There are other fun things out there to see and do if you look and you may have to make the first move.

  As a young Marine Officer with a newlywed wife we moved from duty station to schools and such and my wife would immediately talk to the neighbor lady next door as she walked the dog or hung out laundry or such. Pretty soon they were sharing a cup of coffee then out shopping or sight-seeing. I remember the other young wives crying when we or they had to move and saying "I'd been here 6 months before you came and didn't have a single friend." That was true but they had never taken the first step to say hi and talk a minute or two like my wife always did.

[rusticretreater]

Yep, I was the son of a career Marine and we moved every 2-3 years until he got rank and was assigned to Quantico/HQ Marine Corps in Washington DC.  I got to live in Hawaii on the company plan for 3 years.

[SawyerTed]

Son of a Methodist minister here.  We moved 13 times by the time I was 18.  Loads of friends in lots of places.   

With today's technology, it's not hard to stay in touch, IF you want to stay in touch.  

[Bruno of NH]

Lots of good information folks 
Lots to digest and to think about 

[Don P]

You can haul the tool room too, we built houses on the road for over a decade. I enjoyed being in a community for months at a time meeting the people and seeing local sights rather than just touristing thru. I wouldn't want to do that in this climate but there are other jobs out there that haul no more tools. I have heard the tablesaw and compressor coming up the aisle together tho  .

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Its been a few days sense you started this thread Bruno.  Still holding your own? 

[Bruno of NH]

Still running the mill filling orders 
Have a new helper starting this week . The mill is busy just need some good production. 
The mill has been down off and on for 3 weeks 
The red wire that goes to the test light on the 38hp Kohler was broken . Took me some time to find it . Some day no problems others it wouldn't start.
I think I got it on Saturday 
Let's hope

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Okay Bruno, good to hear your still at it.     Keep moving ahead brother.  

[ladylake]

You couldn't  pay me enough to move down south in the heat and humidity.  Steve   

[Dave Shepard]

I don't know about that, personally. If I could drive from my air conditioned garage to my air conditioned sawmill, I might give it a try.

[KenMac]

I think it all depends on what you're accustomed to. I was raised in central Alabama and once turned down a good job in Decatur, Alabama because I didn't want to move north- 90 miles.

[barbender]

I hear ya. I remember when there was pipeline work up here, when the first cold snap hit I was in the local farm and fleet store. The southern guys were in making a run on every sort of warm clothing😂 The problem was that 15° was just a "soft" cold snap, when it would actually hit where the highs were below 0, those guys tailights were last seen heading in the direction of the Mason/Dixon😁 

 I would be doing that process in reverse, about mid-May I would imagine, if I tried living down South. I'd probably already be getting complaints for "spandex sawin'" by then😂

[doc henderson]

I am fortunate to live in the center of the USA!  We do not have an accent, our feet do not stink, we have and love all 4 seasons and some extremes of weather, but we say if you do not like it, wait 10 minutes and it will change.  We eat all kinds of food and love almost all of it!  

[WV Sawmiller]

Doc,

   If you guys can just get over that overwhelming modesty you will probably be perfect.

[TimW]

I am fortunate to live in the center of the USA!  We do not have an accent, our feet do not stink, we have and love all 4 seasons and some extremes of weather, but we say if you do not like it, wait 10 minutes and it will change.  We eat all kinds of food and love almost all of it! 

...........and 10 minutes later that weather will be in Texas.   And if you don't like that, wait 10 more minutes.  We also have 4 seasons.  Presummer, Summer, Postsummer and Winter.

[Raider Bill]

I just want to add.

We are full down here.

[doc henderson]

My old junior high math teacher Mr. Channel had a saying.  "You lie, your feet stink, and you don't love Jesus."  you could not say that these days.