It's dead middle of summer but I went to an outlet store to buy cold weather gear for my upcoming move to Colorado. Made out like gangbusters, I heartily recommend shopping for winter gear in July. The deals! In the same vein of my upcoming move, every week my future changes quite a bit but it invariably takes on more and more form. It's an exciting process. Early September will see me driving from upstate Michigan through the Rocky Mountains... I can't wait.
oh hells yes! eightbitsamurai, beezneez, rob05c - I vote for a "Welcome to Colorado" meet up with blackbootz. What say you?
Ha, when then? It would have to be in Denver, right? I am planning on making a trip there in the middle of September sometime to visit a friend and stay there for a few nights.
Dude... we'll work around your blackbooted ninja schedule. It could be Denver, Boulder, whatever. I live six miles due west of downtown. I can pick up beezneez and come to Boulder (nearer eightbitsamurai) or vice versa. I'm game for whatever. I forget where rob05c lives - but we'll make it a party.
I think picking a date and place would work out best after I make it to the state and get my bearings. But this'll be awesome, who knew I'd get to meet you guys. Or that this'll have been my third hubski meetup. Ha, unreal.
I'm a man in the middle then. No, literally, in that picture there's a man way in the back, kind of jumping out of the sewer or something, deciding where his allegiances lie. I'm literally figuratively that guy.
I did pretty much the opposite move three years ago. The winters up here are much worse temperature wise than most of Colorado. If you're along the Front Range (Colorado Springs to Cheyenne), you'll get less snow too. Colorado is one of the heavens on Earth, so don't forget to enjoy it while you live there. Eventually, you sort of start to forget the mountains are there, and you shouldn't forget to take advantage of them.
Up where? Noted! And I welcome any other advice. I'll be moving to Walden, CO, for a month or two where I have a job and a place to stay, thus a little runway to get my bearings. After that, no idea. Maybe Denver, maybe Steamboat Springs, maybe baby.The winters up here are much worse...
don't forget to enjoy it while you live there. Eventually, you sort of start to forget the mountains are there, and you shouldn't forget to take advantage of them.
Wisconsin. We've had windchills below -40, and probabaly get seven feet of snow over the course of a winter, or more. You'll see snow like that up in the mountains, but not temperatures, and in my experience it tends to be lighter snow, way easier to shovel. Walden is a good place. Personally, I don't like Denver all that much, a little big for my tastes, makes it feel a bit less like Colorado. Steamboat is okay. I'd push hard for Fort Collins, but that is just nativist pride. Colorado Springs is great too, more like a mountain town even though it's just in the foothills. Check out the SouthWest portion a bit too, Mesa Verde and the Great Sand dunes are really neat. Rocky Mountain National Park isn't huge, but there is plenty to explore there. I'd suggest getting into mountain biking, I didn't start till I moved out here, and that was a big mistake. There's something for everyone really, as long as you enjoy being outdoors. Oh, and watch for bears, they'll wander into town from time to time. Go see one if you get a chance, they're cool fellas.
the weed is a big part of it... but we are just genuinely in the middle of a friggin boom right now. It will bust eventually. I read a report a week ago that Denver is at 0% vacancy. It's so ridiculous. Sure, there will be an apartment here or there, but we are effectively full. Construction hasn't caught up, and won't until it's too late. Being poor in the Denver area right now is basically being homeless. You can't touch an apartment for under $1000 near town. I know someone staying in a dive motel on Colfax Ave and it's costing them $1280/ month. Crazy times...
This prices make me glad we left when we did. I'm finishing up high school now, and looking at college and moving out and stuff. In Colorado (Ft. Collins specifically), CSU would have been my back up school, but looks like I couldn't afford to live there now. Do you know anything about affordability in places other than Denver? I can't imagine what Aspen, Breckenridge, or Steamboat Springs are up to.
All of the mountain towns (especially the resort towns) are only for the stupid rich. We peasants are allowed to visit. There was a SERIOUS lull in the market in the 08-10 years, but they never got affordable. The stupid rich just slowed on buying/building there. A friend of mine is (was) an architect for the high-end crown up there. He basically lost his life savings trying to stay afloat when the bottom dropped out. He ended up moving away. Building is picking up again there, and it's as expensive as ever.
You think that they are similarly getting more and more expensive? It's a crappy feeling of joining a party at it's most expensive and most crowded.I can't imagine what Aspen, Breckenridge, or Steamboat Springs are up to.
They've always been outrageous, even during the summer, when they aren't full of tourist skiers. They tend to have higher paying service industry jobs and good tipping though, if that's what you do. I can only imagine that they're getting worse like Denver.
South around the lake. It's a long ass drive, I don't think I'd allow myself to enjoy a scenic route, as pretty as it is.
My route has me going not far from Ann Arbor. I could swing by for an early lunch the day I leave, sometime around Labor Day. How's that sound?