What's your Colorado Transplant Story?

[Count David]

I had been to Colorado exactly *1* time before thinking of moving here (when I was ~ 12 years old, mid 1990s), we went to Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, and I convinced my grandparents that there was more of it to see in Colorado (I just wanted to check another state off the list ). I remember stopping in Dinosaur, we found nothing more to see, and Grandpa pointed the car back towards Utah.

Fast forward to the mid 2000s, I'm finally on my own, and finding myself in Ridgecrest, CA, which for all intents in purposes was just a destinal stopover to find my wife and the eventual mother of my child. I wanted out of there, it was a small town with "nothing to do", and it was too hot. It snowed there once while I was there, so I made that one of the requirements in my future home. Having Del Taco locations, and pro sports were the other requirements.

We came out for a fact-finding trip in December 2006 and loved it. Came out with no jobs, and all of our crap on June 1, 2007. Have been here ever since with the exception of a job transfer and re-transfer for 5 months in 2009 (WA).

I'm well past my "Loving Colorado" stage, but am glad I'm still somewhere where I can find things I enjoy. It's not my forever place, but I've found a career here, and my family and myself has grown more than we would have ever dreamed had we never left California.

[zmarko]

Wow, my story is a looooong one. lol.

Grew up just outside Philadelphia, PA. My parents moved here from England shortly after they got married. My parents split when I was 3 or so, and my mother was very much into "seeing the USA", so she would take my two sisters and I camping with a pop-up camper on vacation every summer to different locations across the country. The trips typically lasted 3-4 weeks (she would save all her vacation to take at one time).

Of all the places we would visit (we went to every state except Alaska & Hawaii), Colorado and even more specifically Estes Park/RMNP was our favorite. When I was in my early teens, we came camping to RMNP almost yearly, and stayed there the longest (typically a week). It became one of my favorite places also.

After graduating college in NC I wanted to move to Colorado, but got caught up with working, then met a girl, got married, bought a house, & got divorced. Was pretty much stuck in my house in NC as the value just wasn't worth what it was when I purchased it.

A few years later, in '03 my mother's breast cancer came back with a vengeance as bone cancer. She needed someone to take care of her, and I was the least "cemented" child of my siblings, so I rented out my house and moved back to Philly to take care of my mom. Towards the end she was very adamant about telling me to "go where I wanted to." Whether she meant that metaphorically, or physiclly, is anyone's guess. But I think she just wanted me to be happy. She passed away about 6 months after I moved back there.

I stayed in Philly for about a year, working and fixing up her house to be sold. And after I did what I could, I moved back to NC (had to kick my renter out a year prior for never paying me rent). After a trip here in '05 looking at housing, and then again in '08 looking at housing again....I wasn't sure I'd be able to afford living here, at least in a place I would be happy in.

Came out here again in '10 for a vacation, and just decided that I would somehow make it happen in 2011. So I worked on things and finally made things work and bought a small 2 BR, 2BA condo out near DIA. Not the greatest place in the world, but it'll do for the next 5 years or so.

Love being out here so far!

[qfrost]

Mine is still ongoing. We'll be moving there at the end of March, following a job offer my wife got while on a Xmas trip.

I've always been an outdoor person, grew up in Indiana on a small farm - loved the greenery, loved having seasons, and weather - snow days, thunderstorms, everything. But hated the mosquitoes, the lack of creative careers, and the prevailing mindset. Moved to L.A. to join the film industry. Found a career, a wife, and after 22 years, discovered how deeply I dislike concrete, traffic, rushing, over-priced housing and the inability to have close friends and quick access to nature. My wife went to DU, lived in Denver for 10 years after that. She taught me to ski (and I LOVE skiing), we began coming to the ski resorts and began exploring around the Front Range.

Nowhere ever felt so much like home as the mountains of Colorado. We've been talking about moving to Colorado for nine, ten years easily. No place is perfect, but when the opportunity came to make the leap to Colorado, we had to take it. Now we're making this dream a reality.

[CosmicWizard]

Like so many of the current crop of Colorado wannabees, I love the outdoors, hiking, camping etc, with a desire to live in the mountains...you know the drill. Fresh out of the Air Foce in '71 with the freedom to live wherever I wanted to. I had some friends living in Denver who invited me out to have a look, and I took them up on their offer. Stayed with my friends in Denver for about a week then moved to Boulder where I spent about 6 months then moved to Anchorage-Alaska. 6 months later my friend from Denver joined me up there and he's still there 40 years later. I've lived in many places since then. This is my second time around for Colorado living. Been living in Grand Junction since July '06. I much prefer the western slope to the front range. It's simply a better fit for me.

[NickTahoes]

Upstate NY's economy was circling the toilet bowl, moved my family here to have a growing economy my kids could actually graduate college and stay live/work. Housing costs more but is stable. Not in love with the truckhole Texans or the MEME Californians, or the personality devoid mid westerners, but there is an energy here. Also 300 days of sun, lower cost of living are hard to argue. I describe it as a crossroads like Vegas or Florida, but without the horrible. Don't care about outdoor sports or skiing. Would happily trade the mountains for lakes or an ocean.

[tonym9428]

Was a college student in Lawrence, KS. After graduation, got offered a job in Denver and have been here months. Overall, it's been good. In my opinion, the one bad thing has the amount of racist and prejudiced people I have met here. Denver is definitely much more backwards than KS and that's hard to believer, but from my experience, this is the case. It's too bad.

[cityfilms]

I just moved here 2 months ago from the Southeast, most recently after living in Atlanta for 8 years. Denver is the anti-atlanta. I was tired of the fake it till you make it mentality of the "pretend city" of Atlanta. I was tired of living in a flat area with horrific heat and humidity, horrific education level of the populace, horrific crime, horrific attitude among people in general, and horrific employment conditions, horrific city planning, and just plain horrific people in general... people that just are so horrible that they don't deserve to live.

I am a licensed professional engineer, but I changed careers after having difficulting working with engineers because they lack almost EVERY life skill outside the narrow field of engineering. I'm now a self-employed video producer. I work with high-end clients all over the country including the high country resorts.

I moved here because I WANTED to live here. I control my own destiny. I don't let some pathetic insecure "boss" decide my fate. I am my own boss. I make the rules, and people like me are moving to Colorado in droves. We don't flaunt it like the FAKE Coastal U.S. cities, but we're here and we're making a difference. Being snobby just ain't "cool" here like it is in LA, ATL, or the Northeast, this is the land of the laid back and self-sufficient... I just people in Denver weren't so gullable... These people vote so liberally, and I wonder if they came from where I came from if they would vote for some guy for Mayor as liberal as this guy who freakin ran the Public housing authority here... I mean seriously that's about as socialist liberal-lame as you can get!!

There are definitely a lot of gullible white "liberals" in Denver apparantely, but I won't hold that against them, in fact, that might work to my advantage (I'm white btw, but I'm not a white devil!)