My trip to Northern Idaho 7/24 to 7/28 2007 (Sandpoint, Bonners Ferry: rent, jobs, schools)

[SandyCo]

Johns65Vette, I'm so glad you and your wife finally made the trip up there to take a look around! I liked all of the pictures, and I'm so envious...

My vacation this year is being spent going to Florida to see my father in October, and then a friend in Minnesota (same trip - lots of flying!). Maybe next year I'll get up that way.

Are you completely sold on Idaho now, or do you still want to investigate Montana and other states?

I can't wait to hear your impressions of winter weather up there.

[brokencrayola]

I live in N. Idaho, outside of Clark Fork. Jobs are always an issue for many people that move to this area. They think the area is beautiful, and it is, and the houses are often less expensive than the area they came from, so it is a perfect place to move to. They sell their expensive homes and move here and buy a cheaper nicer house and have money left over. Then there are usually 2 things that change that perfect picture. First of all are jobs. There are few good paying jobs in the area and the only big industry to any extent is tourism and that pays low. Unless they arrive retired and rich they must make a living and find they cannot do it with the pay around the area. Because it gets more quiet and rural and pretty outside of town and also not having the taxes of Sandpoint, many people look to outside areas to buy land or houses and figure they will commute. Second are the winters. Snow and a white Christmas may sound nice to someone from S. California until they have their first winter or two. They arrive and didn't maybe consider the tracherous drive from Bonners Ferry to their job in Sandpoint everyday will be awful (not to mention gas costs), or that frozen pipes can cause such a headache and what they could have done to prevent it, or how to drive in the snow, or just how long winter lasts etc. I think part of the reason that some Idahoans don't take kindly to Californians is seeing so many come and go in one or two winters. Personally I don't care where a person comes from if they move here as long as they make the effort to fit in and not try to change things.

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Originally Posted by pimit2

I enjoyed the pix and commentary of your Idaho road trip, johns65vette. I live on the Pack River off Colburn Culver Road, so you got real close to me.

I agree with your evaluation of Sandpoint. Nice, clean place....but travel problems (particularly in tourist seasons) not easily solved. When a highway with a heavy semi-truck volume (plus that danged tourist traffic) goes through the heart of a small town it presents great difficulties. A city bypass is inevitable, but understandably fought against by many businessmen.

Good luck with your relocation. I know good-paying employment is a problem. Hopefully, you will overcome that issue. In spite of what you may have read in this Forum about Californians, I'm sure you will be welcomed and accepted. To paraphrase Bob Barker on the Price is Right, "Come on up!"


pimit2 (Bob)

I guess that's why they call it a walking city I noticed the signs around.
I can understand the business people not wanting a bypass, but realistically are tourists going to use the bypass? They will likely go to Sandpoint to be a tourist anyway. Or maybe they could build a truck bypass, just to keep trucks out of the area...except for business purposes of course.

Originally Posted by cleosmom

You're forgiven... this time I'm glad you enjoyed your trip through our beautiful state and hopefully things went smooth for you.

Only 2 things happend:

1. We got stuck on Interstate 5 only 2 hours into the start of our trip. Overturned truck had the freeway closed for about an 1 1/2. I was a bad boy and made my wife mad. I told her, see, if we would have left at 1P.M like I said I wanted to, instead of 2:30 P.M. like we did, we would have made it through here, without being stuck

2. We got a flat tire in Oregon on Sunday, on our way to Post Falls . I heard this loud thump in the right rear wheelwell, and 2 seconds later, the roar of a flat. Pain in the rear. Had to unload a weeks worth of luggage for 3 people to get the spare out, but we were back on the road within 20 minutes. Went to the auto parts store on monday, and bought a plug kit, plugged the tire and put it back on in the hotel parking lot

No other problems. Glad I had a radar detector. That thing saved me from at least 2 tickets.

Originally Posted by Sandpointian

The layout of PF is very unattractive. Endless development and overdevelopment. Before I get flogged, I refer only to the planning of the city not the people, several of whom are good friends. I liked the old PF, pre-development. The wide expanse of the prairie kept one more humble.

CDA is mixed. My hope is that the city focus more on infilling than expansion. There are some georgeous streets but also some really trashy places. One hopes that after the bubble deflates, that the right people are there (long-term folks) to beautify. Lots of individual gems.

Sandpoint is best on a more relaxed schedule. Wish you could have spent a couple days. Drive throughs give you a non-representative impression. It is still largely walkable. It is everyone's hope that the traffic problem gets resolved in our lifetime! But we love it. It has just about everything we want. And certainly places that have similar offerings in the US are 3-4 times more expensive. It is true that the jobs are hard to find. However, I have lived in places which all of a sudden had new jobs come in...these places were ruined within 5-10 years and became prohibitively expensive.

I agree with what you are saying about PF. Seems like a lot younger crowd, and maybe a little rougher also.
When I was getting gas at a station across from my hotel, there was a younger guy, maybe mid 20's no shirt, pulls up in a beat up old primered Ford truck, leaves it running gets gas, and then fly's outta there. I looked at another guy who was pumping gas, and he thought the guy did a gas-n-go. I told him I wasn't sure. Didn't know you could gas first without paying Anyway I did notice the guy had a tattoo on his lower back that said "So Cal", in gang type script I thought, GREAT!! No wonder we Californinas have such a bad reputation.

Originally Posted by SandyCo

Johns65Vette, I'm so glad you and your wife finally made the trip up there to take a look around! I liked all of the pictures, and I'm so envious...

My vacation this year is being spent going to Florida to see my father in October, and then a friend in Minnesota (same trip - lots of flying!). Maybe next year I'll get up that way.

Are you completely sold on Idaho now, or do you still want to investigate Montana and other states?

I can't wait to hear your impressions of winter weather up there.

Yes, I am completely sold on Idaho. After driving through the Bitterroot Valley of MT, it isn't for me, and I don't even know if I will bother looking at Northwestern WY either.
I am hoping to get up there at the end of the year, to experience winter.
My wife got a pamplet for some "Dude Ranch" type of place/B&B, that is supposed to have an "Old Fashioned" type Christmas. I told her, you better book it now, or it will be filled. She hasn't yet

Originally Posted by Brokencrayola

I live in N. Idaho, outside of Clark Fork. Jobs are always an issue for many people that move to this area. They think the area is beautiful, and it is, and the houses are often less expensive than the area they came from, so it is a perfect place to move to. They sell their expensive homes and move here and buy a cheaper nicer house and have money left over. Then there are usually 2 things that change that perfect picture. First of all are jobs. There are few good paying jobs in the area and the only big industry to any extent is tourism and that pays low. Unless they arrive retired and rich they must make a living and find they cannot do it with the pay around the area. Because it gets more quiet and rural and pretty outside of town and also not having the taxes of Sandpoint, many people look to outside areas to buy land or houses and figure they will commute. Second are the winters. Snow and a white Christmas may sound nice to someone from S. California until they have their first winter or two. They arrive and didn't maybe consider the tracherous drive from Bonners Ferry to their job in Sandpoint everyday will be awful (not to mention gas costs), or that frozen pipes can cause such a headache and what they could have done to prevent it, or how to drive in the snow, or just how long winter lasts etc. I think part of the reason that some Idahoans don't take kindly to Californians is seeing so many come and go in one or two winters. Personally I don't care where a person comes from if they move here as long as they make the effort to fit in and not try to change things.

You are so right. That is one reason why I am researching, and want to spend some time there during the winter, to get a feel for what it is like.
The only job, I can see doing that will work, would be truck driving. Either that, Or I will have to open my own auto repair shop. I'm going to start writing down business ideas on paper, and investigating their feasabilty, for the areas up there. I need to think of a niche.

I'll post more on my findings soon.

[Xa'at]

Originally Posted by johns65vette

I understand the "Long Bridge" on US95 can get pretty backed up, but we didn't have much of an issue with it. We only traveled it once in each direction when we went from Post Falls to Sandpoint and back to meet with our realtor.

You got out of here in time. I'm in Sandpoint right now and they're resurfacing the bridge! I'm so glad I don't live in Sagle, I can't imagine commuting over that bridge every day.
We had the long bridge swim yesterday while I was driving the bridge. I only saw one swimming and he/she was flailing about wildly. No one seemed to notice!

[Sage of Sagle]

Ehhh.....it comes and goes. We thought it would be backed up today...and then we were 20 minutes early for church...go figure....clear sailing both ways....

But yeah, I heard one neighbor the other day say we have two actual seasons in Sandpoint, "Road work" season and "Road destruction" season.

[Xa'at]

Sage, do you find that it is better during any particular time? I need to go to CDA but it's already too long of a drive...!

Sorry to hijack the thread btw.

[Sage of Sagle]

Not too much a threadjack...this information is germane to john65vette's overall impressions of Sandpoint.....

But aside from the "running errands" 5-7PM time where it seems particularly bad, it otherwise seems quite random to me...

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

I suppose you'll notice I changed my username, since I sold my Vette to finance land in Idaho

[cleosmom]

Originally Posted by YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY

I suppose you'll notice I changed my username, since I sold my Vette to finance land in Idaho

Seriously? You sold you 'Vette?

[SandyCo]

Wow, what an interesting name change! I think you should have somehow incorporated your former user name; no one will know who you are now... You could have been "Former65VetteOwner" or something like that!