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Old 11-09-2007, 06:42 PM
 
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota
3,940 posts, read 14,682,006 times
Reputation: 2287

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Quote:
Originally Posted by MidniteBreeze View Post
Another good thing about the Twin Cities is you're only a couple hours via Interstate from Duluth and the north shore of Lake Superior beyond. Beautiful, rugged terrain where you can hike, rock climb, etc., etc. If you've never been up that way, I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised!

Don't get me wrong, Colorado is great but every place has its issues. (I lived out there for 5 years). If you want to try the U of M for a year, you can always leave if it's not your cup of tea. If you can afford to take a year off when/if you get to Colorado, you can get in-state tuition rates. I got my MA out there and that's what I did. Saved me a lot of money in the long run. Just make sure you get your Colorado DL right away and save a copy of your rental lease, etc.

Good luck!
Maybe you have a point. I would have to drive for at least an hour to get far enough out of Denver to enjoy real wilderness and terrain, so why not do the same thing and be close to people that I already know? I know I would make new friends in Denver, but I want to work on relationships that I already do have and make more along the way.

I might really take U of M into consideration...

Thanks to all for your help!!!
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Old 11-09-2007, 09:11 PM
 
Location: Grand Rapids, MN
571 posts, read 2,524,966 times
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The U of M IS a good school and yes the winters can suck in Minnesota...but the key to getting through winter is finding a way to enjoy it. Take up skiing (downhill in MN is obviously pretty weak compared to CO--but still doable--however there are LOTS of great x-country opportunities, especially "up north"), ice fishing, snowmobiling...SOMETHING other than sitting inside counting the days until spring!

Plus you're STILL YOUNG! I didn't get out to Colorado until after I was done with my undergrad, but I was still young too! If your goal right now is to nurture the relationships you have (and save money) then give it a try. If that doesn't work out, you can always move on. That's the beauty of being young, "unattached" and relatively free from responsibility (mortgage, kids, etc.)

It probably sounds like I'm trying to persuade you to be in MN, I'm not. If you really want CO, you'll find a way to make it work. But it sounds like relationships are at least slightly more important to you right now than the allure of the Rockies...but you ultimately have to do what you think is best for YOU. College is a big step and yes, it does help to have a support system in place. If you think you have more support in MN, then maybe that's where you should start. Doesn't necessarily have to be where you end
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Old 11-09-2007, 09:42 PM
 
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota
3,940 posts, read 14,682,006 times
Reputation: 2287
Quote:
Originally Posted by MidniteBreeze View Post
The U of M IS a good school and yes the winters can suck in Minnesota...but the key to getting through winter is finding a way to enjoy it. Take up skiing (downhill in MN is obviously pretty weak compared to CO--but still doable--however there are LOTS of great x-country opportunities, especially "up north"), ice fishing, snowmobiling...SOMETHING other than sitting inside counting the days until spring!

Plus you're STILL YOUNG! I didn't get out to Colorado until after I was done with my undergrad, but I was still young too! If your goal right now is to nurture the relationships you have (and save money) then give it a try. If that doesn't work out, you can always move on. That's the beauty of being young, "unattached" and relatively free from responsibility (mortgage, kids, etc.)

It probably sounds like I'm trying to persuade you to be in MN, I'm not. If you really want CO, you'll find a way to make it work. But it sounds like relationships are at least slightly more important to you right now than the allure of the Rockies...but you ultimately have to do what you think is best for YOU. College is a big step and yes, it does help to have a support system in place. If you think you have more support in MN, then maybe that's where you should start. Doesn't necessarily have to be where you end
WOW! That is an excellentpoint and I guess I never really thought of it that way. For some strange reason, I have the concept that wherever I choose to go to school is where I will be stuck forever. Heck, I'm young and unattached. Sky's the limit.

I am very active in winter activities (growing up in the Black Hills), so finding stuff to do is never a problem for me. I was mostly just worried about being stuck in a place where I might be unhappy. I always have so much fun when I go to Colorado. I have only been to Minneapolis a handful of times and it is quite a bit farther away from Rapid City than Denver. It looks like U of M is inching closer to the top of my "maybe list" in choosing a school.

By the way, what did you like about Denver as opposed to MSP? Why did you decide to leave? And thanks again for all of your help in this important decision!
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Old 11-09-2007, 11:01 PM
 
Location: Grand Rapids, MN
571 posts, read 2,524,966 times
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I'm from Duluth originally and moved out to Colorado Springs with my then fiance (now husband) when we were done with college. Basically just itching to get out of MN for a while and see something different. (Hubby didn't really want to go, but I kind of "pushed" him into it. Even though we ended up back in MN, he says he's really glad for our experienecs out there and is grateful that I made him venture outside his "comfort zone".)

Anyway, once we got there I took a year off to work and sort of "get my bearings" (as well as my resident status!) and then went back for my MA at UCCS. All together we were out there for 5 years. I loved a lot of things about CO including yes, the weather and the mountains, of course! We made a lot of good friends out there that we still keep in touch with and visit from time to time. Always great to have an excuse to go to CO!!

Things I didn't like: general lack of water (big adustment after growing up in the land of lakes, especially right next to Lake Superior!), how it was getting crowded/expensive and that it just wasn't "home." As I mentioned, we made some good friends out there, but our families were in MN as well as many of our "old" friends. It was really a tough decision, but we ultimately decided to move back to northern MN.

That's kind of a funny story in itself...when we decided to move back home neither of us had any kind of job lined up. We had the means to support ourselves for a few months but after that who knew? A lot of people thought we were crazy to leave our jobs and relative stability in CO just based on an "emotional" decision, but once we decided that's what we wanted, we went for it. Luckily I landed a job a few days after we came back. Took hubby a little longer to find a job in his field, but we made due until it happened.

We still miss CO from time to time, but this was definitely the right decision for us, we're very happy here. Wouldn't go back and change a thing though...we both learned a LOT about ourselves while we were out there. I think people just need different things at different times in their lives and you just sort of *know* when it's time for a change.

As they say, it's not so much about the destination as it is the journey
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Old 11-10-2007, 05:31 AM
 
21 posts, read 67,074 times
Reputation: 11
Default Been There

I grew up in Colorado, lived in Denver for a few years and lived in the Minneapolis area for over 20 years now. Visit there from time to time. Denver is OK but is now much larger, more congested and dirtier place than it used to be. Traffic in the city and getting to the mountains for activities is terrible. Minneapolis is much cleaner and as one respondent implied greener than Denver. There are many different colleges in the area so don't be hung up on the U of M.
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Old 11-10-2007, 05:12 PM
 
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota
3,940 posts, read 14,682,006 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Plymn View Post
I grew up in Colorado, lived in Denver for a few years and lived in the Minneapolis area for over 20 years now. Visit there from time to time. Denver is OK but is now much larger, more congested and dirtier place than it used to be. Traffic in the city and getting to the mountains for activities is terrible. Minneapolis is much cleaner and as one respondent implied greener than Denver. There are many different colleges in the area so don't be hung up on the U of M.
I have visited Denver almost every year since I was 3 and I say that I'd have to agree about the congestion and "bad growth". Coming from Rapid City, you approach Denver from the north. You could once distinguish FoCo from Loveland and Westminster from Thornton. Now it seems as if it is just ONE GIANT CITY from FoCo to Denver! People seem to drive worse now than they ever did before too...

I don't mind a lot of traffic and hustle because it is a change from Rapid City! But I am sure that it get very old after a while and you miss driving around without "white knuckles".
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Old 11-10-2007, 07:48 PM
 
Location: Grand Rapids, MN
571 posts, read 2,524,966 times
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Another thing that sucks is that since a lot of folks are moving to CO from elsewhere (seems to be a lot of Californians and Texans, especially), there are a good number of people on the roads who really don't know how to drive in winter conditions. I was also surprised at how poorly they did snow maintenence...seemed to take forever for them to plow anything but the most major roads (some side streets were lucky to EVER see a plow!) and they don't use salt, so it can get pretty icy. They kind of just wait for it to melt, I guess. Luckily that usually happens sooner than later (unlike in MN, ha ha), but those 2 or 3 days of driving on ice in a busy city can really be stressful!

My worst trip EVER was coming back to Colorado from MN one Christmas. We hit I-76 off I-80 and the whole highway was seriously a skating rink! Cars, trucks and semis all over the ditches....it looked like a junkyard. We had to drive 30 MPH all the way to Denver. The worst part is this wasn't in the middle of a storm or anything...they must have had some snow a day or two before and plowed but didn't do anything about the thin (but deadly) sheet of ice covering the road. It was a nice sunny day but obviously still cold. I almost called the CO DOT when we got home...it was THAT bad. If they can't use salt or SOMETHING to melt the ice, they really should have just closed the road.
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Old 11-10-2007, 08:17 PM
 
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota
3,940 posts, read 14,682,006 times
Reputation: 2287
You're right about people from California moving into Colorado (and other states). My parents were friends with a woman from Estes Park whose house was bought and bulldozed to build $400k condos by a California development company. She said that Elk used to migrate through her backyard. They don't anymore.

It also seems that many people from Colorado are moving up to Rapid City. Almost anyone on the SD Forum that asks about the area is from the Denver metro. People just keep moving to more isolated places to escape people. I guess they don't realize they are the people.

I trust that Minnesota has great winter road care. Heck, they oughtta!!!
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Old 11-11-2007, 06:12 AM
 
Location: Stuck in Sippi
14 posts, read 44,339 times
Reputation: 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyBanany View Post

UGG! WHAT DO I DO!?!!
how bout just try talking with Her about it? goils dig that sort of stuff.
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Old 11-11-2007, 08:38 AM
 
Location: Grand Rapids, MN
571 posts, read 2,524,966 times
Reputation: 314
The black hills is a nice area...and yes, I've heard more people from "outside" are starting to "discover" it as a potential place to relocate to. Always nice to have some healthy growth but hopefully it won't be "taken over" like some places! Not too long ago Colorado Springs was just a small city. Probably won't be too long now before the front range "megalopolis" stretches from C.S. (or even Pueblo!) all the way to Ft. Collins (Cheyenne?) Who knows!

Yeah, MN does a good job with snow removal/de-icing as you would expect. Obviously you're still going to encounter some silppery roads in the winter, but they keep up pretty well, especially in the urban areas. Salt does eat up the roads (and your car, eventually) but I'm sure it saves lives!
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