Why move to Missouri (Kansas City, St. Louis: scorpion, college, tornado)

[STLCardsBlues1989]

I live in Missouri and love it. Here are some reasons for someone to move to Missouri (feel free to add more):

1. The land is beautiful. From flat land to rolling hills and to blue lakes.
2. You can live on a quiet farm, a small town, or even in a larger city (St. Louis, Kansas City).
3. There are a lot of things to do at any time of the year all over Missouri. You can fish at Lake of the Ozarks, attend a sporting event, visit museums and parks all over Missouri.
4. You get a colorful and hot summer along with a frozen and white winter. Autumn and Spring are beautiful as well.
5. Property is often cheaper, even in larger cities, than other states.
6. You can watch any of the 5 major sports teams in the state as well as college teams, such as the recently good Mizzou football team.
7. The state has a wonderful, although sometimes tumultuous history.
8. A Missouri accent can vary, often southern, midwestern, or both.
9. Missouri is large and borders 8 states.
10. Missouri (Mizz-er-ee) or Missouri (Mizz-er-uh) is a common debate (I pronounce is Mizz-er-ee myself)
11. Many famous residents to learn about and be proud of.
12. Tends to be very sports-oriented, especially baseball and football.
13. Sports rivalries, including interstate rivalries with Chicago and Detroit (mostly in baseball and hockey).
14. The weather can change very quickly, which can be good and bad.

Just some. Add some more if you'd like.

[CellarBelle]

15. St. Louis Blues.

[MoNative34]

16. MU Tigers
17. The Missouri CDF community!!

[ajf131]

Originally Posted by STLCardsBlues1989

I live in Missouri and love it. Here are some reasons for someone to move to Missouri (feel free to add more):

1. The land is beautiful. From flat land to rolling hills and to blue lakes.
2. You can live on a quiet farm, a small town, or even in a larger city (St. Louis, Kansas City).
3. There are a lot of things to do at any time of the year all over Missouri. You can fish at Lake of the Ozarks, attend a sporting event, visit museums and parks all over Missouri.
4. You get a colorful and hot summer along with a frozen and white winter. Autumn and Spring are beautiful as well.
5. Property is often cheaper, even in larger cities, than other states.
6. You can watch any of the 5 major sports teams in the state as well as college teams, such as the recently good Mizzou football team.
7. The state has a wonderful, although sometimes tumultuous history.
8. A Missouri accent can vary, often southern, midwestern, or both.
9. Missouri is large and borders 8 states.
10. Missouri (Mizz-er-ee) or Missouri (Mizz-er-uh) is a common debate (I pronounce is Mizz-er-ee myself)
11. Many famous residents to learn about and be proud of.
12. Tends to be very sports-oriented, especially baseball and football.
13. Sports rivalries, including interstate rivalries with Chicago and Detroit (mostly in baseball and hockey).
14. The weather can change very quickly, which can be good and bad.

Just some. Add some more if you'd like.

Will need to first scratch off accent as being a reason to move to Missouri. Yes it's a reason, but it's not like we are the only state in which you hear a mixture of speech patterns. If accent is a reason to move to Missouri, then make it a reason to move to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, or Kentucky as well. Southern and Midwestern speech patterns are in all those states too. So while it may be a reason, I don't see it as a good one. Weather patterns...same deal as the accent. Here's a reason I will add to move to Missouri. Landscape is very diverse.

[r8rfan]

Awesome springtime thunderstorms with some beautiful lightning shows.

The way everything seems to come to life in the springtime.

A looong bow season. (I love to bow hunt!)

[northbayeric]

Affordability, great place to raise a family, not that far from many other places in the United States, the caves are jaw-droppingly awesome!

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by STLCardsBlues1989

I live in Missouri and love it. Here are some reasons for someone to move to Missouri (feel free to add more):

1. The land is beautiful. From flat land to rolling hills and to blue lakes.
2. You can live on a quiet farm, a small town, or even in a larger city (St. Louis, Kansas City).
3. There are a lot of things to do at any time of the year all over Missouri. You can fish at Lake of the Ozarks, attend a sporting event, visit museums and parks all over Missouri.
4. You get a colorful and hot summer along with a frozen and white winter. Autumn and Spring are beautiful as well.
5. Property is often cheaper, even in larger cities, than other states.
6. You can watch any of the 5 major sports teams in the state as well as college teams, such as the recently good Mizzou football team.
7. The state has a wonderful, although sometimes tumultuous history.
8. A Missouri accent can vary, often southern, midwestern, or both.
9. Missouri is large and borders 8 states.
10. Missouri (Mizz-er-ee) or Missouri (Mizz-er-uh) is a common debate (I pronounce is Mizz-er-ee myself)
11. Many famous residents to learn about and be proud of.
12. Tends to be very sports-oriented, especially baseball and football.
13. Sports rivalries, including interstate rivalries with Chicago and Detroit (mostly in baseball and hockey).
14. The weather can change very quickly, which can be good and bad.

Just some. Add some more if you'd like.

a wealth of all things cultural
zoos
museums
History
wine
food
historical buildings

[Aimsely1]

All sounds nice, but what about the scorpions, tarantulas, snakes, black widows, etc? They are the reason I crossed MO off my short list of states to move to. Despite fact my brother is moving there and we share the last name of a beloved Mark Twain character, I dont think I can handle the bugs. Sorry here in NJ we dont have this. We just have astronomical property taxes. Hence the reason I am looking at other states to move to!

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Originally Posted by Aimsely1

All sounds nice, but what about the scorpions, tarantulas, snakes, black widows, etc? They are the reason I crossed MO off my short list of states to move to. Despite fact my brother is moving there and we share the last name of a beloved Mark Twain character, I dont think I can handle the bugs. Sorry here in NJ we dont have this. We just have astronomical property taxes. Hence the reason I am looking at other states to move to!

You usually only really encounter those animals if you go looking for them. I've never seen a scorpion, black widow, or tarantula in the wild and I've lived here 18 years. Snakes I've seen, you just gotta be careful if you're in a rural/wooded area. Most snakes I've seen are harmless and unaggressive. I hate bugs as much as anybody, but they're hardly a reason to stay away. If they are, you'd might as well avoid any southern state, most of Africa, and Australia. Seems silly to me to live in fear of bugs.

And every state has it's undesirables and risks. Northern states you could killed on an ice covered road or by freezing. Western states you could get killed by an earthquake, mudslide, or fire. southern states you could get blown away by a tornado or by the heat. All kinds of places you could get killed by bugs, crime, car accidents, or anything. Now, most of those are extremes and don't happen often, but neither are getting bitten by a black widow, tarantula, scorpion, or poisonous snake.

I mean, honestly, why avoid a place out of fear, especially of something you'll probably never find unless you go looking for it? I've walked on all kinds of trails and been in all kinds of parks. I've never been bitten or stung by anything like that. I'm lucky I guess, though. I've never been stung by a bee. Although a friend of mine is allergic to them, so bees can kill you too. How many states have bees anyway? Most of them probably.

http://www.badspiderbites.com/black-widow-spider.php

All species of Black Widows are found in warm climates of the north and south, which are approximately 45 degrees north or south of the equator. The Black Widow spider can also be found in four of the American southwest deserts as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45_Degrees_North_Latitude

In North America, the 45th parallel roughly marks the border between the United States and Canada between the St. Lawrence and Connecticut rivers (the northern borders of the U.S. states of New York and Vermont with the Canadian province of Quebec), where the parallel is sometimes called the "Canada line". The actual boundary of Vermont lies approximately 1 km (5/8 mi) north of the parallel due to a cartographic error. The boundary here intersects Lake Champlain, which is shared by the two nations, with most of the lake lying in the United States.
The 45th parallel makes up most of the boundary between Montana and Wyoming. It also passes through the U.S. states of Oregon, Idaho, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Maine. It also passes through the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
In Michigan, the Old Mission Peninsula in Grand Traverse Bay ends just shy of the 45th parallel. Many guidebooks and signs at the Mission Point Lighthouse describe it as being halfway between the equator and north pole. When the Grand Traverse Bay recedes below normal level, it is possible to walk out to the exact line.
Farther west, the line roughly bisects the metropolitan area of Minneapolis-St. Paul. In the Western United States, the parallel passes through the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, intersecting the Pacific coast in Oregon. Throughout the United States the parallel is marked in many places on highways by a sign proclaiming that the location is halfway between the North Pole and the equator.
The cities of Ottawa, Montreal and St. Paul are on or near this parallel.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/2441

Range
In the United States, scorpions are most abundant in the semiarid regions of the Southwest. Scorpion diversity increases dramatically west of the 100 degree meridian.

The greatest individual "spots" of diversity in the US occur in several localities of Trans-Pecos Texas (e.g., Langtry, Rio Grande Village, Lajitas/Terlingua) and Anza-Borrego State Park, California, with 9 species occurring within a square mile.

Arizona and California have the greatest scorpion diversity with about 60 species (includes undescribed forms).

They do not occur in the Great Lakes states (except extreme SW Illinois) or New England, or Alaska.

http://www.desertusa.com/july96/du_taran.html

Geography – Range
Tarantulas occur worldwide . Those found in North America occur in the southern and southwestern states, including the dry and warmer parts of the southern California. These are smaller and generally have a body length of less than 2 inches and a leg span of from 3 to 4 inches.
Related Species
The Desert Tarantula (Aphonopelma chalcodes) grows 2 to 3 inches long and is colored gray to dark brown. It is common to the Sonoran, Chihuahuan and Mojave deserts of Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California.
The most common North American tarantula is Eurypelma californicum, found in California, Texas, and Arizona. A 30-year life span has been recorded for one individual of this species. Certain South American tarantulas, which have a body length of up to almost 3 in., build large webs and eat small birds[/SIZE]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agkistrodon_contortrix (Copperhead snakes)

Found in the United States in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. In Mexico it occurs in Chihuahua and Coahuila.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agkistrodon_piscivorus (cottonmouth or water moccasin snake)

Found in the eastern United States from Virginia, south through the Florida peninsula and west to Arkansas, southeastern Kansas, eastern and southern Oklahoma, and eastern and central Texas. A few records exist of the species being found along the Rio Grande in Texas, but these are thought to represent disjunct populations, now possibly extirpated. The type locality given is "Carolina," although Schmidt (1953) proposed that this be restricted to the area around Charleston, South Carolina.[1]
Campbell and Lamar (2004) mentions this species as being found in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, eastern Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.[4] Maps provided by Campbell and Lamar (2004) and Wright and Wright (1957) also indicate its presence in eastern Tennessee and extreme southeastern Nebraska.
In Georgia it is found in the southern half of the state up to a few kilometers north of the fall line with few exceptions. Its range also includes the Ohio River Valley as far north as southern Illinois, and it inhabits many barrier islands off the coasts of the states where it is found.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotalus_adamanteus (venomous pitviper)

Found in the southeastern United States from southeastern North Carolina, south along the coastal plain through peninsular Florida to the Florida Keys, and west along the Gulf Coast though southern Mississippi to southeastern Louisiana.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotalus_atrox Western D-Back

Found in the United States from central Arkansas and southeastern California, south into Mexico as far as northern Sinaloa, Hidalgo and northern Veracruz. Disjunct populations exist in southern Veracruz and southeastern Oaxaca. The type locality given is "Indianola" (Indianola, Calhoun County, Texas, USA).[1]
In the United States it occurs in the following states: central and western Arkansas, Oklahoma excluding the northeast, north-central region and the panhandle, Texas excluding the northern panhandle and the east, southern and central New Mexico and Arizona, extreme southern Nevada, and in southeastern California on either side of the Chocolate Mountains. Records from extreme southern Kansas (Cowley and Sumner Counties) may be based on a natural occurrence of the species, while multiple records from near Kanopolis Reservoir in Ellsworth County seem to indicate a viable (although isolated) population.[5]

So, if you want to avoid all snakes, tarantulas, black widows, and scorpions you can move to New York, Vermont, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii, Alaska or most of Canada.

[Cali BassMan]

Originally Posted by Aimsely1

All sounds nice, but what about the scorpions, tarantulas, snakes, black widows, etc? They are the reason I crossed MO off my short list of states to move to.

Don't go to California either.....

I've seen plenty of Tarantulas, Rattlesnakes & Black Widows.
But by far the most scariest critter of all in California, Killing thousands of People each year is............Man,........