Best place to live in missouri (Kansas City, Springfield: amusement parks, schools, universities)

[northbayeric]

Oooh, Lake Junkie is 100 percent right about your e-mail address. I would just click on the little triangle that has the red border at the upper right-hand corner of your post, and ask one of our moderators to delete your e-mail address.

These forums are really good in that we can send one another direct messages by clicking right on the person's name, which opens up a pull-down menu.

Again, all of God's blessings to you, and have the merriest of Christmas holidays!

[Aces]

Dear syl77dar,
I too was raised in the Kansas City area. I lived on the border between Independence and Blue Springs. I have a few positive things to say about at least one of these cities. Blue Springs has always been a good town, at least in my opinion. I realize the crime rate has gone up, but that's probably due more to what is going on in the world today. Crime is going up everywhere. As for the schools, I loved the schools when I went there. The freshmen center and the high school could do with a upgrade in size, or at least another high school, due to the crowding. If the city built another school it would free up space in the high schools to put the freshmen back. I have never once known any student who has come out of that school aggressive, upset, or angry, unless they went in that way. As for the high school, I think it is a great school, though it is crowded. I had teachers who really cared about my outcome and helping me succeed. Every teacher I had cared about their students. The counselors were also very helpful, and willing to lend a hand. I plan to move back to that area in the next couple of years and let my children go to the school. I never once had a problem with it, though if you did have as big of a problem with the school district as you say you did, you either should have spoken up or moved. Just a thought.

[Landwatch]

I would suggest St Louis and Kansas as best places to live in Missouri. Homes are affordable, while things are much economical.

[JDGreen]

Originally Posted by NavyCopper

I have a question that I hope I can get help with. I am in the Navy and I purchased a home in Cabool, I am not from Missouri but we feel in love with it once we got there and seen how beautiful it was so we bought our home. My situation is we can't find any pictures of Cabool anywhere. We won't be getting there until May time frame and we are very excited. Does anyone have any photos they wouldn't mind sharing? We would like to see the town and just some of the general area. Anything would be great! Thank you and we look forward to getting home and becoming a part of the community.
Have a Very Merry Christmas and God Bless...

NavyCopper; Another THANK YOU for your service to our country, happy new year & enjoy Missouri.

[Inoxkeeper]

Originally Posted by MoMark

I love Missouri. I grew up and began my working career in California and had lived in San Francisco for 10 years, then in the East Bay where I bought a house until 2000. I was transfered to Las Vegas.
I LOVED Las Vegas!!! The desert air, deep aquamarine blue skies, spectacular mountains, just a great place to live.
But...
I had been researching Missouri for a couple of years and flew out here from LV to look myself. I fell in love with it. My area of choice was southwestern Missouri in the Springfield area.
The countryside here is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. The greenery is spectacular and it's so classically American.
My first evening in Missouri back on that trip in Aug. of 04 I sat on a stone wall with a realtor out in the country near Ash Grove and as the light began to diminish and evening set in, thousands of lightning bugs began to twinkle and light up and there were green "stars" by the thousands everywhere. I had my head out the window watching the sides of the roads as we drove back to Springfield enchanted by the twinkling lights.
Summer here is hot, not the heat you'd find in the desert southwest, it's humid, but it's bearable. I also noticed that there are frequent breezes and thunderstorms, so you get cooled off now and then. It's not like Las Vegas where you can walk outside at 1am to 100F. Here it cools off at night...sometimes quite a bit. I love the heat here in the summer. It's lazy with fluffy white heat clouds drifting by seemingly just above the treetops and the colors are so vivid.
Fall is AMAZING! It's a kaleidescope of fantastic colors and the big topic of converstation is trying to gauge when all the leaves will drop as if it's early..bad winter...late..good winter...etc. Everyone seems to have his theories here.
Winter can be a booger. My first winter here was 2005 into 2006. November into the first week of Dec. 06 was miserably cold, but no snow. January was balmy and then Feb.06 was frigid. By March 12th it was 80F and humid and we had tornadoes.
This winter has been what the locals call "normal". To me it's been difficult. It's been mostly frigid since late November, then on Nov. 30 came 3" of rain in huge thunderstorms that turned to freezing rain by morning, then sleet until 11pm Dec. 1st, then snow and it was not pleasant. January was the historic ice storm I'm still cleaning up from and there's been frequent snow this winter. I have found it extremely cold, but maybe part of that is we had to work in it because of the ice storm damage and the power was out for a week.
Spring is coming now. I see the trees trying to bud and hope there's no March freeze. As soon as I feel sure we won't have any more freezing nights, I'm going to buy my years worth of Impatiens..BRIGHT RED, geraniums (bright red too!) and get to work on the flower beds so that they'll be fantastic by June
I love Missouri. I think you will too. It's...amazingly beautiful with very good people. Just be ready to shop for a full four season wardrobe
December 06. Winter

Spring 06

Summer 06, across the road from my home and with the heat clouds

Fall 06. Spectacular.

This string got bumped, I click on the first page by accident and found this post from MoMark. I joined right before CD lost him so I never really got to know him, yet for some reason I feel like I have lost something whenever I see one of his posts.

So for no particluar reason I am bumping this post to pay a little homeage to an absent friend. God Bless ya MoMark!

[recycled]

MoMark's posts were incredibly well written, so many hundreds and hundreds of them. His posts were what originally grabbed my attention to CD forum over a year ago. At that time, there were the state forums and "other topics", that was it. We traded friendly comments back and forth on several threads from time to time. I read a lot of his posts when he was with us. Lately, somebody occasionally re-quotes one of his older posts and I get to read it for the first time or perhaps re-read it again and maybe learn something new. Thanks Inoxkeeper for bringing back one of MoMarks posts about MO. We will miss him in 2008.

[Boof]

Originally Posted by recycled

MoMark's posts were incredibly well written, so many hundreds and hundreds of them. His posts were what originally grabbed my attention to CD forum over a year ago. At that time, there were the state forums and "other topics", that was it. We traded friendly comments back and forth on several threads from time to time. I read a lot of his posts when he was with us. Lately, somebody occasionally re-quotes one of his older posts and I get to read it for the first time or perhaps re-read it again and maybe learn something new. Thanks Inoxkeeper for bringing back one of MoMarks posts about MO. We will miss him in 2008.

Recycled,

Your words could be mine as well. Isn't it funny how MoMark could draw people in so quickly & easily? Amazing!!! I think about him often, and wonder what he'd say about how C-D has evolved. I'm just glad I was around when he was. We were very lucky to have him here.

It's because of the Fall picture that MoMark posted that showed me the beauty of MO. I wanted a setting just like that. And I got it. The nice thing about it is....MO has beautiful setting wherever you go, so it's a matter of deciding on the area that most suits your needs.

We eventually settled a little above Springfield, and I'm very happy with our choice. If one is wanting to stay in the Southern part of MO, I don't think you can go wrong if you stay within a radius of Springfield. It's all beautiful...IMHO.

TTFN,
Boof

[JDGreen]

Originally Posted by Boof

We eventually settled a little above Springfield, and I'm very happy with our choice. If one is wanting to stay in the Southern part of MO, I don't think you can go wrong if you stay within a radius of Springfield. It's all beautiful...IMHO.

TTFN,
Boof

Have decided on the same area, north of Springfield between Greenfield and Walnut Grove. NOW, just have to find the right spot to call home.

[recycled]

Boof, by coincidence I am in the process of narrowing my choices of where to live after I retire from my engineering tech job in about 2 1/2 years. Since the real estate market is expected to be slow in most places this year, it may be a good time to buy some land. As a post retirement project I am planning on building a small home, possibly in SW MO if I can find a good place, maybe between Spfield and Branson. I spent time in MO when I was in the Army 30+ years ago at Ft Leonard Wood, so am familiar with the climate and the Ozarks area. I have visited several times in recent years and will probably make another trip over there in April. It's encouraging to know that your move from CA worked out fine.

[Boof]

Originally Posted by JDGreen

Have decided on the same area, north of Springfield between Greenfield and Walnut Grove. NOW, just have to find the right spot to call home.

JDG,

That's gonna be tough, because there are a lot of beautiful areas to choose from. We decided to look after we got here, and I'm glad we did. It would have been impossible to find our dream home long distance. Good luck to you in your search. You won't be sorry you came here.

Originally Posted by recycled

Boof, by coincidence I am in the process of narrowing my choices of where to live after I retire from my engineering tech job in about 2 1/2 years. Since the real estate market is expected to be slow in most places this year, it may be a good time to buy some land. As a post retirement project I am planning on building a small home, possibly in SW MO if I can find a good place, maybe between Spfield and Branson. I spent time in MO when I was in the Army 30+ years ago at Ft Leonard Wood, so am familiar with the climate and the Ozarks area. I have visited several times in recent years and will probably make another trip over there in April. It's encouraging to know that your move from CA worked out fine.

Recycled,

Your choice of location is perfect. The area between Branson & Springfield is absolutely gorgeous!!! The rolling hills filled with lush green fields and tree groves are a sight to behold, that's for sure. Plus, it'll give you more employment options to choose from. I hear Branson has more jobs than applicants, so that's one in your favor.

We spent many years trying to decide where to move. And it's funny, when we first started, we said NO to MO. Too much this, and not enough that. Boy, we couldn't have been more wrong!!! Thank God for knowing what we needed more than we did, because we moved here without ever having been here. Now is that a leap of faith or what??? And we couldn't be more happy with our decision, and I know you'll feel the same. If we were to do it all again, we'd do it in a heartbeat. And to think....23 yrs ago when we got married, I told my husband he'd NEVER get me out of CA, so don't even try. LOLOLOL I guess that's why they say 'Never say never'. hehehehe Best of luck to you in finding your own piece of paradise. Follow your heart, and you'll find your way 'Home'.

No Regrets,
Boof