Would Scottsbluff fit the bill? (Gering, Sidney: sales, crime, hotels)

[Steel Skin]

Howdy. As Texas gets more blue and crowded, I've decided that I am over with city life and yearn to live a simpler life. Here are some things I want in a town, do these things appropriately describe Scottsbluff (would probably move to nearby Torrington, WY)?

Walmart, gun store, fast food, and pizza place

Clean river/lake for some great fishing and a little swimming

Good amount of opportunities for truckers as myself

Clean town with little crime

Summers that don't get hot and muggy and winters that get plenty of snow (I've been to Minnesota during the winter and I found more bearable than a summer here in Dallas)

[Wyoprairie]

Originally Posted by Steel Skin

Howdy. As Texas gets more blue and crowded, I've decided that I am over with city life and yearn to live a simpler life. Here are some things I want in a town, do these things appropriately describe Scottsbluff (would probably move to nearby Torrington, WY)?

Walmart, gun store, fast food, and pizza place

Clean river/lake for some great fishing and a little swimming

Good amount of opportunities for truckers as myself

Clean town with little crime

Summers that don't get hot and muggy and winters that get plenty of snow (I've been to Minnesota during the winter and I found more bearable than a summer here in Dallas)

Scottsbluff and Gering (which is right next door-you go from one into the other) have about 25,000 people combined. Plains to the east, Scottsbluff National Monument to the west-rock formations. Wildcat Hills, which is a pine break-ridges is a few miles to the south. Surrounding terrain is farm and ranch country.

Has Walmart, gun stores, fast food places & Scotty's Burgers, and Pizza Hut or Sam & Louie's for pizza places. Torrington is about 32 miles west. Gun range at Wildcat Hills. Cabela's at Sidney, Nebraska.

Lake Minatare is east of Scottsbluff. Hawk Springs is south of Torrington. Lake Alice east of Scottsbluff. A weird deal at Lake Minatare this spring-lots of geese, etc were dying. Haven't heard the followup. I guess in the summer, water is warm enough to swim in it.

Trucking will be mostly agriculture related; grain, sugar beets, cattle pots, tankers. I suppose general freight, too.

Crime won't compare to Dallas for sure. Humidity won't be like Dallas either. It gets hot in the summer, up to mid-nineties, maybe 100 but not over. A little midwest type humidity but coming from TX, you probably wouldn't even notice it. Not necessarily a lot of snow, well, a lot compared to TX. It can drop a few inches in a storm once in a while. Winters aren't as serious as MN. Torrington has less snow than Scottsbluff. Big hail once in a while along with occasional thunderstorm/tornado warning, not frequent.

[sammythebull]

Not sure about the trucking part, but Scottsbluff is a bit off I-80, which I'd think would be less opportunistic. So, Sidney, Ogallala, or Kimball might also be places to look at. Sidney used to have a big Cabella's presence, but that shut down and lost a lot of jobs. Most of these places (including Scottbluff) get plenty of snow, but aren't Colorado cool in the summer. It'll be hot and humid, but maybe not as bad as Dallas. All would be clean towns with little crime, but Scottsbluff being the larger place population-wise (and probably more food options). Yep, Scottbluff (and the others) are pretty conservative, gun culture (gun sales inside the Walmart), and fox news on the TV in hotels. Ogallala would be closer to Lake McConaughy (large lake). I've found people to be friendly and tolerant overall.



Drawback to Nebraska as a whole is the tax situation. Very high tax state (mostly income and property) for a historically "red" state.