How about Tahlequah? (Tulsa, Muskogee, Shawnee: travel, employment, hospital)

[jessaka]

"The severe weather still unsettles me as I've never encountered the types of angry weather they have here. Where I come from, all the weather is made somewhere else and came floating to us from the west."

In one since I want to say, oh good, weather. i have missed thunder storms and weather in general. southern california doesn't have much. then in another since I realize that it may get a little scary to me. maybe the weather is made in oklahoma. Ha.

I got close to AR when I was in Tahlequah and didn't like the pine trees and mountainsous regions. I wonder if that is what every one else means when they say that AR is prettier?

"The people from down there seem to be very nice and friendly, at least on the internet. Do you see it that way in real life?"

Jammie, I talked about this is my earlier posts. the people are over friendly, and i mean that is a wonderful great way.

[jaada]

i have thought about tahlequah because i wanted to move near the cherokee, I am cherokee but my roots are from north carolina but as a compromise to my family i thought tahlequah might be nice. i also was afraid of rednecks and racists, being cherokee and my husband is haida, we dont want to run into problems. how is the economy there?

[jessaka]

jaada,

the cherokee nation is centered in Tahlequah. you don't have to be afraid of racism there since you are part indian, even if you aren't.

what is haida?

i always thought that it was just my own problem of not wanting to be around racists. I checked that out before moving there. i have a friend from Tahlequah so i pumped her full of information.

rednecks are okay people. they are harmless.

[jessaka]

kelly, after reading posts on tornadoes, and being glad that tahlequah area doesn't see many if any at all, and after reading your post, i had a dream.

i was in a large store in Tahlequah (as if they had any large stores). It was a corner lot, and I saw tornadoes coming down both streets. I opened the door, and a tornado felt my energy and came towards me. I closed the door and it went away. I wanted to tell everyone outside to run inside because they could feel your energy. end of story.

i have also been watching too many sci fi movies with my husband. Ha

[jaada]

Originally Posted by jessaka

jaada,

the cherokee nation is centered in Tahlequah. you don't have to be afraid of racism there since you are part indian, even if you aren't.

what is haida?

i always thought that it was just my own problem of not wanting to be around racists. I checked that out before moving there. i have a friend from Tahlequah so i pumped her full of information.

rednecks are okay people. they are harmless.

hi jessaka, thanks for the info tahlequah is sounding nicer by the minute. haida is an indian nation in the queen charlotte islands in bc canada. how is the fall foliage in the fall?

[jessaka]

Tahlequah, and Cherokee Co. in general has a lot of woods, and the trees are not pine. I wanted so much to stay there when we left last week because I knew that these trees were going to change into beautiful fall colors. Now we will be returning mid November, and I will have to wait a year for fall. Still, winter will come, and I am looking forward to some real weather, even 3 inches of snow that lasts up to noon. (My friend from Tahlequah said that they have beautiful fall colors there. The way she put it was, everything is green one day, and the next morning you wake up to fall colors. Now maybe it isn't really that quick, but that is what she said.)

In San Diego Co. where I live, most trees don't change color or lose their leaves. Summers are warm inland where I live, and winters get the low of 38 degrees, but mostly it feels like you have no weather. When they say it is going to rain you don't ever believe them, but last night we had our first rain. But we never get thunder or lightning, which I miss.

[Nameless]

It's true, leaves do seem to change in the blink of an eye.

[Richardl1]

we are considering a move to tahlequah from florida. can you tell us about the area, schools, shopping, medical care? we live in a rural area in florida and do not want to live in subdivision. just started checking prices of real estate, taxes and insurance. not sure about going to state with a state income tax. we hope it will be less than our homeowners and property taxes here. any response or input would be appreciated. thanks richardl1

[Jammie]

Hi Richard, we don't live in OK yet, but just had to let you know about Sperlings Best Places. It has a comparison chart on it and you will be shocked when you see the difference in taxes and insurances between Fla. and OK. We've been looking for a warmer spot to live when my husband semi-retires and Fla. was the other state we were interested in. (We have family there and besides it's a beautiful place, too) We did a lot of checking and also a lot of reading on the Fla. section of this site. It's just going to be unaffordable for us to live there. If you go to the Sperlings site and compare Fla. and OK, you won't believe how much more reasonable OK is including with cost of homes.

[Xotik]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

I bought some property on Lake Tenkiller a while back with the intention of moving to this area in a couple years. Reading this forum has got me a little worried about something I hadn't really dwelled on before - religious zealots, racists and rednecks. I have the impression that Tahlequah, with its proximity to Tulsa and Muskogee and its large Indian population is very diverse and - as a university town - a little more progressive and open-minded than one might expect of a small "bible-belt" town. My experiences there have been fine, but I generally have gone alone and I am a Cau. Wife is AA and daughter is mixed. Wife seems unconcerned, but I lay awake at night wondering if this is the right move. Am I getting worked up over nothing?

Hey Ponderosa,

I just came across this posting and I too am in a mixed marriage and have been living in Tahlequah for the past year and 1/2. The people here are friendly for the most part, but the staring can at times be pretty intense unfortunately. People strive to be open minded, and that effort shows. A lot of the younger college kids are really sweet, but I'm thinking that they come from all over the country.

When my husband and I go to Tenkiller Lake, the staring is there again, but there's nothing that you can do about that. No one is rude, they just stare I'm supposing out of curiosity. Just smile and go about your merry way. Strike up a conversation to break the tension, some people want to talk anyway and are relieved when you start

Best of luck with your decision!