Is OK okay for us? (Tulsa, Lawton: real estate, tornadoes, trip)

[peggydavis]

When I am on the Turner Turnpike it seems like 75 is the minimum speed. People go fast on that road.

We had internet by satellite in Edmond and it was terrible. We live in a rural area now. We have Plainsnet and that is not satellite, it is broadband.

In my opinion Tulsa has the better scenery but OKC has more opportunities for business.

[A_G]

hello. I came upon this site by chance and was looking through the replys.
I live in a rural town 18 miles north of tahlequah called peggs. I make the commute every day. I can vouch for tahlequah.

im 17 btw i went to THS, if your coming here to watch a great highschool football team, They suck end of story.

We have a small state college known for teaching and optomitry (eye doctor) called NSU, northestern state university.

Tahlequah is the home of the cherokee people. Home of cherokee nation

It doesnt really matter what political values you have. Its all in all a pretty conservative town, People dont really voice there political opinions, its like the old saying, Dont ever talk about religon or politics and you can get along with anybody.

We have a river near by whichis the towns main tourist attraction besides the cherokee nation, and are nick nacks. The illinois river. we have dozens of canoe places scattered along highway 10.

One interesting fact is, all the street signs in down town aka Muskogee ave. Has the names of the streets written in the cherokee language below it.

Between nsu, ths, and cherokee nation. They will fulfill your culture play needs.

We have a super center, reasors (founded in tahlequah btw). Goodys (clothing store), payless, starbucks,auto zone, advance auto, oriellys, napa (im a gear head sorry), the kettle (24 hour country diner), and several other things.

But as far as your profession goes, I dont think this would be a great places. As far as i know, you might get on for the BERRY company, AKA bob berry, who owns the nurserys (plants), nick nack companys, golf coures etc.

As far as religon goes, Although i really dont want to get into this subject. For being in the bible belt. Im sure we have a church for you.

We have spiders, some deadly ones, but you only haft to worry about them in the fall. As there trying to find a winter spot. We got snakes. But other than that, Nothing to extreme.

Tornadoes, Tahlequah hasnt been hit for 100 years or more. But we do have the chance for two sets of 8 weeks a year. Fall, and spring.

during the summer, july to september, It can go from 95-120 degrees at 100% humiditys, while the winters can dip down into the teeens and even negative digits. we get snow maybe twice a year. Just enough to shut down the schools. Prolly 6 inches at the most. This past jan we were nailed by a damaging ice storm. But that was the first in 20+ years.

If i missed anything let me know.

Anthony

ps forgot one thing

You can get cable internet 100 mbs in tahlequah.
If you lucky you can get Broad band or dsl out my way. And satlite anywhere.

ps 2.0 I also lived in tulsa 10 years So ask me some questions and ill try to help you out.

[LadyRobyn]

A_G, Nice post! very informative.

TheComputerGuy, Well, if you've read alot of posts here you now how much we LOVE Duncan! My pictures are all over the place.

We're about 1 1/2 hours south of OKC (88 mi.) If you have time and the weather is nice, come on down and visit. We have
The Chisholm Trail Heritage Center (among other things ) and there are plenty of places to eat along HWY 81.

I think based on the areas you have lived before, you might prefer the North/Central area of OK but you never know! Check out our area on Realtor.com as well... houses and land are quite reasonable and the "commute" to Lawton is only 30 min. My hubby made that drive for the first year we were here and he loved it. If you find something you like in Duncan, I would be happy to go take a few pics of the neighborhood and give you a better idea of the area. (small town, short trip )

[Nameless]

I think the consensus is that there are no bad places in OK

[Goodpasture]

Originally Posted by Nameless

I think the consensus is that there are no bad places in OK

Not so............

Don't move next to me....neighbors are jerks.

Did I mention I have no neighbors?

[A_G]

LOL i have the same problem. No nieghbors...for miles..prolly a total of 200 people in peggs. im related to over half. I haft to know a womans full family tree before i can date them. I dont live in arkansas sorry...

[jessaka]

We went from MA (read tons of culture) to Northern NH (read cultural wasteland)
and don't seem too much worse for the wear.

The only things we'll miss here in NH will be the scenery (we live on the border of the White Mountains & The Great North Woods) and some friends.
It sure does seem awfully flat there, but maybe we will appreciate "the Big Sky" in OK

I hope you come and visit first. If you find you don't like it flat, eastern OK would be better. But there is a beauty around Guthrie, and I imagine Stillwater is pretty nice. What we call mountains here are really hills in other States. I had a hard time finding the Ozark Mountains in AR until I realized this. Grove and Tahlequah have more hills that other places. Maybe Tahlequah has more than Grove. But you may consider even it to be rather flat. I think Eastern Ok is just beautiful. You should look on a map, and you will see a lot of water.

The older I get (I'm 43) , the colder I get, but presently, the humidity drains my energy. AC is great, but we all have to go outside eventually... Especially if one likes to fish. (and I do!)

If you like to fish, you will have to spray your clothes with Deet for chiggers and mosquitoes. It is a must. I hate the stuff, but I spray my clothing now and try to not breath the spray. I feared coming here due to the humidity, but it wasn't as bad as other places where I lived, and this time I have air in car and house. If you fish early in the morning it isn't as hot.

If you move near Tulsa, they have a wonderful mall on hwy 71. It looks huge. I can't wait to shop there. My husband looked at it from the highway and said it would take two days to go through it. Maybe, maybe not.

Traffic: I suppose that's a relative thing. In MA it took about an hour+ to make what should have been a 20 minute drive during non-commute time. Where I live now, I pass very few cars on the way to work most of the time.

Tulsa can get busy but I doubt if it is that busy.

If you folks tell me that bi-monthly spraying inside and out will deal with this problem,
I'll try to take your word for it.... Although I've seen in another thread that Jessaka has been bitten by a Brown Recluse (and her adventures with chiggers).
I've been bitten by one of their close relatives in the NorthEast, a Yellow Sac Spider... That wasn't very pleasant to put it mildly... Not worse than the jellyfish sting I got in FL though

It was a spider bite but had not been identified and never turned black, whereas my sister came to visit and was bitten by one.

I had my house sprayed 3 times in 3 months, only because the company wanted that contract. I will not allow anyone to spray inside again. They can have the attic and the crawl space under the house. In fact, next time I will get bombs from Farm Supply and let them off in the attic and crawl space. I live in an old farm house with a lot of woods around, and so I imagine that is why I had a problem. I don't know if I will have to spray next spring. This year was just a bad year for spiders. I will have to put granules out in the yard each spring from ticks. If you have grass around where you walk, you probably won't get many ticks and chiggers. Well, maybe not as many chiggers.

[A_G]

yea it was a real bad year for spiders. We had an unusual weather pattern this year that contributed to it. Long rains and low tempature when it should normally hot and dry. july and august for example.

its not all that flat out this way. Tahlequah is a bit flat. But everywhere else seems like switchbacks and 10% grades out near cookson stilwell area.

[A_G]

i forgot to touch on this subject.

Homeschooling. Yes we have alot of home schooling friendly laws. But..big but. all the homeschool booklets you haft to get...are 95% of the time all christian. If you like it this way, then your good to go..if not im sorry.

I went to homeschool for 3 weeks. Then it started asking questions about moses in my damn science tests...now what does that haft to do with science after all if you believe in evolution you dont believe in go. But thats beside the point, kinda of a touch subject to be talking about to anybody.

whats the big mall of hwy 71 called. I dont think ive ever heard of it. theres woodlands on 71st and memorial in tulsa.

Now the thing is about tahlequah. there not racist. But they dont hold double standards. if you catch my drift, There no name calling without a name called back.

Last year, at tahlequah highschool. There was a race war. Full blown. Over a cowboy. Getting knocked of fhis motor cycle while entering school by some kids daddy, over the illegal alien issue. For a month straight, Cowboys and indians agains everybody else. But nothing really exciting happened. Didnt spill out of the highschool.

im not trying to sell you on tahlequah, saying its the best and what not.
Now heres the bad about tahlequah.

in the 70s it was named party central of america by play boy.
and its still pretty true today. Nothing out of controll tho. not like fights and murders but just a little party hard.

We have a rec. drug problem out here. In the highschool. Everything from pain pills, pych drugs and illegal stuff.

last year cherokee county (the county tahlequah is in) was named 4th on the biggest amount of meth lab busts in the country.

In tahlequah there really is no demographic difference in good or bad sides. Except one street..or one area actually. Lee street. if your white, stay away from there. i got some storys believe you me.

most of the drug related activitys arnt that noticeable unless you know where to look.

Im not really going to touch anymore in that area of subject unless you need more info.Nothing real important.

In awhile a new lightbulb will turn on and ill post again until then
Anthony

[TheComputerGuy]

Hi Synopsis,

Thanks for the reply.

Originally Posted by Synopsis

Wow, you've gotten so many good, informative replies here computerguy that I don't feel I can add anything. It sounds like you would like Oklahoma quite a bit, and I hope that things work out for you.

Yeah, I'm surprised I got this many good responses myself.

I'm still trying to convince myself that I could survive the bugs (at least the venomous ones), and the idea of the tornado sirens going off at 2am.
If we can get past that or at least used to it, OK sounds great.

Obviously, we'll need to see for ourselves, but OK is a BIG state,
and I'd like to narrow down our choices. I think all the help here will make that a bit easier. As I said earlier, we DO appreciate all the responses.

Originally Posted by Synopsis

Exactly what kind of computer support do you provide, if you don't mind me asking? You may have already outlined that but I didn't read everything.

To make a LONG story short:Moderator cut: link removed at request of poster

I take care of a lot of small to medium businesses that don't need a full-time I.T. person and outsource that work.
Are you also in the same field?
Either way, any advice to impart?

Thanks again,

M.