Pushed out of Austin, where to go?

[CathleenY]

Bastrop may be worth checking out. My boyfriend and I (we're in our 40's) moved to Bastrop last May, from south Austin. We bought a 2-acre farm (with a house, a couple barns, and excellent soil), in the mid $200's - house was recently renovated. We are liberal/non-religious and have had no problem in finding and making friends with like-minded people. You find all types of people in the area.

Locals tell us things are changing here as well, but they don't seem to mind it. Due to rapid growth, the city council has put two successive 90-day moratoriums on new building permits while they asses the impact of the growth on infrastructure, such as city sewer/water (we are on a well and septic system, which has worked out great for us). There are few suburb-type areas being built, but it's fairly spread out here, so unless you go looking for them you probably won't see them (the suburb type areas).

People are very friendly. Go to the grocery store early in the morning, and the employees go out of their way to help you ("let me go in the back and get you the fresh strawberries that just came in"). Put your blinker on while driving, and other drivers always let you in. Rush hour in Bastrop means you have to wait for the light to turn green...ok, I may be exaggerating (well, just slightly).

There is not a mall (yay! as far as I'm concerned), but we do have excellent shopping (HEB/Walmart/Home Depot and Lowes/Ross/and the like)...we'll go into the "big city" to hit up Trader Joe's once in a while.The historic downtown area is quite nice, quaint, walkable, and located along the Colorado River.

Speaking of the Colorado River and the outdoors...there is a lot to do here (hiking/fishing/kayaking). The river winds throughout Bastrop; we are about a 5-minute walk to it, from our house (which is kind of out in the country). There are lots of forests to explore, and you will not find hoards of people out exploring with you.

Regarding jobs in hospitality/food service: Hyatt Lost Pines Resort is here, there are a number of restaurants that seem to be busy, along with the stores I mention above. That's about all I know.

Possible downsides for some people: drive time to the grocery store is 15+/ minutes (of course this is dependent upon where you live). Other than Tex-Mex, the restaurants aren't great-but we are foodie types and a bit hard to please. You will not find a socialite scene here: big trucks impress more than a Mercedes. Your current friends and family may be reluctant to visit you as often, being that it can be a bit of a drive. Growth could be a concern, but like I said the area is really spread out and it's going to take a while to have the kind of impact that hit Austin (for one, there are not large industries in the area - I think it's mainly farming).