Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > West Virginia
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 02-09-2009, 12:51 PM
 
246 posts, read 878,537 times
Reputation: 104

Advertisements

I see people wanting to move up in the hills from out of state. Let me warn you of a couple of things.

1. Emergencies- If you need an ambulance "way out in the sticks" forget it! Same with a fire department. I'm not saying they won't come,I'm saying they will probably be far away and by the time they get there you will be dead or in irreversible stroke. Same with the volunteer fire departments. As for Doctors you probably won't get Harvard trained types. More like East Indians and Pakastanis. Keep your credit card on file with Health Net so they can send the helicopter after you

2.Utilities- The farther out you go the more unreliable you can expect the utilities to be. Better see if there is a cell sight nearby because if your phone is not close to a fiber fed remote terminal you can expect a lot of phone trouble. Electricty can be trouble too. A lot of places the electric lines go can only be accessed on foot. When it goes out you wait. Better buy a generator. Satellite TV is your best option because cable is sparse. Internet access is limited to non existant in some places. Water is also a problem. When i first built my place in Fayette County i had to drill a well and put filters on because the water was real rusty. $4000 dollars for this and finding a well driller was a pain. I have city water now but on out the road a lot of people still haul their water in.

3. Grocery stores and shopping- Expect to drive aways for stuff like gas and food and if it ain't a Walmart you will pay more for it.

4. Entertainment- Are you nuts? Movie places are only in the "big towns" For me that means either Beckley Chas or Summerville. There are some resturants in Fayetteville but if you are in downtown Droop expect not to find a Jewish Delicatessen or anything else.

I bring this up to let the city types know what they might be getting into by getting away from it all. Unless you have a ton of money and you have a helicopter then you are good to go!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 02-09-2009, 03:29 PM
 
119 posts, read 428,007 times
Reputation: 59
That sounds exactly like where I live right now, in central NY. Seriously, 8 miles for a convenience store for gas, 15 miles for Walmart. 6 miles to the hospital, and the state troopers, although 15 miles away, take 90 minutes to respond. Digital phone is a blessing, it doesn't go out in high wind, nor does the cable. I'm not a "city type", have chickens in my front yard, Black Angus in the back, and the neighbor slaughters cows in his garage. A few miles of fields, pastures, woods, etc. in back of our house. We have a dug well, it goes dry in the summer. Horse poop common on the road, between the neighbors horses getting loose, and the Amish carriages going by.

Oh, and by the way, $4000 for a drilled well is cheap. People up the road drilled a well, 180 feet, at $15 per foot for the well casing, and $100 per foot for the well. That's why most of the wells by us are dug, they are groundwater wells put in 150+ years ago when our houses were built.

So no, I'm not a city type, don't need a helicopter, up here we need an SUV when a Lake Effect storm or nor'easter drops 4 feet of snow on us within 24 hours, roads are closed, but with snowmobiles and jeeps we can still get to the store, after having dug or snowblown ourselves out.

Please don't judge everyone who wants to move south as being unprepared for harsh realities. I would rather lose my electric in a 40 degree climate than when it is 20 below zero before windchill.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-09-2009, 04:47 PM
 
Location: Puerto Penasco, Mexico
967 posts, read 2,989,483 times
Reputation: 527
All that stuff is just a filter to keep the soft city types where they belong!

We have our own sutures, our own generator, our own wells... I don't know who sings it, but that song "A country boy will survive" comes to mind.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-09-2009, 05:07 PM
 
246 posts, read 878,537 times
Reputation: 104
Hinton Bound, I hear ya! I'd rather the big city types stay out. Are you into survivalism? I believe in being prepared.

Here is who sings the song


YouTube - A Country Boy Can Survive
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-09-2009, 07:43 PM
 
638 posts, read 1,845,758 times
Reputation: 218
Quote:
Originally Posted by kookamus View Post
. . I'd rather the big city types stay out.
Big city type here, sorry. No worries. I was allowed to immigrate to WV under the 2007 immigrant umbrella. Long process, but I will say I was made to pull a tooth with visegrips in front of witnesses to hear me swear afterward that I was grateful. Also had to promise at some point to put three black bears in my front yard for decoration.

You should be concerned about the petri dish mentality. Urban sprawl is death. And you're right, they have no idea what they're getting into, and in self-interests, to bring about urban sprawl here ultimately means one thing : increased property taxes.

I took this photo in some of the most beautiful land that West Virginia has to offer, people there were just shy of off-the-grid. It's on google maps and my satellite GIS as the way back home. I turned around after a point of no return and went back the way I came, stopping at a roadside cafe where I asked about that road. The woman said with complete conviction that it goes through, adding, "But you're not a hillbilly are ya?"

A West Virginia County Road



I live "in" the City of Charleston and have a herd of about 11 deer, neighbor says there's 2 large bucks I haven't seen yet, so roughly, that's 13 on my hill alone. How urban do they want to get?

Q : What's the speed limit in West Virginia?
A : How fast can you not hit a deer.

USA Today



West Virginia is the middle of nowhere! Alaska of the East. It's six hours (6) to drive from Charleston, WV to Charlotte, NC . . 14hrs by train there because it's routed through Charlottesville, VA, and if you fly, it's almost three times as expensive as driving there because this is the middle of nowhere! Granted, they do have a small plane service out of Huntington, but I've read reviews on that airline and consider it too high a probability of being stranded and/or no refund for a cancelled flight. The stunts they've pulled as a business are the stuff of fiction. I'll close with kudos to the story about a woman who brought a cat on board that shat then vomited in it's cage. Lexington, KY is 3 hours away.

The civilized have forgotten there are things still wandering the earth that will in fact eat them while they're still alive. Not to mention, they don't know about the toxic areas here.

For the suggestion box : Steer them to the cities. They'll live longer.

Last edited by r601020; 02-09-2009 at 08:13 PM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-10-2009, 07:16 AM
 
Location: Charleston, WV
3,106 posts, read 7,358,095 times
Reputation: 845
Great post, r601.

Love the pix of the road - have been on a couple of those with hubby - scared me to death (have "only" lived in WV for 20+ years), no big deal to hubby (moved to WV when baby). Another reason why every household has a pick-up.

Hitting deer - I try to avoid I-79 at dusk because of the zillion deer feeding along the highway. The number of carcasses along the road is testament that many deer have not yet learned to look both ways before crossing the highway. Ditto for driving to Canaan - try to avoid being the lead car. The bears are also not so good with highway crossings. A few years ago there was talk of bringing elk into the greater Canaan area. Are you kidding me - do you know how big those things are?

People who oppose deer hunting should be forced to move to WV - they will change their tune.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-10-2009, 08:40 AM
 
Location: Puerto Penasco, Mexico
967 posts, read 2,989,483 times
Reputation: 527
Only deer I ever hit was in Virginia Beach of all places!
I suppose some city folks are OK, as long as they accept the area as it is. Don't bring the attitude, don't start a conversation with ..." well back in Blah-blah, we did it this way...".
I wouldn't say I'm a survivalist, but my family and I will outlast the vast majority of the population when it comes to that.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-10-2009, 09:06 AM
 
Location: WV
1,325 posts, read 2,962,271 times
Reputation: 1395
Quote:
Originally Posted by kookamus View Post
I see people wanting to move up in the hills from out of state. Let me warn you of a couple of things.

1. Emergencies- If you need an ambulance "way out in the sticks" forget it! Same with a fire department. I'm not saying they won't come,I'm saying they will probably be far away and by the time they get there you will be dead or in irreversible stroke. Same with the volunteer fire departments. As for Doctors you probably won't get Harvard trained types. More like East Indians and Pakastanis. Keep your credit card on file with Health Net so they can send the helicopter after you

2.Utilities- The farther out you go the more unreliable you can expect the utilities to be. Better see if there is a cell sight nearby because if your phone is not close to a fiber fed remote terminal you can expect a lot of phone trouble. Electricty can be trouble too. A lot of places the electric lines go can only be accessed on foot. When it goes out you wait. Better buy a generator. Satellite TV is your best option because cable is sparse. Internet access is limited to non existant in some places. Water is also a problem. When i first built my place in Fayette County i had to drill a well and put filters on because the water was real rusty. $4000 dollars for this and finding a well driller was a pain. I have city water now but on out the road a lot of people still haul their water in.

3. Grocery stores and shopping- Expect to drive aways for stuff like gas and food and if it ain't a Walmart you will pay more for it.

4. Entertainment- Are you nuts? Movie places are only in the "big towns" For me that means either Beckley Chas or Summerville. There are some resturants in Fayetteville but if you are in downtown Droop expect not to find a Jewish Delicatessen or anything else.

I bring this up to let the city types know what they might be getting into by getting away from it all. Unless you have a ton of money and you have a helicopter then you are good to go!



Sounds perfect to me!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-10-2009, 09:34 AM
 
119 posts, read 428,007 times
Reputation: 59
Try leaving for work and finding a herd of 40 cows in the middle of the road. They don't move fast (if at all), spook easily, and weigh a heck of a lot more than deer. Then try to explain to your supervisor that you're late because of cows. I'm lucky she's familiar with where I live. We have deer too, the herd usually crosses our yard at dusk. Turkeys like to cluster in the road too, very cute when they are teaching their young how to cross the road......slowly! With all the frost heaves, you can't go much past 20mph on my road, without ruining your suspension.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-10-2009, 10:47 AM
 
77 posts, read 190,573 times
Reputation: 79
I spent about 4 years in WV, and last year, while driving through central NY, I couldn't believe it. It was beautiful, but that part of NY made WV look like a metropolis

BTW I didn't live in an urban part ofWV either, I lived in Calhoun and Roane counties
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:



Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > West Virginia

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 10:57 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top