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Old 07-20-2014, 09:23 PM
 
4 posts, read 6,872 times
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Hello,
My husband was recently hired by the Douglas Police Department and is starting work in about a month. I know a lot of rentals are word of mouth or are listed locally (not online) so I was hoping someone might know of a 2-3 bedroom house for rent. We have two small children so preferably in a family-friendly area. We currently live in Chicago, IL so its hard for us to find anything. I have a recent copy of the Douglas Budget and will call a couple leads in there, but I wanted to check here to see if anyone had any leads. Our credit is not great so we cannot get a loan. My husband was in the US Army and was suppose to transfer to the Air Force last Oct but the government shutdown stripped the funds to reenlist prior service and we were left with no jobs for quite a few months. My son has special needs so its hard for me to find work that works around his needs. I was hoping to just move to Casper until we got our credit back in order but I was told the interstate shuts down frequently during the winter months.
If anyone has any leads that I could follow through with I would greatly appreciate it! I know Douglas is a small town and rent can be inflated, but for now its all we can do. We can go as high as 1600/month.
Thanks in advance!
-Jessica
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Old 07-21-2014, 09:47 AM
 
Location: Sheridan County, Wyoming
692 posts, read 1,702,439 times
Reputation: 624
Congrats on the move and welcome to Wyoming. I looked at the Budget this morning and there seems to be just a couple for rent. You might also take a look at Glenrock as well. Douglas is a very busy place right now with all the oil/gas activity. My family is originally from the Douglas area and has always been a family friendly place IMHO. Hope you are not expecting the same type of amenities here in Wyoming as you are probably used to in Chicago! Casper is a good place to live , but if your husband is working for the city of Douglas, I would expect they would like you to live there (not sure on that). What "special needs" does your son require or have?

Not sure what you are refering to on the interstate being closed frequently as WYDOT does an exceptional job on plowing I25 and it is usually only closed a couple of hours at a time and infrequently unless the weather is extremely bad.
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Old 07-21-2014, 10:44 AM
 
11,550 posts, read 52,984,569 times
Reputation: 16329
As a travelin' sales rep through the area, I can relate what I've experienced in the last 4 years of the I-25 corridor between Casper and Douglas ...

even when the interstate is officially open to traffic, that doesn't mean that it's anything less than a white-knuckle drive due to winds/gusts/blowing snow/obscured visibility, and very slick surfaces. A serious hazard to regular vehicle traffic is presented by the heavy semi-trailer traffic along this route; ie, every passing of one of these rigs (who do have better visibility above the road) is a moving white-out storm. Essentially, you're driving blind down the road during the time it takes for them to pass you ... or you to pass them on the uphill grades when they slow down. Sometimes the whole process takes place in slow motion, where 34-45 mph speeds are the top you'll see and I've often times been at 25 mph when that was the prudent maximum for my well-equipped winter vehicle travels (including an appropriately equipped AWD Subaru and over 50 years of area driving experience on slick roads).

In these recent 4 years, I've had more than a dozen winter time trips where I've found that it was preferable to stay in Casper for an additional day or so rather than deal with the I-25 corridor; the storm fronts don't always move through within a "few hours" and the WYDOT crews cannot clear the roads very well for days ... especially when the prevailing winds continue to blow slow from the adjacent lands back onto the highway to cause icing and obscuration of the road.

The stretch south to Douglas has been particularly nasty, and when you reach the East end of town and head out, it's a brutal change from what presents in Casper itself. You'll know when you've hit the problem areas when you start seeing the tracks of off-highway excursions by other vehicles, all the more so when you see them still stuck off the road and awaiting help (or the vehicles abandoned at the time and needing to be towed out).

This is a stretch of highway where I've personally seen over 10 emergency scenes in progress ... 1st responders heading to the crash site, multiple vehicle wrecks ... some with apparent injuries, given the glimpses of the responders with equipment to move people out for transport. I've seen several with flight for life choppers on the scene ... they don't send those guys out for a fender bender.

According to my travel logs, I've had 8 times in the last 4 years when I found it prudent upon leaving Casper to pull off the interstate at the first opportunity to park my RV and wait out the storm/frontal passage and for the roads. One trip, when I left Casper in clear conditions in the early daylight hour ... a fast moving storm overtook me by the time I was just out of town and I got off the highway at the exit for the Wilkins State Park. Even though the signage says it's for day use only and no camping allowed, I stealth camped there and went back to bed in my RV. Woke up a couple hours later and I was in 1'+ of heavy wet snow. Later that day, I tried heading South on I-25 again because the weather on the iPad looked like the storm front had moved further East. After several encounters with the semi's running about 40-ish mph passing me very slowly (with the usual total white-out as they passed me) and seeing a multi-car/semi pile-up on the Northbound lane a few miles south from there, I got off again at the Orin Exit reststop and camped for the night. Woke up the following AM to over 1'+ of snow and a reststop that was packed with cars and semi's that had also stopped. Continued on later that day and it wasn't until I was well south of Glendo that the roads finally improved to where we were back up to 50-55 mph; by Wheatland the roads were clear and dry, 75 mph travels again.

Keep in mind that none of these recent winters were especially heavy winters, most were drought years and didn't even reach "average". Also, I have full discretion in my travel/sales call schedule and plan ahead for anticipated weather and fronts moving through the area; ie, I don't set out to an area in the face of storm forecasts and actual bad weather/road reports for an area. So my experiences of the last 4 years were done with travels planned to the best possible conditions forecast or realized for the area, and I'm fully independent with my RV to stop when it's prudent to do so ... or continue on if I think conditions warrant. My point here is that I don't set out to find the worst weather and road conditions to challenge me, I look for the best regional conditions for any given week ahead and can change my plans at anytime.

But that's traveling in Wyoming, and we can readily be overtaken by fast moving storm fronts that deliver more serious localized conditions than forecast.

IMO, anybody who trivializes the winter driving conditions of this region of Wyoming isn't giving you the whole story. It's not something to take lightly if your work schedule requires a specified response time to show up to work on call or a duty schedule.

I'd also mention that folk who talk about the driving conditions here and road closures and advisories of years ago aren't telling you what's going on in current times. There's been two very significant changes over the last few years: 1) a substantially increased amount of traffic volume on the highways, and 2) newer policies of the WYDOT and WYHP managment of the highway system; ie, they're more aggressive about protecting the 1st responders and advising "no unecessary travel" or "road closed due to winter conditions". So, road closures today are posted far more frequently than in prior years.

For many, if they were the only vehicle on the road at the time, the prevailing driving conditions might not be terribly daunting. The slick surfaces and low visibility can be dealt with ... but the problems multiply when there's traffic on the road, sometimes all over the road rather than tracking in their lane, or you've got the white out from passing semi's, or folk who are terrified and driving erratically all over the road at slow speeds. Such is the stuff of "accidents" that happen beyond your own single vehicle off-road excursions.

Just for grins ... try searching YouTube for videos of folk driving in winter storms here in Wyoming. You might get a chance to see what it's like driving in a white-out, or when you can't see the road surfaces because it all looks the same as the adjacent land covered in snow, or when you can't even see beyond the hood of your car. I don't care what vehicle you're driving, no matter how great a snow/ice vehicle it is ... you'll not overcome these obstacles to your travels by your superior vehicle. It's a matter of luck for some that they don't simply run off the road ... and many do, although quite a few of these off-road excursions have no damage to the vehicle or injuries.

Likely that your husband will have access through his work to find out for himself the local driving situation and verify what I've been posting. IMO, if he needs to be at work on a given schedule you'll do best to live as near as possible to his job.

No doubt there are folk on C-D who can post that they've done this commute for years, but they don't mention how many accidents they've seen or know of. I had a neighbor who worked at the power plant up that way for a couple years, commuting daily from east of Cheyenne. He finally bought a house in Douglas and moved. His brother told me that he'd had enough of that commute and he'd had way too many "close calls" in the winter driving to want to continue doing so.

Last edited by sunsprit; 07-21-2014 at 11:39 AM..
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Old 07-22-2014, 08:37 AM
 
Location: Sheridan County, Wyoming
692 posts, read 1,702,439 times
Reputation: 624
I acquiese to those with more experience and knowledge of this area. I can attest to the "white-knuckle" driving between Buffalo and Denver in the winter time though! Sunsprit is very correct about the big rigs and complete white outs. If the impression I made is that the road is "good" I apologize. What I meant was the road is passable, but only those that are very familiar with winter driving in Wyoming should attempt (should have pointed this out). I go to Denver twice a month from Sheridan and in the winter what is usually a 6-7 hour drive turns into a 10-14 hour drive, sometimes with an overnight stay. I am a member of WAT and Ecar for the state which allows me to travel on closed roads in the state if authorized by HP & WyDOT to do so. And in these conditions I more often than not "second guess" myself and wonder if I will make it. The things we do for work. Been doing this for the last 5 years after being away from home for 30 years and have had to relearn how to drive in these conditions. Thanks Sprit for jogging the memory a little. Tight Lines my friends.
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Old 07-22-2014, 05:30 PM
 
4 posts, read 6,872 times
Reputation: 10
Yeah I have heard its more the whiteout conditions that make the travel dangerous. He has a friend in Glenrock that he could stay with if the weather gets bad, but I am unsure how predictable the weather is. I know that it doesn't need to be snowing for there to be whiteout conditions.

We are a military family and have lived in many different states throughout the years, Louisiana and Kansas being two towns that were very small. We did live on post, but the time we spend in Louisiana was the big culture shock. There was nothing in town other then mom and pop stores, and if you wanted to do anything you had to drive over a hour to get to the next town. I am definitely expecting much of the same in Douglas, only Douglas seems like a nicer town then the one we lived in.

I think Casper is out for us. What worries me is I believe my son will have to go out there for his therapy. Currently he is in need of speech, occupational and physical therapy. He has apraxia of speech and has hypotonia (low muscle tone) that causes a lot of gross and fine motor skill delays. My hope is that he will need less and less therapy as he grows but we had to add physical therapy recently b/c he regressed in his motor skill development and needs help building muscle tone to help with his motor skill delays. There is not one thing that is wrong (he doesn't have autism, down syndrome, etc) but they are areas we need to address otherwise it will affect his development later. The childhood apraixia is really the only true diagnosis he has.

If anyone hears of a rental property that would be idea for a family I would be very grateful if you forward it to me. I have called all the realtors and called all the renters that they know and am on lists. We have a few months still before we would really need a place, but I just don't want our family to be separated any longer than it needs to. We have gone through two deployments, but my son is older and he does not do well when my husband is gone for days at a time.

Thanks so much for your advise. I know the Budget is new tomorrow so I am hoping there is something there. The homes that were for rent through remax are gone, and the 2 bedroom listed wont return my calls or answer.
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Old 07-23-2014, 12:05 PM
 
Location: Sheridan County, Wyoming
692 posts, read 1,702,439 times
Reputation: 624
https://www.therapyfindr.com/therapi...tiann-poloncic in Glenrock/Casper/Douglas

not sure if this helps or not......
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Old 07-23-2014, 10:43 PM
 
Location: Spots Wyoming
18,700 posts, read 41,923,618 times
Reputation: 2147483647
Have you tried a local Real Estate Office? Seldom do people in Wyoming use Craig's list' not sure why' maybe because of scams. Most rentals are handled by a local Real Estate office because they are better equipped to handle screening of applicants.
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Old 07-24-2014, 01:18 PM
 
4 posts, read 6,872 times
Reputation: 10
Thanks all,
ElkHunter - yeah I was warned about craigslist and the scams that are run.

Thankfully we got a lead through someone who worked at the Sheriffs office. Seems like we will have a place to rent by October that is only half a block from the Douglas Police Station so that will be nice for my husband. Its not a big house by any stretch but that is ok with us. I just wanted to have a roof over our head and not be in a shady part of town.
Thanks again all for your advise. I am very glad we found some place in town so we don't have to worry about the winter interstate driving.
Now I need to locate therapy services for my son. I am planning on enrolling him into the Head Start program in town, but he also needs private therapy (OT, Speech, PT). Hopefully we can find somewhere near that can see him.
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Old 07-24-2014, 03:20 PM
 
Location: Cabin Creek
3,638 posts, read 6,239,956 times
Reputation: 3121
There should be therapist that work close to or with the Hospital there.... I would think anyway.
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Old 07-26-2014, 08:59 AM
 
4 posts, read 6,872 times
Reputation: 10
That is my thought too Jody, I am going to contact Memorial and hopefully they have someone who will work with small kids. I know I had issues when I first moved back to Chicago (crazy right??), but it was more of who our insurance would let us see, now we have insurance that will let us see in and out of network doctors and we don't need a a referral sent to the insurance agency, we just need the doc to write an order for therapy and that's it.
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