Im moving to Wyoming (Casper, Gillette: for rent, how much, home)

[amanda1988]

Well Im going to have a lot of time to myself since my boyfriend will be a work for a week to two weeks at a time. I do love the mountains, but eating a picnic is no fun all by yourself. But everyone has been giving great ideas for what I can do when Im all alone.

[sunsprit]

Weather: cool summers, it's rare to get to 90F, maybe 70's to 80's more normal. Winter: cold, especially when the wind is over 20 mph (which can be a lot of the time). Temp's vary from daytime highs to overnight lows by about 20-30 degrees; when the sun goes down in the mountains, you'd best have some warmer clothing available, even in the summer.

You'll be at a much higher altitude, where the air is drier and thin air density. It will seem a lot colder than it is at first until you acclimate and learn to dress appropriately.

Activities: your best opportunities for a social life will be school, and, if you're active ... your church. Otherwise, you'll have to seek out the groups that do what you enjoy, perhaps horseback riding, fishing, boating, hiking, camping, skiing, and so forth ... outdoor activities, which is what this place is all about. Volunteer work will also lead you to a social life. If you expect to be "entertained", your options are limited ... there's no shopping malls, no clubs, few commercial arts and theater, and few places where young adults can gather. The big regional shopping happens when you go to the big cities out of state.

Restaurants: again, it's a small community and the choices and hours you're used to will not be available. A couple of franchise burger, pizza, mexican, and chicken restaurants are the most common places to eat. There's a few American "corner cafe" type places, and an upscale dining room or two, but that's it; quality and hours may seem limited. A little chinese place or so, but the chinese restaurants I've encountered throughout Wyoming are uniformly bad ... it seems like a lot of Asians relocating to this area think we don't know anything about their food so the show us the worst they've got (think high school chop suey and you're on the right track); the worst was a Chinese and Mexican (I'm not kidding!) restaurant run by a couple of Koreans. Mexican food runs the gamut from outrageously bad (salty & gloppy with no heat for the gringo's, like canned/frozen mexican entrees) to good ... but our experience has been that the good places typically don't survive because it's too real for the Wyoming taste. The bad Mexican places seem to survive and Taco John's isn't mexican (our local Wyoming based franchise "mexican" restaurant). Italian food pretty much the same, unless you're in Jackson, where it will be expensive.

Seafood is "red lobster", an incredibly poor substitute for good seafood cooking. You may be surprised, however, at the quality and creativity at a local bar/grill based restaurant or hotel when it comes to steaks and seafood ... it just depends upon the chef/management at the time. Sometimes, even the truckstops will have very good food; just don't expect that to last for too long with the normal kitchen turnover.

Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and other specialty foods don't have much of a market here. I've been to several Vietnamese places (hard to find in Wyoming) and they don't know their pho from a bowl of campbell's broth. Sushi? forget it.

Driving: most small front wheel drive cars are perfect for normal driving year around. If you need to haul a trailer, buy a suitable truck. If you're just going on dirt roads and a few trails, a small 4x4 pickup is the way to go. You don't need a Jeep or a SUV to get around economically. When the roads are nasty enough that your front-wheel drive car won't make it, it's time to be off the road ... no matter what you're driving.

Personal Safety: truly a small town friendly atmosphere, folks are willing to help as long as you're not a "mooch". Crime rates are very low, and burglary and thefts are very low compared to the cities back east. It's still common for folks to leave vehicles and homes unlocked without fear of their electronics and stuff being stolen. Most of the "crime blotter" column in the newspaper is about speeding, public drunkeness, family type disputes, or drug use/sales.

A high percentage of folks do carry, and won't hesitate to use appropriate force if needed in a situation ... it tends to make for a polite society. You should be able to feel quite safe in most of the places you'd want to be, even alone at night. There are a few places (mostly bars) where a rougher crowd may frequently gather and you'll learn which ones are the ones to stay away from if you don't want that type of social life.

You will have to be independent and self-reliant to enjoy what Wyoming has to offer. If you need the attractions, shopping, and convenience of a big city all the time, then you'll be very disappointed here.

[amanda1988]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

A high percentage of folks do carry, and won't hesitate to use appropriate force if needed in a situation ... it tends to make for a polite society. You should be able to feel quite safe in most of the places you'd want to be, even alone at night. There are a few places (mostly bars) where a rougher crowd may frequently gather and you'll learn which ones are the ones to stay away from if you don't want that type of social life.

You will have to be independent and self-reliant to enjoy what Wyoming has to offer. If you need the attractions, shopping, and convenience of a big city all the time, then you'll be very disappointed here.

Well Im not going to lie..I do need the shopping malls and attractions to survive. When my boyfriend is at work I like to just walk around and look in the stores. I also like to drive around town.

Now with the guns and bars, Im not to worried about. Again I live in Raleigh where those things are very common. Now being able to leave your doors unlocked and not worry will be new for me. Cars get broken into even if they are locked here. The crime rate isnt to high, but its not a safe place to be late at night if your a female and alone.

[sunsprit]

I suggest you look through the Casper newspaper on line to get a feel for the area's shopping, newsworthy events, and opportunities. That newspaper is the region's largest, by far.

You can drive across town in about 10-15 minutes. It's just not very big. The shopping is very limited, especially in view of your coming from Raleigh, which I understand to be in one of the USA's "super city" high density population area (ranging along the I-85 corridor through several states).

Look at a WY map, and you'll see what I'm talking about ... once you leave Casper's outskirts, there's virtually nothing for many hours of travel except the small towns along the I-25 corridor. It's all farming and ranching and mining country with a low overall level of economic density and population, or national forest or BLM land or state forest. Gorgeous country to get out and do things outdoors, but you've got to take the effort to enjoy it.

My bet is that the local college base will be your best opportunity for a social life and things to do while your boyfriend's away.

Being single and female isn't going to be a problem in the area unless you seek to make it a problem. The town pretty much rolls up the sidewalks in the evenings except at those few nightspots I mentioned being a possible trouble area.

Best of luck with your relocation.

[amanda1988]

Well thank you once again for all of your advice! I figured moving to Wyoming was going to be a big change for me, I just didnt know how big of a change.

Im not really into going to bars so I guess Ill be staying out of trouble that way. I had planned on starting school when I got down there. So maybe between school and work I will be busy.

Thanks

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by amanda1988

Well thank you once again for all of your advice! I figured moving to Wyoming was going to be a big change for me, I just didnt know how big of a change. ...

Don't discount my "moonscape" comment, That will be a big change from NC (my wife is not impressed that I would even consider moving her from the 300' fir trees to "moonscape'). Do prepare for this... Watch 'Grapes of Wrath' (turn on the box fan blowing directly at you while your watching, for effect! ) / use Google images / Prairie videos...and whatever it takes to see places like 'Rawlins' (plywood shanty town visible from I-80) people usually just keep their horses there, but some folks live in those conditions in WYO. Then consider that beyond blowing dust (which is not that common in NC... ) it is pretty parched (gonna be brown not green, but no Moss / Mold !!). When you both open the doors of your car at the same time, a windtunnel effect will sweep it clean, leaving a nice film of dust on the dash and speedo.

Not to be negative, as it is just one of those things you live with (I don't recall any cockroaches in WY , like NC, but no fire-flies either)

The people are generally pretty great, and having the open space to actually see something, is pretty cool, especially on moonlit nights. Our NC relatives brought their neighbors 'out-west', and they commented in Kansas, "gosh, who cleared all these trees?" What trees!!! this is prairie, a couple dead cottonwoods by the creek and locust trees, (only by creek) and a random sage or 2. Just get a good look at your NC forest, as it won't be appearing in Casper anytime too soon.

But consider it an adventure, and be grateful it is not 1860, and you are pushing a 'hand cart', like the mormons did !!

janb

[suzee]

Contrary to what another person posted, there really is a shopping mall and more than a few restaurants. The chinese places I've eaten at (there's actually about 8 or 10, not just a couple) are about the same as in other places, except San Francisco - that's unique - and pretty good. There's quite a lot of people in your age group here and as others have suggested, you can volunteer, or work part time. Wages are pretty high so that would give you plenty of pocket change. Casper is the largest/2nd largest city in the state with a population of about 50,000, so while it's not a big city, neither is it a tiny town. There's no Olive Garden or decent bookstore though, but other than that, has quite a bit of variety.

sue

[sunsprit]

Posted above is the relatively parochial view from someone, who, I suspect, doesn't have a clue as to the size/quality of what's going on in the large metroplex areas of the USA. Like the one you're coming from.

Yes, Casper has a shopping mall. But it wouldn't qualify as a neighborhood strip mall in Raleigh in size or variety of stores or merchandise. We've got a mall in Cheyenne, too: Sears, Dillards, JC Penny are the anchor stores. The rest are typical national franchise shops: GNC, a Gart's sporting goods, Frederick's, a few other small clothing or shoe shops, etc.

Yes, Casper has a number of Chinese restaurants. All of them uniformly bad to worse. While not wanting to go too deeply into being a "food critic" here, I could explain that the Chinese tend to have four levels of "cuisine": ignorant foreigners, ignorant Chinese, knowledgeable foreigners, and knowledgeable Chinese. I was fortunate to grow up with some ethnic Chinese whose families operated high end restaurants in California, and was frequently invited to their homes where they served the best stuff, so I know what the best stuff is about (it's comparable to the finest French levels of food!).

Case in point, I once took a girlfriend who'd moved to SanFran out to dinner. She suggested one of the big name (expensive$$$) Chinese restaurants in town. We sat down next to a table with a Chinese family, and the food appeared wonderful and the aroma was ethereal; perhaps their high ratings were well deserved (I thought).

Being knowledgeable, I requested the same items for us. The food came out and it was OK in appearance but it smelled; an entirely different meal even though it was the same items, but made for the "ignorant foreigner". Wouldn't have passed muster except at a college dorm steam table. Even my friend understood we were being served garbage.

That's typical of the restaurants throughout Wyoming, especially in the small towns, and there's a lot of small towns that don't even have a restaurant. There certainly are exceptions re food prep and quality, but they're few and far between. We had some friends rave about a Mexican restaurant in the Sinclair area ... a good stopping point when commuting to Salt Lake City ... they always stopped there. Small place, always crowded to get into. Can't imagine why ... I would have had a better meal from the grocery store from a can marked "Patio" brand straight out of the can, cold. Gooey, gloopy, salty, with almost no flavor and no heat whatsoever ... mexican (style) food for the gringo taste. Pure crap, and it wasn't cheap.

Sure made me glad I was heading to SLC where they have some good restaurants. Denver's got some good places, Boulder, Fort Collins, too; they're a days round trip, but worth the effort for your shopping and dining.

When you see the foods selection in the supermarkets (Kroger, Safeway, Albertson's, Wal-Mart), you'll get a better understanding of the food tastes in this region. Ethnic foods are typified by the frozen entrees and canned foods from the national brands, and the choices are limited. The focus is on plain old American down home cooking ... beef, pork, chicken, some limited fish selection. In the small towns (AGA affiliated stores), the selection narrows down to the basics, and at high prices with a lot of (lesser quality) "house brands". Even trying to find something basic for mexican food (OK, I love menudo) like tripe can be a challenge in stores with a high southern population. You almost always have to ask for it at the meat counter.

With my travels, I'm able to shop in SLC or Denver quite frequently, so we have no problem getting the fresh foods we want (and we raise our own organic beef, poulty, lamb). Since we don't eat prepared or canned foods, it's an interesting challenge.

My point remains: the population base is so small out here that it doesn't attract or support good shopping or restaurants. It's just fact of life in comparison to the big metro areas of the USA.

[sunsprit]

Just wanted to add that the economics of the region play out in many ways for large items, too.

Folks in the NE corner of the state go to Rapid City for their major shopping.

Folks in the SE corner of the state go to Fort Collins or Denver.

Folks in the SW corner of the state go to Salt Lake City.

Folks in the NW corner go to Billings.

Just look around in the cities and larger towns, and you'll see a high proportion of the new vehicles were sold out of state.

And yes, we do have car dealers in Wyoming. Some of them are even pretty nice folks, with long established (read: now low overhead) facilities. But they don't sell enough cars to get the best price breaks or vehicle selection from the manufacturers, so are hard pressed to be competitive with the big city high volume dealers in the region. And their transport costs are high because of the limited deliveries to the area compared to a major shipping point like Denver ... despite the fact that Wyoming is a major rail transport area, and has two major interstate highways crossing through.

With only a half million population in the whole state, Wyoming struggles with the economic realities of having enough people to support just about any business activity. That's a smaller total statewide population than a lot of neigborhoods of big cities in the US.

It's a big part of what makes Wyoming as unique as it is.

There's a lot of wide open spaces out here, with a lot of room between you and your neighbor. Some of it's pretty desolate, and earns it reputation as "fly-over" country. Some of it's pretty spectacular, and earned it's reputation for tourism. Some of it's pretty spectacular, and it's private land owned by out-of-state super wealthy folks who play at having a "ranch" or hunting/fishing lodge.

[suzee]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

Posted above is the relatively parochial view from someone, who, I suspect, doesn't have a clue as to the size/quality of what's going on in the large metroplex areas of the USA. Like the one you're coming from.

Actually, you're quite wrong about my view. The same chain stores, even departments stores, are available all over the country. As for dining - Lansing has a large number of ethnic restaurants. I know I do have simple needs as far as shopping goes and am fairly well satisfied with what's available here. The exception being a good bookstore and Thai food. Perhaps I'm just not as picky about certain things.

sue