Houston to Alaska! (Valdez, Homer, Anchor Point: fit in, for sale, rent)

[CatherineKF]

I completely agree, Im super anxious to get on the road. I've done a lot of research, I know we are coming with no debt, a job already lined up, and wanting to rent a house before we buy. But I do have a daughter in pre school, so my worries lie mainly upon location due to that. I can tell ya'll where to live, not live, where the 5th ward is, where the "rich" folk live, etc, in Houston. Do the towns there have those type of stereotype locations or is it all the same?

[tigre79]

Originally Posted by CatherineKF

Ok, tell me about Valdez? Easy to get to usually?

Well, there's a road. We're 5 hours from Anchorage, 4 from the Valley, and 6 from Fairbanks, and there's not a whole lot in between. The roads can be kinda bad with snow, ice, and poor visibility. We get a good deal of drizzly, overcast weather and more snow than you've probably ever imagined. But the fishing is great, the hunting is good, and the scenery and winter sports are some of the best in the world. It's a friendly, family-oriented town if you don't hang out at the bars, and just generally a nice quiet place to live with some high-paying jobs through Crowley and Alyeska (and their various contractors), if you can deal with the weather and distance issues.

As far as different neighborhoods within the small towns you're asking about, things probably vary on a much finer scale than you're probably used to. There might be a street or two with crummier houses than most of the rest of town, but these towns aren't really big enough to have entire bad neighborhoods. And in a lot of places there's an odd mix of nice and not-so-nice. You might have a custom-built log home on one lot and their next-door-neighbor lives in a trailer with old snowmachines scattered all over the place. Or it might be the nice house that has all the junk in the yard. There's definitely not the rows of tiny, perfectly manicured lots with identical houses like big city suburbs are filled with.

[starlite9]

In the town of Nenana, there is three Barge lines. You can google Nenana and they are listed there. Seasonal work, but the guys that work there love the work, with good pay and winters off!

[CatherineKF]

There's definitely not the rows of tiny, perfectly manicured lots with identical houses like big city suburbs are filled with.[/quote]


Ha! This is exactly what we're in now, that we are dying to get out of!

Valdez sounds awesome! What do the majority of men do for work there? women? How are the schools? I'm looking for complete honesty from a locals perspective. ps. I LOVE snow. That was my favorite part about living in west Michigan. Here in Texas we're sburning up by wild fires, and burn bans. We've been in triple digit temps for 73 days and the last time we recieved at least 2 inches of rain was Sept. of 09! I hate being hot... lol.

As for hunting and fishing, do ya'll have a certian number? I know you have to buy tags for bears, but I just didn't know if you could only get so many per season. Like for us, alligator, you have to buy tags, but how many tags you buy you have to use, or they get deducted.

DO you have any good sites or info on how to find decent housing there? I've been looking, and i've only found a few. We want a house, nothing fancy, etc.

Also, what do ya'll drive up there?

[CatherineKF]

Thank you for telling me about Nenana!

[Rance]

Every time I see "ya'll" typed in a sentence it makes me giggle!

[CatherineKF]

lol. Glad I can give ya a smile! Southern charm and a southern drawl.

[losttechnician]

Originally Posted by Rance

Every time I see "ya'll" typed in a sentence it makes me giggle!

Me too! I use the word "ya'll" at least a thousand times a day, but almost never write it.

btw CatherineKF, best of luck to you! Escaping the heat is a dream of mine as well...

[Dakster]

Originally Posted by losttechnician

Me too! I use the word "ya'll" at least a thousand times a day, but almost never write it.

btw CatherineKF, best of luck to you! Escaping the heat is a dream of mine as well...

x2 - Good luck and I Want to escape the heat here as well. Hey, at least it is a dry heat in Texas.

(I know it still feels like being in an oven though)

[CatherineKF]

Thank you!!! This heat has got to go, and now the smoke is killing us all everywhere! Dreams can come true my fellow Texans! ;-)