starting from scratch from Ct. to Co. in february (Denver: lease, hotel)

[erok82]

Hi everyone....I basically always wanted to live in CO. For ever and I need the change badly. I'm basically going to drive there with my car in February once my lease is up here in Ct. And hope for the best.I am currently looking at roommate websites which seem promising and also looking at jobs.I don't have a degree in anything but I've always done what I had to and ended up with great jobs.If anyone can lead me to great advice or any info please respond back thanks soooo much

[sunsprit]

Have you looked through the similar threads to yours here on C-D?

There's a lot of them. Perhaps you'll find some key issues already discussed.

[lurtsman]

It's good to apply to jobs before you move, but you're moving from one of the highest cost of living states in the country so you have stacked the odds in your favor.

[Miss Hepburn]

Well, having lived in New Eng and NY for years..I think you are
making a good choice coming to CO.
Been here for 28 yrs. now.

[jazzlover]

Little money, no job, no local connections, no familiarity with the region, at the middle of winter--incredibly dumb move to make.

[CosmicWizard]

I don't think it is necessarily a dumb move like jazzlover calls it, but it is almost certain to be an extremely challenging move. Think long and hard about it, and learn more about what you are getting yourself into, or it could well turn out to be a dumb move that you might regret making.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Little money, no job, no local connections, no familiarity with the region, at the middle of winter--incredibly dumb move to make.

Ya know, that sounds just like the people who filled endless thousands of wagon trains and railroad trains full of "pioneers" and "settlers" who moved out here in the westward migration / manifest destiny phase of our national expansion. If they had waited for the sure thing to be in-hand we'd all be stuck back east wringing our hands.

He's young; he'll do fine or he'll move on to somewhere else, like footloose, restless types have done for hundreds of years.

[Idunn]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

Have you looked through the similar threads to yours here on C-D?

There's a lot of them. Perhaps you'll find some key issues already discussed.

As with some of the discussions on driving. As from Connecticut, presumably familiar with winter driving. You may in some respects even find it less challenging in Colorado. But if not having driven across a good part of this continent before, especially in winter, perhaps give it some consideration.

Principally, watch the weather. In such a distance you'll find it variable by region. If oft generally major storms blow in off the Pacific, working west to east. Aim for a weather window in-between. Then as well as a kitted vehicle with proper tires, being ready to camp in a motel briefly should one run into difficult conditions.

This would be advice many in Colorado routinely ignore. One can find them at times in their fancy 4WD SUVs off the side of the road in a ditch (if occasionally not just off over a rather high cliff). Mountain driving here can be challenging at times due grades, if most often just because of other bad drivers in the form of jack-knifed semi-trucks on I-70 and so on. But where it can get particularly gnarly sometimes is out on the flats of the eastern plains if a blizzard blows through. Otherwise—if, like most, settled along the Front Range—you'll often enjoy sunshine and clear roads throughout winter; the bigger complaint being the typical urban traffic.

As for the rest, reading up in advance on some aspects of life and times here may be helpful. This is an often beautiful state many seem to find desirable, but no panacea. And do consider that some 1,800 miles of varying road conditions can be more than a picnic.

[CosmicWizard]

On my first drive from PA to Colorado on I-80 in December '71, I got caught in an ice storm in the hilly terrain around Cozad Nebraska. To this day, that was one of the scariest highway experiences of my life. Never so glad to see an exit than I was on that particular day. Hotel 6 never looked so good.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Ya know, that sounds just like the people who filled endless thousands of wagon trains and railroad trains full of "pioneers" and "settlers" who moved out here in the westward migration / manifest destiny phase of our national expansion. If they had waited for the sure thing to be in-hand we'd all be stuck back east wringing our hands.

He's young; he'll do fine or he'll move on to somewhere else, like footloose, restless types have done for hundreds of years.

You'd better read some history, Mike. The truth about the westward migration is that far more of those pioneers failed than succeeded. After the first "boomlet" of the 1859 gold rush to Denver, then in Kansas Territory, the saying was, "In God we trusted, in Kansas we busted." History repeated in 1893 in the Colorado mountains when the repeal of the artificial stimulant of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act sent the Colorado mountain economy into a near five-decade depression. That was followed by the 1930's Dust Bowl on the Great Plains, with eastern Colorado as one of the epicenters. A lot of that region never really did fully recover from that. The last half century has been unbelievably kind to the Colorado economy and even that has been no bed of roses for many. That relatively prosperous era in Colorado is going to come to an end--the symptoms are already showing and have been for several years. Yes, Colorado is one of those places for "rugged individualism"--and it takes a pretty damned rugged individual to survive it. Maybe the OP has got what it takes, but his description of his life so far doesn't indicate that to me.

And, as I've said repeatedly, it's always easy for some comfortable retiree from someplace else with a fat pension to opine about how "easy" Colorado living is. Take that away from them and they must just see things a lot differently.