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I only had breakdowns a couple times and that was decades ago pre-cell phone. What I did was walk out to the nearest house and ask to use the phone, which was gladly offered. That's non-operative, though, if you're in Amish country.
Franklin County is rural, I don't care if it is in the Washington-Baltimore MSA. Your transition will be just less availability of things you may be used to like Trader Joe's and specialty coffee shoppes.
Ah I see , thanks for that tidbit of info !
FWIW I'm not trying to claim that Franklin County isn't rural , only that it's rather dense as far as rural counties go .
Oh and I've never shopped at Trader Joe's or frequented coffee shops of any sort , thought that's neither here nor there .
Personally, I didn't have any problem at all. I moved from a fairly large Southern city to a very rural area where I knew absolutely no one for a new job. The local people were very nice, although a little insular. Many families had lived in the area for at least 4 or 5 generations. The best thing that happened to me was that 4 months after I moved to the area I lost my job. I went to rent another place that was attached to an antebellum mansion. When the owners asked me who "my people" were, I told them "no one", but I mentioned where I went to college. Well, it turned out that the husband and I went to the same alma mater. Since he was the county attorney, living on his property opened up all sorts of contacts for me. He and his neighbors were true Southerners and I made some very good friends while I lived in the area. I still miss the life I had there. That county still has less than 18,000 people and had less when I lived there. It is very beautiful and has lots of shoreline and pastureland. When I opened my front door there were cows 20 feet away. Going shopping was a big deal going over the river to the nearest town. It's a lifestyle that you either love or you don't. I grew up in a big city, but basically I'm a small town/rural gal at heart.
Thanks for your insight !
This post gives me a good bit of hope , with respect to my potential move .
We looked Wyoming, but not in enough places. We were in Jackson Hole (just to say we went there), Dubois (nothing really there) and Cody, which we liked, but again, not a lot there and a very long way to get to anywhere else. We were going to revisit but for COVID this year. My impression was that each city has its own vibe but distance can be an issue if you're used to living where you can get somewhere in a 1/2 hour. And hard as it is to imagine, we think the winters there may be worse than they are in New England. We also found the people very nice and friendly, even though we had VT plates on our vehicle. In TN, which we have also looked at, one gentleman asked if I knew it was 'kinda conservative' around here. LOL. I let him know that's why I was looking there. Also, very nice people there in TN.
I moved from SoCal and later the Twin Cities to a town of 4,000, except we lived 17 miles outside of THAT, in a tiny community of 400.
I loved it. The main transition was, being 40 minutes from town (slow, winding, dangerous road) you try to hit ALL the stops you need each trip---we'd go once a week. Take a large cooler. We rarely bought any frozen stuff for this reason. We made 12 or 13 stops each trip. So, no running to the store on impulse. Plan everything. If you need underwear or socks, good luck. Only an outdoor outfitter; no regular stores. The nearest dept. store was 2 hours away.
The liquor store was hidden and tiny with no refrigerator, and limited hours. Only 3.2 beer in the grocery store; not even wine. I was used to liquor even in gas stations, lol.
The people were friendly, no complaints there. I fell in the artist scene even though I'm not one, and that led to a bunch of other stuff and more fun people.
We kept emergency stuff in the trunk at all times; extra water (desert), winter clothes for winter emergencies , folding shovel and so forth.
This part of I-70 was really deserted, so a winter breakdown could be serious (no cell coverage there). DH once walked 11 miles in the snow to the nearest town after a breakdown...highway patrol only drove it once a day. He was far from home so no one he knew drove by. If it had happened in our community, he'd have gotten plenty of help. People wave to each other as they pass.
It's a totally different way of life. But yes, we knew the librarians, store clerks, UPS guy, mail people, etc.
But I just recalled you said a town of 30,000, so you can probably disregard all I said, lol.
Haha! I'm moving to get away from everyone so I'm not worried too much about making friends and establishing a social network.
I'm pretty self sufficient so as long I'm within 30 or 40 miles of a Home Depot and a decent super market I'm good.
I'm already in a rural area which has become over run with cidiot covid refugees so I'm actually moving somewhere more remote, out of reach of these morons.
I have made that move, and it was like climbing out of a deep well. There here hundreds of tools and skills I had to obtain before I could exist comfortably in a low density rural area. If you already know how to maintain your own water, sewer and electrical systems, that is a good start. You will need to maintain your own hardware stash, because a trip to town for one stinking bolt will consume an hour and a half. Things like that will ruin your home productivity, when it has to get done and there's nobody around but you to do it. If there's a watercourse nearby you will need a boat for when the road washes out. Yes, roads wash out in the desert too. It's handy to have a tractor and blade to repair your driveway.
You may or may not have cell service. You may or may not have internet. I'm still limping along on 600-800 kbps DSL that runs over poorly maintained copper.
Rural people die younger than city people because emergency medical services are slow or nonexistent. You learn to work carefully because if you get hurt you may die before anyone finds you.
I get along with some of my neighors, not so much with others, just like anywhere. We can rely on each other in emergencies.
The payoff is the lifestyle. Only you can decide if it's worth the hassle. Don't expect it to be easy.
First impressions count much, much more when you move to a smaller area. People notice you more, simply because there are fewer people, fewer "strangers."
If you arrive with an out of state car tag the locals already have an opinion of what you will be like (based on previous people they met from that state) and it may not be who you are actually. It is human nature to want to size you up and label you (i.e marital status, your truck or car brand, your age/gender, how much you paid/overpaid for your house) . Many small town people have all the friends and relatives they need and unless you join a church you'll not be invited to join anything.
I recently read something about how to get people to like you. Ask them for help. People like those they have helped more than those who help them. Weird human trait IMO. But if you are moving to a rural area it's better to be self-sufficient, maybe ask who's a good electrician more than help with painting your house haha.
If you are talking Franklin to Jefferson Counties, you have to keep in mind the size of the county. Franklin is 770sq miles, Jefferson is 210sq. Do the math and you will see the population density isn't very different.
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In TN, which we have also looked at, one gentleman asked if I knew it was 'kinda conservative' around here. LOL. I let him know that's why I was looking there. Also, very nice people there in TN.
