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(snip) RE: Casper and airport travel:
The airport is incredibly expensive to fly in and out of (relative to what I'm used to at ORD), unless your employer is picking up the tab. The TSA apparently only staffs the security points when there is a flight. Based on a quick scouting trip I took out to the airport, CPR is smaller than YZF (Yellowknife, NWT). DEN is four hours away. Unless I'm really pinched for time or have airline miles to spend, I'm driving four hours for a plane.
(snip).
LOL on this comment. While the portal-to-portal driving distance is 284 miles (per most driving directions websites) Casper city limits to DIA threshold, yielding a "4-hour" drive when you can maintain the I-25 speed limits in good driving conditions, there's a few problems that will present for your prospective "4-hour" trip to catch an outbound flight:
1) DIA access/parking isn't a matter of arriving at DIA, parking your car, and being at a terminal in a matter of minutes. More commonly, especially if you're economizing on your long-term parking ... you will be parking at outlying DIA lots or off-DIA parking lots and then catching a bus to the terminal. From the threshold of the DIA property on Pena Blvd to the terminal is several miles. Off airport parking can be the better part of 10 miles away. Either way, you'll burn a lot of time getting from your parking space to the terminal to check-in.
2) DIA security lines can be lengthy. I've flown DIA-SEA many times, and the DIA process time is typically much longer than SEA outbound ... and I've been in lines there which snaked around the terminal. Don't forget that DIA main terminal bldg. is not your "departure concourse", you'll be taking the train to your concourse and then some additional time to reach your airline gate. With the nominal time for security, check-in, and arrival to your gate, I typically plan to arrive at DIA a minimum of 2 hours before scheduled flight departure. Now you're at 6 hours from Casper to DIA.
3) Denver metro area traffic is now pretty snarled up every day from the North side suburbs through to the core city. Not uncommon to see I-25 Southbound into the city (and surrounding routes, either surface or C-470) moving slowly or stop-and-go from about 7 AM for several hours from the area of 144th (or as far North as around 160th), especially on weekdays. Similar slow moving traffic presents in all directions in the afternoons, too. IMO, it's not a good travel judgment call to count on moving posted freeway speeds in the area during a typical daytime travel period. Be advised that I-70 in the core area of Denver is poised for a major reconstruction in the near term, and the alternate routes will be overloaded for several years ahead. And that's just for starters in nice weather ... add in seasonal inclement weather driving conditions, and the prospect of typical fender-benders and/or reduced road capacities (3 line highways reduced to 2 lanes not unusual), and the Denver metro traffic quotient of your trip to the area can really add a lot of time to your trip.
Moreover, it pays to know what scheduled sporting events are going on in Denver at the time of your travels. A major league sporting event can play havoc with the freeway system in the area. We've run into stalled I-25 traffic from even an afternoon Baseball game, let alone a Bronco's game day.
Even in summertime conditions off-peak travel in the Denver metro area can be problematic. I drove Rifle-Denver-Cheyenne on Sunday three weeks ago, and the fabled I-70 Eastbound mid-day Sunday afternoon traffic wasn't too bad (except for the Idaho Springs snarl starting to jam up near Georgetown). But I-70 to I-25 Northbound turned into stop-and-go traffic. Didn't loosen up and start moving until well north of the Denver suburbs and finally got up to 50-55 mph by Exit 235 ... which is a 75 mph posted zone. And that was a summer day, no major events, typical traffic density commute in the Denver metro area. Traffic on I-25 didn't really get moving steady 75 mph until north of Fort Collins main exit. On that day, southbound I-25 in the area was snarled up with a fender-bender just south of Ft Collins Harmony road exit, which had the traffic backed up for about 3 miles.
4) Now add in the inclement weather driving conditions that can frequently present in the Casper area during the winter months. I've made the Cheyenne-Casper trip many times over the last 16 years in well-prepared and appropriate winter driving capable vehicles (as a regional manufacturer's rep on sales call trips). It's not been unusual for me to delay departures in either direction due to I-25 adverse road conditions. The worst of these conditions typically present from the South side of Casper, not far away from I-80 exit 182 ... and the 17 miles to exit 165 can be treacherous enough. I've had that drive looking not too bad, so I set out only to find that it was a 25-35 mph slick drive ... and not uncommonly, the semi's were still pushing 45-65 mph.
The problem is that each of those semi's throws up a moving wall of blizzard condition visibility. You cannot see where you're going as they pass you for several seconds, and you're driving blind on slick surfaces. Moreover, it's not uncommon to start noticing the tracks or seeing vehicles that had off-road excursions in these conditions. Sometimes the semi's will slow down to your more reasonable speeds; take that as an indication as to how severely impacted the road conditions are at the time. And there's times when you'll even be comfortable driving faster than them on the slick surfaces, but then you're dealing with that moving wall of blizzard conditions to pass through as you go by each one of them.
I've had more than several promising weather/road condition southbound trips where I called it quits long before Douglas, and was happy to be off the highway until conditions improved. I've spent many a night at the Orin (exit 126) rest stop and was thankful that I'd made it there safely to park my RV (mobile office and stealth camper rig) for awhile, not uncommonly overnight. Have made it there in reasonably clear conditions and awakened a few hours later to 8" of fresh snow on the ground, worsening conditions for the trip ahead. Have stayed put to see the frontal passage go by and attempted again to travel ... only to deal with similar inclement road conditions and again stop at Glendo (exit 111), or make it to Wheatland (exit 78) to again stop to wait out the conditions. Typically, the road doesn't improve much until South of Chugwater (exit 54), which is a well-known area for severe wind gusts and velocities ... the conditions where "high profile vehicles" are advised not to travel by WYDOT advisories. The clearing road down to Cheyenne is a welcome sight some days when the road speeds can be reasonably back up to 55-65 mph, but don't count on it.
Don't forget that this is an area where WYDOT will close the road due to conditions to all traffic, too,
potentially many times during a given winter. Understand that it doesn't take an active severe snowstorm for these conditions to present and persist for a few hours to a day or two. What counts is the combination of impaired visibility, strong gusty winds, and slick surfaces to make the conditions hazardous enough to justify closing the road. And keep in mind that just because the road is "open", doesn't mean that it isn't a white-knuckle challenging drive to safely transit the area at even a very modest prudent speed with an appropriately equipped vehicle.
I've made this trip where I've counted over 50 vehicles off the roadway and spotted the tracks of many more rescued vehicles from their off-road excursions. For the most part, few of these situations are injury accidents ... but now and then, there will be need for first responders to a scene. More typically, this happens when there's a two-vehicle collision rather than a single vehicle off-road excursion.
The conditions I'm describing here can present frequently during a winter season. I've encountered them every winter for the last few years. If you have to be at DIA on a schedule, or returning from there ... you may find it prudent to adjust your travel to optimize the trip. I've friends in the Casper area that have had to leave a day or two early for a scheduled flight to be reasonably sure that they could reach DIA in a timely manner ahead of a storm front and possible inclement road conditions or closures.
You can find numerous "you tube" posted videos of these driving conditions in WY. Puts real meaning into how poor the visibility can be and the difficulties of travel at times in this area. Understand that out of 180 miles of transit, there may not be a continuous adverse situation, but rather a few hundred yards here, a half-mile there, 5 miles here, a couple minutes there, and so forth. What counts is your ability to safely transit the spots when/where the adverse conditions present. Sometimes they can be poor for 100 miles or more. And sometimes they won't be too bad at all, even in a snowstorm. But you've got to deal with what presents when it presents or make alternative plans for better driving conditions forecast.
Bottom line: for 4-5 months out of a typical winter season, don't count on making this Casper-DIA trip in 4 hours, or even 6 hours. For me, I wouldn't leave Cheyenne with less than 6 hours transit time to DIA in the best of winter conditions. YMMV.
PS: I've had numerous days making wintertime sales calls in the Casper area when the driving conditions were very good, at most a minor affect on the roads there even with a snowstorm in progress. Lulled one into thinking that the area wintertime roads weren't too bad and it would be a piece of cake to get onto I-25 and head out of town. 10 miles out of Casper and the situation can change dramatically for the worse and stay that way for over a hundred miles ... and that includes heading North or South.
For the OP, IMO ... these conditions affecting your access to SEA from Casper (or Cheyenne) would absolutely rule out these WY locations. Laramie can have difficult access to DIA, too. Unless you've got the skills and interest to pursue GA travel from this region to SEA via 200+ mph cruising aircraft and accept the time/weather limitations that present for GA travel to/from this region, along with the costs of such travel (yes, I've done this area to SEA area via my C182 numerous times, and it's prohibitively expensive unless you're filling all 4 seats, and the 182 is pretty slow at 150 mph cruise compared to many aircraft that will cruise in the 200 mph range on comparable fuel burn) ... you're stuck with problematic access to scheduled air carrier transport.
Ha! Well, we lived in New England for 10 years. I am ok with snow and cold, just not massive quantities of snow and bone chilling (sub-zero) cold.
Our winters are definitely milder than New England winters. I'm originally from the Chicago area; winters here are so much easier that's it's impossible to describe. Summers are much easier as well.
Wyoming's snowbelt is in the southern part of the state, the I-80 corridor. Northern Wyoming is mostly desert or nearly so; snowfalll is limited. But no one moves to Wyoming because of weather. They come here for our tax laws (we have the lowest personal tax rate of the fifty states), our gun laws (no permits to purchase or carry, no restrictions on what we can have), and our magnificent scenery (we have Yellowstone and so much else).
Two acres is awfully small; nicer rural areas wouldn't have anything of that size. I'd say that 600k could get you something decent but not fancy. Figure property taxes at about 1/2 of 1% of market value.
The Evanston area is part of the Salt Lake market. It is snowy there, but it's out of the blizzard belt. It seems mild compared to frigid and liberal New England. The Salt Lake airport is less than ninety minutes away. Downtown Salt Lake is about an hour, Ogden forty-five minutes.
Wyoming is not ''diverse'' so crime is low; teenage girls can and do walk through parks at midnight. We normally give the Democratic presidential candidate the lowest percentage of the vote of all the states. Utah did beat us by a hair last time because a Mormon ran.
Wyoming people have strong traditional values. City slickers hate it here, but folks who long for the life of their fathers love it. This is a special place for special people. Come for a visit; talk to the locals; you'll know very quickly whether you've come home. I know that I have.
Imagine you leave home and the next town is a hundred miles away, very different from the cluttered east. We make northern Maine and northeast Vermont look crowded.
This is one of my favorite spots, not that well-known but a real gem.
Thank you so much everyone for the detailed replies! Sounds like WY is not the best fit for us. We are already looking at ID and MT though. UT would be great but don't think we can deal with the LDS influence. Anyway, thanks!
Thank you so much everyone for the detailed replies! Sounds like WY is not the best fit for us. We are already looking at ID and MT though. UT would be great but don't think we can deal with the LDS influence. Anyway, thanks!
gee and one heck of a lot of areas of Wyoming and Idaho are LDS we are just terrible, no coffee,no tea, no alcohol, no tobacco , and then let other choose to do what they want to do or not do...
gee and one heck of a lot of areas of Wyoming and Idaho are LDS we are just terrible, no coffee,no tea, no alcohol, no tobacco , and then let other choose to do what they want to do or not do...
I lived in the Evanston area, 75% LDS, for five years. You're great folks. I'd be fine in an area that were 98%.
Thank you so much everyone for the detailed replies! Sounds like WY is not the best fit for us. We are already looking at ID and MT though. UT would be great but don't think we can deal with the LDS influence. Anyway, thanks!
My father told me one time. When you go into a new situation or new town, or State. To always go in with a open mind, regardless of what you may have heard. It has worked so far!
I've been to a lot of places in the world in the US Navy, and had no issues or problems.
Best of luck in your search!
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we are just terrible, no coffee,no tea, no alcohol, no tobacco , and then let other choose to do what they want to do or not do...
