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I've been reading posts now for a couple of days regarding moving to WY. My husband and I lived in Alaska for a year while I was teaching, but had to move back to the south due to my dad's declining health. It has always been a dream of mine to live in Alaska... I grew up in the mountains and snow of NC but always wanted to live someplace that was still "wild". To make a long story short, when we came back south (twice in 6 months) to see about dad, we spent all our savings and the last time we came (last summer) my husband had to take his old job back because we were literally broke and homeless.
We have been discussing our desire to move back to AK, but the distance from our family and the high cost of living is a huge factor. We've been looking at other states that are in the Lower 48 that still have all the things we loved about AK, like lots of snow, cold, mountains, outdoor activities (dogsledding for me!!!), remoteness, etc. This is what has turned our attention to WY, because it seems to have so much of what we love. The snow and cold you guys get doesn't bother us at all- we got minus 50 where we were in AK. Remoteness is another plus- where I taught in AK was a bush village...no roads in or out....we had to fly our stuff and ourselves in and out. I flew to 3 other bush villages in a bush plane to teach once a month from my "home base" school. We had two "grocery" stores. We left our vehicle in Anchorage in storage so when we needed anything and flew out, we'd have transportation. Otherwise, we traveled around town by either walking, riding the four-wheeler, or if it would crank in minus temps- the snowmachine.
What has us concerned though, is the "ol catch 22" somebody wrote about in another post. Moving to a new place only to find 1.) You need a job to get housing, but 2.) Can't get a job if you don't have a local address. This actually happened to us before we moved back south. We tried to stay in Minnesota but nobody would hire either of us because we had no local address. Plus it seems that nowadays, you have to know somebody to get in. We moved around from motel to motel because of lack of availability, and even slept in our truck a few nights while looking for rentals. We have a little 10lb dog too...and nobody wanted to rent to us with a pet, even one that small. We tried to explain he was housebroken, clean, vaccinated...all to no avail. We ran out of money and had just enough to get us back south where we stayed with mom for awhile.
What we are thinking about, is to buy a small travel trailer/rv that we can pull behind our truck. This will save us from going broke on motels and from being denied housing because we have a dog. Sorry- love the dog and not giving him up! Does this sound feasible to do in WY until we have jobs and housing set? I am a special education teacher, and so hopefully won't have too hard a time getting work. I will even be willing to return to being a teacher's assistant until I get my WY certification. My husband may have a harder time....he has been a shipfitter for years (including welding). He moved up in the company and has been a Senior Production Planner now for 5 yrs. He works on a computer in an office. When we were in AK, he actually got a job as a DJ and Content Depot technician at the little radio station there! He loved it.
As for housing...we've read it is in short supply. We are not the subdivision kind of folks, and we are currently living in an apartment in a big city that is driving us nuts (both the apt AND the city!). We'd love a cabin in the mountains and some acreage. Is this doable or realistic to live in an rv year-round in WY until we find our land and save up the money to buy it? Also we read that WY is the "playground for the rich"....we are definitely NOT rich! Can ordinary folks, living paycheck to paycheck, make it there?
Any advice you guys can give us would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
I don't think Wyoming is the playground for the rich. There are parts of it that are, but there is much more of it that is affordable. I think your plan is a good one . Get the trailer and get to Wyoming. There is all sorts of work if you can pass the **** tests.
I don't think Wyoming is the playground for the rich. There are parts of it that are, but there is much more of it that is affordable. I think your plan is a good one . Get the trailer and get to Wyoming. There is all sorts of work if you can pass the **** tests.
I think wyomiles is right...I think you should go for it! You are used to the cold and some isolation. You are used to not being handed everything on a silver platter. You have work experience that it seems would be in demand almost anywhere. You are willing to "rough it". You are open and honest about your finances. And I think your rv/trailer plan is a solid one to get you where you want to be without having to worry about paying a lot of overhead. And if you have a background in AK, I think you will be way happier in WY than in MN. MN is flat! Gotta have some mountains!
Well, as you have experienced before ... it's a "Catch 22" around here.
Firstly, don't be so sure that you can readily find a teaching job. The folks that are already here with credentials and substitute teaching are way ahead of you. From what I see in the school district postings, there aren't a lot of openings for new teachers each year throughout the state's school districts. There isn't a lot of turnover, or retiring teachers. Wyoming has a pretty dedicated group of education professionals who chose to be here. So, I'd be in touch with the school districts before coming here and find out what the real prospects are for a possible job opening.
Your husband's welding skills are far more in demand in various places. But, again .... here's the rub. You need to have a place to live here, which means renting a place if you don't have the money to buy an available place. Most of the places for sale are priced past the point where a single wage-earner can afford to buy there, especially if you don't have a sizable down payment to help lower your mortgage payments.
Your "travel trailer" needs a place to park, too. So, either you find a trailer park ... which have a very minimal vacancy rate (and expensive for a site) in most of the boom areas, or you can't live in it except to "camp out" in a fed or state park for a limited number of days. You can't just pull it over to the side of the road someplace and "hook up" for power and water and sewer. Even if it's self contained and winterized, you can't just park it on a street or county road under a shady tree and live there .... KOA's are doing a booming business these days in the area. Many used to shut down for the winter months, but now stay open all year around; it's not cheap to stay there.
So, to answer your question about RV'ing it year around ... yes, it's possible, but not a cheap way to go, either. And you may find you can't get a place to park your trailer close to where you find work.
In the Western and Northern portions of the state, where the mountains are located and it's tourist country ... folks who are RV'ing tourists and willing to pay top dollar for their place to park their trailer have priced you out of the market. You can't afford to pay what they do per night (or even a weekly basis) for the long term. This market situation extends to the motels, too .... many will rent you a room for a reasonable rate during the off-season, but come the tourist trade months (high season), and the rent goes sky high. You won't be able to stay there on wage earning income.
I don't have a clue as to where the folks from out of this region think that an RV is a realistic living situation in Wyoming. Even in Cheyenne, which doesn't have the energy boom economy situation .... come the Summer tourist months ... especially Frontier Days (which lasts almost a month for the competitors and vendors to come in and set up and then have the event) .... the place you were renting for your RV for the last few months will double or triple your nightly rate for the sold-out tourist weeks. You can stay ... or you can move on; the site operators don't care because they're going to be sold out at top dollar to the tourists and the temporary folks. The economics of their business is geared to that tourist season ... if you stay at a reduced rate during the off-season, it's just "found money" for them. Cheyenne's occupancy rate for lodging has been runnning in the 90%+ level for years, even with the few new motels recently built.
IMO, I think those folks encouraging you to RV it here in Wyoming don't have a clue as to the reality of living here .... or how difficult it is to live in an RV in our extreme climate conditions, even if you're "Paul Bunyan" and can otherwise sleep under a rock and eat berries while you gather firewood to keep warm in the winter while you enjoy the utter solitude and remoteness. Somewhat like a lot of dreamers who head up to Alaska and think they're going to "live off the land" and survive in the wilderness on a little piece of heaven they've bought. I've visited with too many who couldn't/didn't make it for all the same reasons they wouldn't make it here, either. You've got to have an income and a grubstake to get started with ... and the natural resources to optimize your situation. Do you think you're going to dig a 300' well through rock to a water table without tools or equipment so you have water in the winter months? Do you think you're going to pump that water by hand? Do you think the county zoning will let you do without a septic system? Do you think you're going to grow a year's supply of vegetables on your little parcel without irrigation water (which you cannot obtain due to prior water rights holders), but only on natural rainfall? Do you have a clue that you don't have any rights to surface water that may go through your property ... and somebody else does own those rights and needs that water? Do you think you're going to really build a cabin only with raw materials from your parcel? Try to get real, OK?
Keep in mind that desolate places here in Wyoming are just that ... wide open spaces that are "desolate". That means no shopping, no local cheap utilities, no lodging, no houses, no schools, no medical services, and no jobs. You are simply not going to just park your RV in the middle of nowhere and have any source of income or services.
Much of Wyoming is a "playground", and it's been priced out of the reach of wage earning folks. IMO, your most likely possibility of finding work and affordability will be in the bigger towns ... Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper .... which have more stable and diverse economic bases than the "boom towns" of the energy and mining industries.
There are some areas in the Eastern portion of the state that remain inexpensive to live in. However, they're generally low cost because there aren't good paying jobs available there. So ... even though you see a house to rent for very few dollars ... you'll typically still be struggling to make that low payment.
Wow....and I thought special education was pretty much in demand anywhere. I have already been to several district websites in areas we'd like to live, and have found openings, even as an assistant. I am wondering though, if I apply now, what my chances are of actually getting an offer since I am still out of state. And once I get there, because I'm new and don't know anyone on the "inside".
Oh absolutely j1n...gotta have the mountains! Ya know, we were pleasantly surprised though to see really big hills and rolling country along the north shore of Lake Superior in MN. Exactly where in WY are the biggest mountains or mountainous areas? We've seen the "snowys" down around Laramie I believe, and then the Big Horns around Sheridan/Buffalo, and of course the Tetons on the western side....but I don't think we can afford to live around that area..lol.
Oh absolutely j1n...gotta have the mountains! Ya know, we were pleasantly surprised though to see really big hills and rolling country along the north shore of Lake Superior in MN. Exactly where in WY are the biggest mountains or mountainous areas? We've seen the "snowys" down around Laramie I believe, and then the Big Horns around Sheridan/Buffalo, and of course the Tetons on the western side....but I don't think we can afford to live around that area..lol.
Hey snowpuppy...
Don't kid yourself with those "big hills"! If you've got mountains in your blood, then those hills aren't going to cut it for too long. I have a friend who is kicking himself right now because he moved out of UT to MN, and now he wants to be back out west bad!
I haven't been to the Snowy Range. The Bighorns are really nice. Tetons, of course...awesome. The Wind River Range is really great...largest collection of glaciers in N. America, I believe. And up north you have the Absaroka/Beartooth Range...unbelievably amazing.
Snowpuppy ... I'm LMAO with j1n's responses for your questions.
You see, all the wonderful gorgeous fantastic beautiful mountain areas that are mentioned are all in the heart of the high dollar tourist or wealthy absentee owner economy areas.
You can get wage earning service sector jobs there ... if you're ready to put in 80-100 work weeks and share your living space with a bunch of other people. In some places, there really aren't any jobs. The bottom line is none of these places will address your concerns of having a cheap place to live with a good income.
Yes, special ed is "in demand". And there's a just a few dozen people already here with credentials and experience pouncing on the few job openings for part time assistant positions. You won't make a living here at this, nor get full time payroll benefits ... until you've been at it long enough to move up to one of the full time jobs. It might take awhile .... Many of the folks I know teaching part time now are stay-at-home Mom's whose children are now old enough that Mom can now start going back to work with her degree and training, and she can afford to work into the system, starting part time. By the time you get here, she's already got years of seniority in the system ahead of you. Still, there will be isolated openings available .... you know why? Well, I'll bet you already have the answer to this ... because you can't afford to move there with your one income and your husband won't be able to find full time work there to help with the cash flow so you can stay there ....
hey sunsprit...
I was just mentioning mountain ranges in WY that I had a background with...in direct response to the op's question about where the mountainous areas are in WY.
I was not making any sort of recommendation about those places being viable places for the average joe to just up and move to with dreams of it magically working out for them.
It's nice to know, however, that these mountain regions are within reach for some hiking, camping, etc, even if you live in/by the city with all the other working joes.
Have you checked into (teaching) jobs on the Wind River Indian Reservation? I believe they have a very high demand.....whenever I go back to Lander I always see ads in the paper for special ed type jobs. I know they have high turnover - it isn't the easiest or most desirable place to teach. I think it takes a certain type of person but it is a good paying district and I know there is some housing provided for teachers, although I'm not sure of the details. If not there are RV parks close by - if you want to go that route. Perhaps if you have worked in Alaska you have probably already worked with Native american students? And it is definately a rural area and close to the mountains.
Snow Puppy!
I feel your delima!
My husband and I are wanting to move to Wyoming also. Were driving out in May to check out some places in the Big Horn Basin area. Of course then we have to put our place up for sale! My husband totally refuses to put up our house in land until I've been there and seen the layout with my own eyes and check out the home verses job situation. He's my voice of reason!!!!
I've read a lot of different information on these forums and I can tell you right now some of them make Wyoming out to be the most awful place on earth, and others you can honestly feel the love ,comitment and pride for the people and land that they share. This is a hugh decision for us we've lived in Missouri for 30 or so years and have all of our finances invested into our home and 120 acres. I can't hardly wait to see it for myself. I hope you and your husband are able to follow your dream. It's amazing what you can do when you have the right person standing beside you!
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Does this sound feasible to do in WY until we have jobs and housing set? I am a special education teacher, and so hopefully won't have too hard a time getting work. I will even be willing to return to being a teacher's assistant until I get my WY certification. My husband may have a harder time....he has been a shipfitter for years (including welding). He moved up in the company and has been a Senior Production Planner now for 5 yrs. He works on a computer in an office. When we were in AK, he actually got a job as a DJ and Content Depot technician at the little radio station there! He loved it.
). We'd love a cabin in the mountains and some acreage. Is this doable or realistic to live in an rv year-round in WY until we find our land and save up the money to buy it? Also we read that WY is the "playground for the rich"....we are definitely NOT rich! Can ordinary folks, living paycheck to paycheck, make it there?
