It turns out that Casper is one long day from So Cal, just like Portland. I left Casper about 7am on Fri 2/26 with tentative plans to drive to Las Vegas. I got into Las Vegas about sunset and drove around town for an hour and decided to just push on through to Joshua Tree rather than spend the night. I got into Joshua Tree about 11:30pm.
Spent Saturday with my sister Jill, resting up from the long day driving. After discovering that she hand no coffee on hand (or a coffee maker) I decided to push on to Jan’s house in Oceanside on Sunday Morning after church. I stopped by Dawn Renee’s house in Murietta to pick up Nana (well actually Nana’s box) to take her to Jan’s.
Nana in a box
Spent the time at Jan’s helping rehearse for the funeral on 3/4. Also got the mandatory visit to Chili’s on one night and some BBQ on another. I think we have a good plan for using iPhones for a Zoom meeting for the funeral mass and internment. We will also be recording it with an iPad as a backup. Hopefully the rain will end today and clear up tomorrow (contrary to the popular belief that “It Never Rains in Southern California“)
Unlike what I had planned, I drove straight through from Portland to Jackson WY in one day. I got in a couple of hours after dark, but without major issues. Just a note that the road from Twin Falls, ID is not a major highway, but a rather twisty back way up the mountain.
Jasper was nice, but the downtown was pretty artificial in a touristy sort of way. I found out why the rental prices were twice what the rest of WY is. It turns out that most of the county property is owned by the Federal Government (>95%). With most of the rest devoted to skiing there isn’t a lot left over.
Lexington Inn; where I spent the night
Downtown Jasper
The drive down to the southern parts of the state was fine and well plowed. There are some nice prospects south of Jasper, but the population drops off a bunch. I got down to Rock Creek and that was a definite possibility. a reasonable population with non-flat terrain, although considerably drier.
Driving south from Jasper
Pushing on east there really isn’t anything worthwhile until you get to Laramie. Laramie was a disappointment. It is basically down in the flatlands, although there are trees in town, I didn’t really see any good prospects. I pushed on and spent the next night in Cheyenne. It was pretty much as I expected, flatter than my preference but it did have the advantage of the large AFB just west of town.
Flat part of WY
In the morning I drove up to Casper and I really think this is what I was looking for. Tree covered Mt Casper just south of town with enough local terrain to keep things interesting.
View of Caspar from South
I drove by the Preserve at Greenway Park (the leading contender for rental residence). I’ve got an appointment in a couple of hours to tour a couple of units. I’ve driven around town somewhat and it seems to have everything I was hoping for. I even drove through the local US Bank and used the ATM to check my account balances and everything worked as expected.
The Preserve at Greenway Park from a distance
I got in for a self-directed tour of a couple of units (due to COVID). After talking to Caitlyn, the Leasing Consultant, I settled on a two-bedroom ground floor unit called Goldeneye that will be available on 24 March. I need to fill out the online registration form and that should be it. I’m sticking around until Friday to arrange storage for the load I brought out this trip and look around some more.
Goldeneye – 2 bedroom 2bath 1069 sq ft
If I leave Friday morning I should be in Joshua Tree on Saturday afternoon or early evening. All things being equal I’ll plan on spending a couple of days with Jill and then drive down to Oceanside and stay with Jan for a couple of days.
Well things are becoming clearer. After several days of trolling through dozens of rental websites I think I have come up with a winner. Right now, pending an actual visit, the leading contender is The Preserve at Greenway Park in Casper Wyoming.
However, wanting to do due diligence in checking out the other candidates, I decided to reverse the circulation through Wyoming so I wind up at Casper at the end. The revised schedule will be:
Sat (2/2) & Sun (2/28) Casper Check out The Preserve at Greenway Park, and if all looks good, potentially rent a unit. If I get an address I can start the transition to becoming a Wyoming resident.
That gets me in in time to recover before plugging Nana in on the 4th. Plan to drive back to Oregon on March 5th and 6th. When I get back I can start arranging move to Wyoming.
(The reason I am putting this down is two-fold; I find that writing things out tends to arrange my thinking and I actually tend to get to implementing something. It is also to reassure my children that I haven’t gone off the deep end.)
With the pandemic and the political turmoil of the past year; coupled with discussions I had with my family, especially my brothers, I have decided to make some changes in my living conditions and my life in general. The biggest change of course was the death of Lindsay which removed several constraints on my life. It’s now been two and a half years since her passing; my personal life has returned somewhat to steady state.
In the near term, I intend to keep my condominium; but I think I have decided to make my home and permanent residence elsewhere. I think that for the short term I like having a pied-a-terre near the girls and my eventual home at Willamette National Cemetery. But I think it is time to consider physically changing my permanent residence.
Right now the leading contender is Wyoming. The primary reasons are location, population density and tax policy. Taxes first; Wyoming is one of the eight states that don’t collect personal income taxes, and the sales tax is currently 4%. A good survey can be found at http://www.tax-rates.org/taxtables/income-tax-by-state . As a good approximation of how intrusive a government is, I’ve found the state that taxes least rules best. As far as location goes, it is still only 2 days from Southern California, roughly how far I am in Portland. I think that population density is a good first approximation of some of our current social pathologies and Wyoming has amazingly low population densities.
One thing that concerns me is that I have been spoiled by the scenery in the Pacific Northwest. Trees and non-flat geography are good, even if you have to put up with non-trivial rainfall. Much of the Wyoming seems to be treeless, although my upcoming tour should give me a much better feel for it. Growing up in Southern California made bare brown hills and rocks at least familiar.
In the short term I’m looking for a cheap rental in the vicinity of Jackson, Casper, Cheyenne, Laramie, or Rock Springs. I am not looking, initially, for a cabin deep in the wilderness. Instead I’m looking for something with utilities and good internet; it would then let me explore for something more permanent. Those five communities look like they are what I am interested in and the initial cruise through the state at the end of the month should let me decide my first steps.
Cheyenne (pop 91,738) is an actual city and has access to the local Air Force Base. On the down side it is the flat dry corner of the state. Either Casper (pop 55,316) (2.5hrs) or Laramie (pop 30,816) (1hr) are close enough to reach it for occasional trips. and seem to near more mountainous and sylvan areas. Rock Springs (pop 23,036) seems be be on the dry flat area but is a possibility. Jackson (pop 9,577) is in the most mountainous area but is pretty remote and I suspect the the cost of living is higher due to the skiing crowd.
I’ll have more info after my tour through the state.
Originally I had planned to drive to California and drive through Wyoming on my way home. In retrospect I now plan to go to Wyoming first when I am fresh and driving back home after Mom’s internment.
Below is my proposed route with Google Maps travel times.
Day 1: Portland-Nampa
6.5 hours
Day 2: Nampa-Jackson
6 hours
Day 3: Jackson-Caspar
4.5 hours
Day 4: Caspar-Cheyenne
2.5 hours
Day 5 Cheyenne-Salt Lake City
6.75 hours
From Salt Lake City it’s two days to Joshua Tree, either down I-80 to Oroville or down I-15 through Las Vegas.
I am starting this blog up again; primarily to document my trip down to California for Mom’s internment ceremony, currently scheduled for March 4th – her & Poppi’s anniversary. I’ll also document my initial exploratory investigation of Wyoming.
