Avoiding the politics...

The experience of Los Angeles and Orange County will vary widely based on where you are and what you focus your energy on.

I don't see any special needs for bringing a vehicle here. Higher chance of door dings, but much lower chance of sliding off an icy road. Driving in traffic is much easier on a vehicle than off roading. Other than needing to do a smog check every 2 years, nothing with a vehicle will be different here (as long as you don't modify the engine...).

-Charlie

I really like the southwest corner of Utah, near Zion. If the summers weren't brutal, I would consider living there. The Hurricane area has some great mountain biking trails.

it was an awesome area.. i ran into lots of good guys from this forum who came there to play and had a few beers with some of them....after work...and showed them some nice back roads. I knew you were into mountain bikes..and always wondered if I would run into you...as the trail there is known as one of the best mountain bike trails in the us.... From 2014 to 2019...if you ran that trail....you ran past my front porch...well within a few hundred feet...but I was always working....keeping things under control...as that area became a mad house...spent more time being a "cop" then a backroad friend or a park ranger.
and as far as alaska and being ready....just gear up and go for it....warm clothes etc.....fishing and hunting etc is amazing. snowmobiles and skiing are great....back roads and exploring....nope....nothing like the PNW. if you get off the back roads here and have an issue....your screwed...no cell phone..touchy satellite phone. everything is miles from no place bumb frick.
actually wish I was back in the mckenzie bridge area.
but im here casue my wife died from pancreatic cancer....my boys with their familes moved here....with my kids, gandkids and now my great grand kid here. wanted to be near family.. one has a fishing charter boat in seaward alaska...another a doc in fairbanks...yep...im old.....but still drive a 3rd gen with your and seans help taking care of it..

I did a shuttle ride from your ranger station probably around 11 or 12 years ago for the McKenzie River trail.

Sorry to hear about your wife. That must have been very tough to go through.

I'm not much of a snow sports guy so that's why was considering the Ashland area. I know it gets snow, but not like the area near Bend gets. I like Bend, but I've heard the homeless have messed up that area as well. Camps all over the place on the outskirts of town right where the nice mtn bike trails travel through. Huge bummer.

I'm retiring from the fire service in less than a year and a half. I'll keep making videos and probably do some volunteer work helping build and maintain trails but that's it for me. I'm not working for the man anymore. I've paid my dues.

I misquoted my response, I was trying to say what you heard about restaurants was not true. Big concert venues were asking for Vaccination proof, but that's about it. Not sure if that has stopped now. I prefer not to use this venue for anything remotely political, so I'll shut up now.

I think everyone is at some level of being over covid, ready to be done; some wish we'd reacted differently as a global community.
I'm rarely asked for a vaccination card in restaurants anymore here in LA, big venues yes.
I never had covid but I am sick of it. Go home, covid, you suck.

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Yes and now unprecedented massive global economic reshuffle is on deck. Been sperging out on economic analysis since the happenings in Ukraine and the experts seem to agree this is the end of globalism, which we've only glimpsed with those covid supply chain disruptions. We off-shored all that labor to China for years (and leveraged it in to a giant stock/everything bubble) but we also off-shored our inflation through the petrodollar reserve currency status. All that stuff will have to come back to the US, there will be lots of production/fabrication facilities getting built soon. We have the resources and labor supply (if you include our soon-to-be largest trading partner Mexico) so we'll be fine in the long-term. But the next 5-10 years are probably going to be very rough as things adjust. It's a good time to get a feel for how different states might cope with things changing. The 2008 crisis never got fixed we basically been living off the credit card since then. It's going to have ramifications for pensions, social security, welfare and things.

Then there's other weird stuff to think about like non-political climate change, crop yields, land mismanagement causing the Ogallala aquifer drying out, forest fires and whatever.

Trying to figure out what to do myself, I doubt this suburban NPC thing is sustainable. It's been soul-crushingly boring even before covid tbh.

I'd like to know why you're moving..... It better be for a good... no..... TERRIFIC job.

Not a very friendly 2A state.... i know that's not a very important on your list

Best of luck

Sorry, missed the 3VZ reference..

For a job.

This thread ended up taking more of a political turn. I just wanted to know about the additional wear and tear on the vehicle.

Thanks for all the responses.

Interesting perspectives... I think we're all from the same generation... I've travelled extensively across the Western US and especially Cali. California has definitely changed from my first trip there when I was 18. Definitely grew rapidly. Change unfortunately, is inevitable. LA and San Francisco both have incredible cultural attractions--- my Wife and I especially love the variety that LA has to offer. Unfortunately, crime and drugs and homelessness have increased in most places that attract population growth. This issue has also taken place in my hometown of Vancouver, BC, Canada and to an extent to where I now live in Vernon BC. We made the choice to leave Vancouver, as it was becoming really busy, crazy traffic and high cost of living(ridiculous housing prices).. Yes, California is HUGE. Its got 10 million more people than Canada, and it's economy is bigger. So much opportunity. If I was looking to relocate, my top choices might be Colorado or Utah... I'm approaching retirement and luckily I'm in the right place.

I may have overstated your risk of getting dismembered by CJNG siccarios or starving to death if you move to California. I'm sure the bulk of it is still amazing, even LA if that's your jive. But the crippling debt bomb, low level crime problem and mandates are all valid concerns IMO.

When I see stuff like this I tend to get a little jazzed up:

Fertilizer prices:



Farming inputs:



Fentanyl:



There are more than a few whisperings about the Chinese CCP being behind this cartel stuff. Revenge for the Opium Wars?? I have a feeling we've been in WW3 without realizing for at least 2 years. A new 21st century 4th generation, hybrid, non-linear warfare. It's not just California it's Texas too, there are crazy incursions happening north of the border. Houston crime has shot way up and I suspect this could be why the FBI has refused to release the 2021 UCR stats which is very unusual. I think this CJNG thing will become a narrative soon.

There's also whisperings that this Ukraine thing is actually about China. In fact there are docs from the gov flat out saying it.

There's also pretty good math suggesting A LOT of people in developing countries are going to starve from this.

Getting back to moving states when I did my autist-level research before moving my top picks were Coeur d'Alene ID and Rapid City, SD. Was too far to move so I'm stuck here now. I wonder if the Black Hills might get boring after a while tho.

@repo I'm going to try to keep this on brand. I'm guessing you do not have a sunroof on your 3rd gen because unless you have it retracted full-time, your tinfoil hat clearance would be rather compromised.

Kidding, kidding! I fully agree that Fetty is a form of chemical warfare and now that China has made a tiny and way too late effort to regulate export of the final product, the precursors are flowing unhindered from China to MX.

Borderland Beat: Search results for FENTANYL

But yeah, the sunroof does reduce head clearance by nearly 2 inches - I wish I didn't have one.

Dude the covid stuff blasted my tinfoil hat clean off. You need a magic mushroom hat or something to deal with how weird the world has become.

As the great Terence McKenna might say:

"It's not only weirder than you can imagine, it's weirder than you can imagine you can imagine!"



Edit: BTW the China connection angle has been coming from people like Ed Calderon, who probably knows more than anyone on the subject. Shawn Ryan Show #007 Drug Cartel / Narcos Expert Ed Calderon - YouTube