WHY Idaho?

We get that question, ALOT (yes, I know, that is sposta be 2 words – or is it?). I usually begin by explaining that we were looking seriously into moving to South America. Got our passports, saved my vacation time, searched properties in Argentina, Chile’, even met with a man that offered up a stay at his house in Uruguay (also learned how to spell that country). Internet searching of properties in SA was less productive. We were certain what we were seeing was ‘gringo pricing’. Oh, did I mention that we understood muy poco español. Getting out of Dodge had great appeal, along with much work involved. I won’t begin to pretend to know what all would have been involved in moving way down south. Not to mention being way too far away from my future grandkids.

We went to visit our friends in Ohio over Memorial Day weekend. James & Krista are recently married attorneys with a new baby. Other than those details, we consider them like minded individuals: smart, thrifty, low-key and well versed in the language of TEOTWAWKI (<–a whole ‘nother blog on that, my friends). Lance said to James (and I quasiquote here) “JAMES (insert emphaticness here, cause that’s just what Lance does when he’s riled up), convince me to stay in this country! It’s too much of a hassle to try to leave.” [Hmmm, maybe I should change James’ name, for privacy purposes. He’s funny that way. How ’bout Guido & Krista?] Ok, where was I? Oh, not wanting the hassle of moving to South America. So, we searched Krista’s home state of KY – such pretty places and reasonably priced. We made plans to visit a few properties on our way home. Boy, there were some doozies! Since Guido & Krista really weren’t sure if they could leave their important lawyery jobs, we decided to resume our search around Birmingham. Still, nothing popped up.

While we were visiting Ohio, Guido mentioned a book to Lance called Patriots.  Poorly written fiction, but excellent ideas for becoming self sufficient. It was based in Moscow, Idaho. After he read the book, and seemingly out of the blue, Lance says, “what about Idaho” I said “IDAHO? I don’t think I even know where that is”. I happened to notice a bag of potatoes which, of course, had a map of Idaho on it, so at least now, I knew the shape of the state. Lance also showed me a ‘google earth’ type map from above and how sparsely populated things got west of the Missouri River. Ah, less crowds, less busy cities, more wide open spaces. I googled the state and it’s surroundings. I revved up my search in hotpads.com and instantly fell in love with the hills, trees and many lakes. Guido was also doing much soul searching about where to live. He shared this link with us. Among many other things, this helped ‘sell’ Idaho to us.

Fresh new territory to discover in Idaho. Sadly, no real deals to be found, BUT, I was shocked at how a multitude of the listings offered many of the things on our wish list: creeks, south facing walk-out basements, generators installed, solar panels. They ‘get it’ up there and we wanted to be amongst like minded individuals. It really boiled down to culture. Heck, could it be true, there are no professional sports teams in ID? It just keeps getting better!

I sent out a dozen emails to local Realtors seeking help in finding properties. I got 2 lame offers to help if/when we got to ID. However, one guy not only responded within the hour, he connected with us both with such zeal and enthusiasm (not the car salesman type, but truly helpful), we were thrilled. The doors continued to open for us. We don’t label ourselves as ‘religious people’, but it was obvious to see God’s hand, every step of the way. Next thing ya know, ol Lance & Mare are homeowners in Idaho.

Why Idaho? Surely not because of the weather. We don’t particularly look forward to the snow. But we both are from the midwest. We’ll manage. It is also far from many of our loved ones, yet closer to my dad, Lance’s favorite Aunt and my favorite cousin. We get the sense folks are different out thar – our kind of different. Someone remarked to me upon hearing our destination, “you never hear anyone say, we’re going to Idaho“. I said, “good”.

Next quest, possible bloggity idea, JOBS???  I’ll need one, thank you.