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Login to post Forums » Off-topic discussion » Learn me Twin cities area

Sept. 16, 2011 5:49 a.m. T.J. SuperDork

Ok, so a couple weeks ago, I learned a bit about Knoxville and was all set to move there and start working until the last minute dreaded hiring freeze took that out. Now I am considering relocating to the area between the twin cities and St. Cloud MN.

Other than layovers at the airport I know nothing about the area. I can tell that the winters will be long cold and icy. It seems like that area is pretty darn flat so fun roads may be out.

I know the state government shutdown a few months back.

What knowledge is out there in GRM land about Minnesota?
Sept. 16, 2011 7:24 a.m. pete240z SuperDork

Our welding shop is in this area. Maple Grove is nice with all the shops and stores you need. The traffic on I94 is heavy going into the cities and buried on summer Friday's as everyone heads up I94 to their cabins.

Most of our guys live in the Elk River, Otsego, or Rogers area. A lot of the homes in the area do come with some property compared to the Chicago Suburbs and my big 1/4 acre lot. Most our guys love to hunt, fish, ice fish and love the area.

The lack of hilly and curvy roads is nice when you have all the icy and snowy roads
Sept. 16, 2011 8:19 a.m. stuart in mn SuperDork

There are a lot of decent areas to live up there, but if you're going to work closer in to town you'll be fighting traffic jams every day on your commute. Elk River and Anoka are older, more established towns; Maple Grove, Otsego, Rogers, St. Michael-Albertville have a lot of fairly new housing developments. Dayton tends to be more upscale, with some large estates right by the Mississippi River (it's more hilly with some nice curvy roads, too.)

Monticello, Big Lake and Becker are more rural, small town environments if that's what you're looking for. There's a big coal fired power plant in Becker, the biggest power plant in the state.
Sept. 16, 2011 8:32 a.m. Giant Purple Snorklewacker SuperDork

I did some work for Delta most of last year... the place is beautiful in the summer but there is not enough DEET in the world to make shorts feasible. The mosquitoes are capable of devouring a large man faster than piranha did up the cow in that video that everyone has seen.

The cougar populace is large and predatory. This is good/bad depending on your marital status. At least it is flattering.

I noticed a lot of folks riding motorcycles in very inclement weather - which bodes well for the general make-up of group.

There is a lot of liberal, hippie free love kinda vibe in the air at least in the city-dwellers. I was at the downtown Hilton and didn't get out much past Eagan except for weekend drives into the country so that may or may not be representative of the whole.

The Mall of America is a gleaming example of everything that is wrong with this country. It does have a good sushi place in it though - I wondered how they got fresh, raw fish that far inland before it was poison. Then I ate it anyway.

When you imagine cold in your mind - you are working from a set of limits that will be reset come January.
Sept. 16, 2011 1:02 p.m. stuart in mn SuperDork

As far as curvy and hilly roads go - north and west of the Twin Cities it is generally pretty flat, but south and east of here it is where the hills and curves start. If you go as far as the SE corner of the state there are some great roads and scenery, but for short drives many people just hop across the border to Wisconsin and hit the 'alphabet roads'...in WI the county roads are identified with letters instead of numbers, they tend to have a lot of curves, they are generally well maintained, and there are a lot of country taverns to stop at. :)
Sept. 16, 2011 2:10 p.m. mndsm SuperDork

What these guys said+...

You can experience every kind of weather EVER in the same day. Seriously, it dropped 40* between monday and tuesday, and we went from super hot, to snow/slush up north. Minnesotans are bizarre bunch too. You get the typical shiny happy people... but when E36 M3 gets real, they're all pretty cool and help out. Case in point, everyone in my apt building organized on accident and ended up digging out nearly all the cars in our lot after a big snow one night.

The car scene here is fairly active, depending on what you want. We have 3 huge-ish rod/muscle shows every year, and TONS of smaller ones. I'm hard pressed to find a weekend where there isn't cars of some sort to look at. The import scene is getting bigger, and we have a few pretty well known shops local (MAPerformace and Grimmspeed, both of whom were sponsors of Brianne Corn's STi at Pikes Peak).. Food is decent, roads suck anywhere in the metro.
Sept. 16, 2011 2:43 p.m. T.J. SuperDork

Looking at working in Monticello. Small and rural is ok with me, but the city is not too far away. Not a big fisherman, but some canoeing sounds good. Alabama is a bit hotter than I like it, but not sure about MN winters. I've gone through a few upstate NY winters and 3 northern Idaho winters and i remember not enjoying all the shovelling. I'm thinking snowblower and a snow mobile and a set of cross country skis.

I don't really have a winter car. Maybe i need to get rid of something and replace it with a winter salt car.
Sept. 16, 2011 2:50 p.m. mndsm SuperDork

Buy a winter beater in the south. Granted, it's going to get ruined up here, but they're about 50% cheaper south of the mason dixon line. I have...3? winter beaters at the moment. One's gonna be a challenge car, one is the wife's new work car, and one is for me.

Shovelling really doesn't happen all that often. The local plow businesses are pretty dependent on snow, so if you live in a rental property, you'll have to shovel your car out, or have underground parking. But you'd do yourself well to have a snow thrower, and make a few bucks with it, or spend a few bucks and hire the neighbor kid. Some kids around here still know how to work for some money. Most don't, but that's a different story.

Anything else you want to know? I'm kind of enjoying this game.
Sept. 16, 2011 4:21 p.m. Joshua HalfDork

It's a really nice area, Eagen is my favorite due to mountain biking opportunities. The closest track is Brainerd but motorcycle racing seems to be more popular than sports car racing for some reason. The craigslist is a goldmine for old muscle cars and the like.

It's a pretty forward thinking progressive mindset which is refreshing coming from South Dakota. It's a very outdoor and active environment.

There are tons of cool places to visit within a few hours drive, as mentioned before there is Car Craft and a few other big car shows as well as a huge swap meet in Wisconsin.

The winters are livable, they seriously aren't that bad, just be glad you have some trees to block the wind...here in South Dakota we don't.
Sept. 16, 2011 5:02 p.m. stroker HalfDork

I lived in Roseville for 5 years. Left 20 years ago so I'm unreliable as a reference. The traffic/hwy system round the Twin Cities sucks, but I went to work at 4am so I didn't have much trouble. Nothing anyone has said so far has sounded wrong. If I had to live in a major metropolitan area, the Twin Cities would be it, even with the winter.

YMMV.
Sept. 16, 2011 9:28 p.m. Marty! Dork

The Vikings suck. That is all I now about the area.
Sept. 16, 2011 11:46 p.m. novaderrik Dork

property gets cheaper when you get out west of Monticello- maybe the nuclear plant has something to do with that?

if you like doing stuff on lakes- boating, fishing, ice fishing- then look at the Clearwater/Annandale area. there is literally a lake around every corner.
Sept. 18, 2011 11:25 a.m. T.J. SuperDork

There are a lot of lakes over that way....must be about 10,000 of them in the state.

I like the idea of a lakefront home.
Sept. 18, 2011 3:46 p.m. novaderrik Dork

T.J. wrote:

There are a lot of lakes over that way....must be about 10,000 of them in the state.

I like the idea of a lakefront home.

actually, there are over 15,000 lakes.. but 10,000 looks better on license plates..
Sept. 19, 2011 7:10 a.m. oldopelguy Dork

You bring up the coal plant in Becker and not the nuke one across the river in Monticello? If you're thinking of working there and that's why Monticello, PM me for some details you should know.

Union politics rule in MN, so hope you like the bottom of the food chain no matter what your background. Liberal politics also mean expensive taxes and fees, for everything. Union dues, HOAs, $300 annual registrations, licenses, parking, etc..., it all adds up. Moving back to SD I took a 20% drop in gross pay and my net went up.

Buy my place in St. Michael, I'm tired of paying the utility bills. Plenty of empty places, it's a buyers market. My asking price is 60% of what my wife paid 5 years ago.
Sept. 19, 2011 8:26 a.m. T.J. SuperDork

PM sent.
Sept. 19, 2011 8:39 a.m. EdenPrime New Reader

I live in Maple Grove and it's awesome. It has everything. It's only a few minutes away from a town called Rogers which has performance shops and custom auto upholstery shop. Overall the winters are longer than in the south and a lot less forgiving. But it just makes you enjoy and utilize the summers more and not waste any nice days. People don't know how to drive, especially in parking lots. Minnesota can be pretty cool to be honest. And i'm originally from Tupelo, Mississippi.
Sept. 19, 2011 9:41 a.m. pete240z SuperDork

EdenPrime wrote:

It's only a few minutes away from a town called Rogers which has Cabela's and Linda's Cafe.

I fixed it for you.
Sept. 19, 2011 9:45 a.m. mndsm SuperDork

True on the driving. It's like Minnesotans forget what snow is EVERY STINKIN YEAR. Come on people, we've seen it before.

It does amuse me to blast past some enormous SUV in the ditch when driving the MINI though.
Sept. 19, 2011 10:10 a.m. EdenPrime New Reader

pete240z wrote:

EdenPrime wrote:

It's only a few minutes away from a town called Rogers which has Cabela's and Linda's Cafe.

I fixed it for you.

Mm..i'm not really into Cabela's or anything. The only reason i go near that town is the performance shop and upholstery.

@mndsm, I have more issues with people on a beautiful day in a parking lot than i tend to have in the depths of snowy winter. :/ Also, people pulling out in front of me on a regular basis.
Sept. 19, 2011 10:30 a.m. mndsm SuperDork

^Agreed on the almost getting hit on a daily basis. I cannot figure out WHY people just blindly fly out of parking lots.
Sept. 19, 2011 10:44 a.m. EdenPrime New Reader

mndsm wrote:

^Agreed on the almost getting hit on a daily basis. I cannot figure out WHY people just blindly fly out of parking lots.

Not to mention the blatant disregard for the structure of the lot. They ignore the lines and lanes and just fly straight across the lots right through the middle without abiding by the lanes and structure. I HATE that, i always go down the lanes and just turn around at the end of each lane instead of cutting across the middle of like 6 lanes.

And i don't know if my car is just too small to judge it's speed, but people always pull out in front of me on regular streets. It drives me crazy and i can't just ride their ass to get the message across because my car is so small and anyone can tell that i have more to lose by an accident than they do.
Sept. 19, 2011 11:24 a.m. RossD SuperDork

novaderrik wrote:

T.J. wrote:

There are a lot of lakes over that way....must be about 10,000 of them in the state.

I like the idea of a lakefront home.

actually, there are over 15,000 lakes.. but 10,000 looks better on license plates..

And everytime I look at how many lakes Wisconsin has the resource list Minnesota has having slightly less!

Oh yeah, did I mention the Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry didn't start or end with Brett Favre?

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