I greatly dislike going back "home"...

Normally it is for unlikable reasons.

First off, winter with the associated white death, aka SNOW. I hate it. It kills off beautiful cars and people. I put up with it for 29.5 yrs living in W MI, enough is enough. 6 mo out of the year you freeze your ass off, I'll pass.

Secondly, the little bit of family still living there. First, it was my mom back in Feb for a second knee replacement, hip replacement, and during the scans for the replacements, cancer was found. Now, it's my pops, who doesn't know how he did it, but broke his ankle last Thursday. Had surgery Saturday to fix it, but now as other problems that the stupid phuckers at Spectrum Health can't seem to or want to fix since being admitted.

Thirdly and lastly, it is Michigan. If an original Michiganian/Michigander can call West Virginia a better place to live, you are doing something wrong.

Thanks for the vent space.

Good luck! No snow in Grand Rapids right now!

I feel your pain. From Ohio, left 35 years ago, been back twice, for funerals. No sun for months on end, brutal winters, horrible economy, mafia controlled town. Nope, don't see any reason to go back.

Grtechguy wrote: Good luck! No snow in Grand Rapids right now!

But there will be by the time I get there!!!

Now I remember why I never wanted to go to Michigan.

Well, West Virginia > most any other state, but I didn't know it could call itself "warmer" and "less snowy" than somewhere.

I'm still trying to get the hell out of NY.

In reply to Twin_Cam:

I'm actually in KY, but 5 min from WV. But I am also a hour south of 64. So no panhandle or that sliver sandwich between PA and OH.

There are some great roads in WV and Ohio. I have lived in 7 different States, from the East coast to the West coast and I feel that Ohio is over all a very nice place to live.

I went to MI over thanksgiving. One of my friends asked me to go to the local watering hole for a drink. It was like freakin' high school reunion. I didn't want to talk to them in High School, and I don't want to talk to them now.

THAT is why I don't like going "home".

I grew up in Northeastern Pa. (the part of the state where even small cities are few and far between) and I don't like to go home because I didn't think it was all that great when I was a child and now it's getting worse. In that area, they have "struck shale gas" and the attendant problems are overcrowding in stores, traffic that would strain a GOOD road system...which that area does NOT have, lack of affordable housing, and now prices (thanks to store owners who want to make as much money as the market will bear for as long as they can) on nearly everything has gone up so that folks TRYING to get by on minimum wage can no longer afford to work and live there.

On top of all that, the storms that made the news in Conn. and Vermont in October, also wrecked Pa. too. Bad roads are now worse, Housing that was once barely affordable, is water damaged. And just try to find a building contractor and a building site without a gas well and with clean water.

Of course, my family doesn't like me all that much, either, they say I'm a complainer. (See above rant.)

It's a nice place to visit, terrible place to try and live.

Left Michigan almost 10 years ago.

Never plan on going back.

e_pie wrote: Left Michigan almost 10 years ago. Never plan on going back.

I left 5 years ago, and wish I'd left 10 years ago.

West Virginia is way better than MI. You can marry close relatives, carry a gun anywhere and teeth are optional.

(As a Pittsburgher, I have to make a West Virginia joke by law. No offense, I do love your adopted state.)

I refuse to live anywhere I can expect snow more then 3 or 4 days a year. I <3 Alabama.

EvanR wrote: I left 5 years ago, and wish I'd left 10 years ago.

Me too!!! Left June 2005. Gave my two weeks notice and after the last day of work, loaded up the diesel and trailer, said goodbye to my parents and grandma, drove to Cincy that day (after working from midnight to 7 or 9am), and then the next day finally onto my GF's house here in KY.

It has been a struggle since, but still worth it.

93EXCivic...

when I lived in Tn. it snowed maybe every other year for a total snowfall of less than 1 inch...except for 2010, when it snowed and left several inches. Local residents tried to kill each other on the roads as they refused to believe that the snow and ice MIGHT make the roads slippery.

Given a choice of no snow, or very occasional snow in winter, I'll take no snow if for no other reason than folks can't seem to "cope" with snow that rarely falls and sticks in small amounts. Heck, I'd rather have LOTS of snow, than occasional snow since folks that get lots of snow know how to deal with driving in it.

integraguy wrote: Heck, I'd rather have LOTS of snow, than occasional snow since folks that get lots of snow know how to deal with driving in it.

Really? I'm from upstate NY, and living with lots of snow for months on end just saps life out of you.

I'd rather have a few freakish snowfalls once in a while during which I will stay home and watch the wrecks on the news vs. having to deal with a real winter.

Brett-Murphy:

sorry, but I've never had a job where I had the luxury of staying home (unless the police came on tv and said to) when the weather was bad.

I also spent a year in Iceland, and what made it so depressing wasn't the snow as much as the lack of sunlight (very short days) in the winter. When it came to walking around in snow or the aftermath, when snow was melting. I still preferred snow, as it's not usually as wet when you fall/slip in it. But my sister lives near Rochester, and I'm amazed she doesn't just turn on the gas (without lighting a pilot light) sometimes in the winter. Grey skies, whatever the cause, depress the heck out of me.

Meh, Michigan ain't so bad.

Yeah there's salt, depressing long winters, fish flies in the fall, and the unemployment rate sucks. There are no fun roads to drive on, the only real city is Detroit, and our love for cars has degenerated into the Dream Cruise.

But hey, at least we have the Lions.

I moved to Michigan from England in 1994. Since then I've visited all but about 10 of the states. Note by visited I mean spent the night and done something there. Driving through and crashing for a few hours in a motel is not visiting. Honestly my favorite place so far is the norther lower penisular of Michigam followed by Door Co Wi, Bolder Colorado and the general Yellowstone tri state area.

We travel a lot, always with an eye out as to a place to retire. there have been loads of cool places, but they all have a BUT in them, too hot, tooo expensive, too remote, too whatever. All except Northern Mi, which to me has no but, it's ideal.

In reply to integraguy:

Neither had I, until I moved to NC and with two inches of snow they will close the interstates complete with police broadcasts. My place of employment will completely shut down when the weather is bad, mostly because everyone will call in because their kids are home from school and they have to stay home to watch them.

Plus, I work from home now =)

Yeah, the snow and cold sucks, but the lakes help make up for it. Snow doesn't kill cars, it's the road salt and dumb drivers that go with it. Been here 37 years and keep vowing to leave...but I'm still here.....

I moved to Michigan 22 years ago. Love it here.

Not much left to see back in Idaho- all of my friends left after HS, too. Nice to go back and ski, since there are real mountains out west. Idaho is a nice place to visit, but if you crave some kind of people around, well, I don't live there for a reason.

As for the south. How can you stand the heat? For a while, I thought of retiring in Puerto Rico (warm and mountains) but it's FAR too hot.

alfadriver wrote: As for the south. How can you stand the heat? For a while, I thought of retiring in Puerto Rico (warm and mountains) but it's FAR too hot.

Air conditioning. I hate the heat, so my electric bill are kind of painful in the summer. On the other hand, it hasn't run but probably a week total in the last two months, the doors are open now to let the cool breeze in. And where you take the winters off from motorsports, we take July and August.