Life in or near Mojave, CA?

Try going to Atlanta when it's 95+. nasty. At least when it's dry you can get out of the sun and it helps.

I'd never realized before I moved here that the US is a tropical country.

It takes a special person to live in the desert. With that being said when I moved to California I had answered a help wanted ad in Western Horseman magazine and took the job, In Ridgecrest. I lasted 366 days. 

It is a cool little desert town, Mostly supported by China Lake Naval base. Lots of off road, some old timers playing with hot rods, 2 hours from L.A., an hour from Willow Springs. Not far from Edwards Air Force base where they have top speed runs on the air strip a couple times a year, El Mirage is close too. Housing in cheap in Ridgecrest compared to the surrounding areas.

Mojave is pretty remote on its own but closer to L.A. Not much as far as a "life". its a place to disconnect and just work on stuff, Just have to be sure to lock EVERYTHING down as it will walk off if you leave it alone.

If you can live in Lancaster its a bigger town than Ridgecrest and closer to L.A. Its still very hot in the summer cold in the winter and still windy. The cost of housing is closer to what you would see in the northern Valley areas of Los Angeles since a lot of the people will commute from there. 

I would have to say take a few days and visit the areas, Its hard to explain the little things that might be a deal breaker for you. 

HippieWagon said:

Any new opinions on the Mojave in the past few years?  I have a job interview out there and am curious about living situations.  The town itself looks like a glorified rest stop with a giant airstrip.

How are bad are Cali emissions?  My VW (well the one i would keep if i moved) is a '71 so its not like i can really make the emissions worse...

I moved out of the high desert of CA a bit over a year ago. It's ok but I found not seeing green for long periods of time really screwed with me. That area of the desert has a culture all it's own, you can't really compare it to anything anywhere else in the  US.

The 71 VW would be exempt from emissions as the cutoff is 1975. Anything after that is kind of a crapshoot. I've had some pretty strange arguments about things like colored silicon hoses.

Overall it isn't bad. There's a lot of open space that area, so if you're into off roading it's pretty awesome (if you're not you may as well be.)

Quartz Hill is a pretty nice area and Lancaster has really exploded in the last 10 years so there's good parts and bad parts. Lake LA is a furiously glowing spot on a Megan's Law heatmap.

California City is... well look it up. It's weird as hell to drive through.

Sequoia and Highway 2 are nearby, both of which are awesome.

Keith Tanner said:

The desert folks are the ones who have checked out and want space and no neighbors. They might build weird art in their yards or land speed record machines or run pirate radio stations ranting about aliens, but that's not your business. And your business is not their business.

This. Actually, that attitude seems to prevalent all the way through the high desert, at least as far as I've traveled. Certainly to be found anywhere in NV outside the bigger places, too.

HippieWagon said:

Any new opinions on the Mojave in the past few years?  I have a job interview out there and am curious about living situations.  The town itself looks like a glorified rest stop with a giant airstrip.

How are bad are Cali emissions?  My VW (well the one i would keep if i moved) is a '71 so its not like i can really make the emissions worse...

No emissions testing on 75 and earlier.  You're good.

So Pres, what was the job you were originally looking at in Mojave?

In reply to dculberson :

Thats a good question! As far as i can tell, any job people would move there for are hermit or Scaled Composites and Scaled spin off companies.