I'm taking a break too but have some time to kill before sunrise and I can leave. Ive lived in Kansas but when I was about 3-4 and less than a year. Ive visited and worked in all those states though except for the Dakotas.
We moved up to Apple Valley when I retired in 1998. It's a sprawling High Desert township of 77 square miles at 3000 ft. elevation, with the middle area being semi-rural residential and commercial, and the outlying areas all being ranches. We don't refer to Apple Valley as being a "city". Here are pictures taken in our neighborhood: Hal
@Holly Saunders Indeed it is that! AND, @Hal Pollner , it's not in Colorado, but rather California. However, we both know there are decidedly gorgeous places in both states. I seriously entertained living in CA at one point, in fact interviewed for, and was offered a Plant Engineering position in Searles Dry Lake, closest town of reasonable size was Ridgecrest, a military-oriented place. My new (then) wife was wide-eyed being a flower & plant person when she saw the offerings at a nursery in Ridgecrest, where I supposed many employees of Kerr-McGee Corp. lived, about a 30 mile drive as I recall. Searles was a desolate, wind-blown flat wasteland: The plant may be seen in the background by squinting. There were two small towns adjacent to the plant area, Borosolvay and Westend, which I figgered were "Company Towns", not many residents there, but provisions were available. Prior to that, I lived in Canon City, Colorado. The home of the Royal Gorge: At the bottom of the chasm lies the Arkansas River, along the bank of which runs the Rio Grande and Denver Railroad track, carefully cut into the side of the mountain very long ago. I lived in Canon City just one year, having been newly-divorced, and my Mother resided there with me. She loved it there, and so did I, but, the job expected far more from me than I felt the pay was worth. Thus, I went back to my old company in Indiana, Dana Corp., as Chief Facilities Engineer. There I met my second wife-to-be, 40 years ago! Frank
I read you finally made it to Colorado before eventually settling down in Cheyenne, @Cody Fousnaugh . Given the tremendous distance between FL and CO, I've been meaning to ask you how you managed to find and then decide on the new apartment which you probably couldn't inspect personally beforehand? What material and information did you base your decision on? Real estate marketing brochure or sales kit of some sort? Was it a hard decision? Used this thread because I didn't want to go OT in Holly's where this was last discussed.
Didn't look at any real estate marketing brochure or anything else like that. Basically online in a website. Actually, we were in this area for a week in July of last year/2018, checking some things out. Went by some regular apartment complexes, and some Senior (55+) ones on the eastern end, but all were basically above our "renting" budget. One Senior one even had a notice posted on their front entrance "No Firearms Allowed", meaning no one living there could have any kind of firearms. That left us out. We stopped at one apartment complex, the one we are at now, on the far eastern end of town, but only talked to the Manager and drove around a bit. There was no model that we could look at and no apartments that were empty/cleaned to look at. We looked at the Reviews people had put on the website and they were good. We did know, by looking at the online pictures of the apartment, that it was somewhat smaller than the one we'd been in for 10 1/2 years, but wanted an apartment to move into as soon as we arrived in the area. We didn't want to get to Loveland, rent a weekly motel room and then look for an apartment...….had done that before. We rented the apartment online and sent the Manager all of the necessary documents for renting. We made sure, from calling from Florida, that our electricity, gas and water would be turned on when we arrived at the apartment here. In some ways, a person can't really get a good feel of an apartment complex until they move in. However, some apartments a person can drive by and go "no way" to living there. The apartment we are now in is smaller than our previous one, the complex is made up of folks that could be our grandkids age or a little older and we now have people living above us, to the back of us and both sides of us. Our Jacksonville apartment was not like that. It was a "bungalow" (1-story) apartment at the end of the building. Young folks, like the ones that live here, aren't nearly as considerate about noise as older folks and even Seniors would be. We've already found out just how thin the walls of our apartment are...…...when it comes to noise. Not real bad, but not really great (no noise) either. That's it.
Thanks for your long and informative answer, Cody. I'd read that you were in CO last year but wasn't aware that you'd, in fact, started looking for potential accommodation back then. You're right that nothing compares to actually seeing a home first-hand and what's more, to moving in, of course. That's why I was asking. How well an apartment is soundproofed is often withheld. Hope you can cope with it.
Actually, I think "soundproof" is more of how much the people living in the complex respect others who live next to, or around them. We were awoke this AM at 2:30 by the neighbor above us walking across his floor/our bedroom ceiling. Some people walk harder than others. Can't expect him to "tippy-toe" on his floor, but. If my wife was working, she'd really be upset due to him waking her up.
My grand parents settled into farming in Littleton 1888 after traveling by wagon train from Joplin, Missouri . Twins were born en route with 10 more children to follow.I lived with my grand mother 1946-1948. I have fond memories of fishing in the Platte River with my cousins and playing with the farm animals.
I always wonder how they used to survive having so many children with no disposable diapers. All chores were just so hard then. I guess they worked all the time.
I was born near there nearing 69 years ago and lived near there for many years on a mountain ranch. As a young adult I developed problems with living in high elevation.
When my close friend was in the hospital for a month and her husband was working long hours, I kept her children and one was in diapers. She used cloth only and requested I do the same. It tough washing them by hand, even after a bleach mix pre-soak. I cleaned her up in the tub using warm water. She loved it. I couldn't see all that wiping and powdering and such.
I lived with my grandmother in Littleton, Colo when I was in the 6th & 7th grade. She and my grandfather and four of their children emigrated there by Wagon Train in 1885