Where would you live if you could choose?

[ststephen]

A little off topic, but denaliguide - was there any earthquake damage in Wanaka? Where were you for the event? A 7.1 is a humbling thing having experienced the Loma Prieta event back in '89.

[denaliguide]

A little off topic, but denaliguide - was there any earthquake damage in Wanaka? Where were you for the event? A 7.1 is a humbling thing having experienced the Loma Prieta event back in '89.

none. never even felt it. i slept right through it. christchurch was hit really hard. major structural damage to several iconic buildings. lots of town with no water or sewer. luckily no deaths. it happened at 4:30am, if it had happened a couple of hours later when people were coming to work in the CBD there would have been several fatalities, i'm sure.

i was surprised fox news covered it quite extensively.

[tanya]

Cool picture Denali!

[Rented mule]

I have come to dislike St. George quite a bit in the last two years. Been here 13 years
and I have volunteered for almost every fund raiser or cancer freakin walk or little league, etc And every time, I quietly let the wards come in their groups and take over every thing. They push me out of the way with their seperatist actions. I have been to MO reunions, am officially adopted by an LDS family who even let me vote on their family issues. But, always, there is that
freeling that I am the only black man in the whitest place on earth.....sigh....
My son makes 40k owns a corvette, has a degree, is 24, good looking and the only girls who will date him are the ones rebelling. Again, think long and hard about St. George.
I love to feel like a part of the community. HIghway cleanup, I even said a prayer when their former president Hinckley died. I wish them all well. But, they have stomped on my feeling too many times. I am probably going to retire somewhere else where I feel more like a part of the town or community. I have lived all over the world. I am an Army Brat. We are the most open minded people you will meet.
When school segregation took place in the sixties? The Army base kids were the first ones to go to the all black schools. In two years, my best friend, a white guy was so accepted that he got voted class president. I don't see the people here bending at all to AMERICA..... this is still Deseret....goodbye....
I am logging off for good. I just want to be left alone. They came to annoint me when I was dying and when I didn't join their church? they forgot about me. NO one ever came to visit again.....

I will be on the trails, a happy wanderer. And when I die, my spirit will wander on.
CIAO! See ya on the trails....cheers

[Scott P]

scott, you must have been up the west coast. its a freakiing rain forest over there.

Maybe we were just unlucky. We were in NZ about a month and only had about a week of clear weather. Luckily (and surprisingly) that week of clear weather was when we were at Mt. Cook.













It rained most of the time in Wanaka, Queenstown, Te Anua and of course the Milford Sound and West Coast areas. I never did get to see Mt. Aspiring.

This was all December though, so it may be considered late spring/early summer. January-February is supposed to be better.

Still, I think if I had to live outside the USA, New Zealand would be my #1 choice.

[ststephen]

How coincidental. My wife and I did a month in the S. Island when our son was little too (not quite as little as yours). And, we had tons of rain everywhere except Mt. Cook as well. Got a few good weather days in Abel Tasman and around Queenstown too. It was fine though, just hiked in the rain.

We did have a nice rain-free hike around Mt. Aspiring. I remember a Kea flying away with my son's banana when we stopped for snack! I need to scan my photos as this was 12 years ago and I shot film.

[Jaxx]

I have come to dislike St. George quite a bit in the last two years. Been here 13 years
and I have volunteered for almost every fund raiser or cancer freakin walk or little league, etc And every time, I quietly let the wards come in their groups and take over every thing. They push me out of the way with their seperatist actions. I have been to MO reunions, am officially adopted by an LDS family who even let me vote on their family issues. But, always, there is that
freeling that I am the only black man in the whitest place on earth.....sigh....
My son makes 40k owns a corvette, has a degree, is 24, good looking and the only girls who will date him are the ones rebelling. Again, think long and hard about St. George.
I love to feel like a part of the community. HIghway cleanup, I even said a prayer when their former president Hinckley died. I wish them all well. But, they have stomped on my feeling too many times. I am probably going to retire somewhere else where I feel more like a part of the town or community. I have lived all over the world. I am an Army Brat. We are the most open minded people you will meet.
When school segregation took place in the sixties? The Army base kids were the first ones to go to the all black schools. In two years, my best friend, a white guy was so accepted that he got voted class president. I don't see the people here bending at all to AMERICA..... this is still Deseret....goodbye....
I am logging off for good. I just want to be left alone. They came to annoint me when I was dying and when I didn't join their church? they forgot about me. NO one ever came to visit again.....

I will be on the trails, a happy wanderer. And when I die, my spirit will wander on.
CIAO! See ya on the trails....cheers

Man that is sad. Sorry to hear you (and your son) are treated that way.

[R]

Well, the gifts are so good in December that I'll have to go with North Pole.

[Sombeech]

That's a cool shot

[tallsteve]

Panguitch. I keep telling my wife that's where we're retiring to. Awesome mtn. biking, fishing, camping, hiking, etc. I want to retire to a 1 stoplight town. Cedar City and St. George aren't that far away either.

[greyhair biker]

I don't mind Green River as a base of operations but I'd rather have condos all over the place. Kihei, Maui first and foremost, Moab second - actually would like a home there, then either of the three - Cranbrook, Kimberly or Nelson BC, Canada. Fell in love with the area last time through! I need 4 weeks of time in a good condo group so i can rotate through everywhere I want as often as I want

[canyonphile]

I'm finally living in the place of my/our choosing: Durango! I haven't been on Bogley in a while because it was sort of depressing to read about all the cool stuff everyone was doing out here when I was stuck in my personal hell-hole of Connecticut.

Love Durango because it is a friendly town and small enough to have a sense of community but large enough to have a good selection of retail, eating and drinking establishments (we have *four* microbreweries in town - woot!). It also has the best range of recreational opportunities available either locally or within a day's drive of any place I've ever lived:

-Horse Gulch rec. area is a block away from where I live: 30 miles of trails in mesas and valleys with no development. It's called the "Central Park of Durango"
-Animas river runs through town: kayaking, fly fishing and rafting
-Singletrack trails are *everywhere* and the town is totally geared towards cyclists (bike racks everywhere, bike lanes, etc)
-Colorado trail starts in Durango
-For mountaineers, there are several fourteeners and tons of thirteeners within 2 hrs. drive.
-lots of wilderness areas (Weimenuche, Lizard Head, etc.)
-1 hr. drive to Mesa Verde
-3 hr. drive to Moab
-2-5 hr. drive to Lake Powell, depending upon where you want to go
-6 hr. drive to the Grand Canyon and Escalante area
-8 hr. drive to Zion

Durango sits on the eastern edge of the Colorado Plateau, and therefore, has close access to all the amazing southern UT/northern AZ canyon country that I live for. That is key for me.

There are places in UT I'd live if not for the fact that they are...not secular. I'm not LDS and therefore, I'm sure I'd ignored or shunned by the communities in towns like Boulder, Escalante or Kanab. I think Moab might be do-able; I get the impression it's not as insular and cliquish as other small towns in southern UT.

But for the OP from KY: I wish you luck in getting out, and you have my sympathies for being stuck there.

[snccoulter]

i love the fake cops. i think the one in kanab looks like hitler.

kanab
Attachment 37069


kanab
Attachment 37070


kanab
Attachment 37072


escalante
Attachment 37073


these last two are in fredonia

We had one when I was stationed in CA and a group of us got the bright idea to get a blow up doll and a bunch of empty beer cans. Put it in the car with the cops shirt off and his hands with beer cans all over. My commander IE the Cop commander did not find it funny.