Random NDR Vent: Living in the sticks.

[mrs.jacinthe]

I LOVE where we live now.

However, the awful thing about living in the sticks, especially in the foothills, is that there is NEVER a direct route from point a to point b.

For serious, I'm about to take Dot to the boarding place for an evaluation. It's literally 7 miles from here. But I have to drive nearly 15 miles on winding hilly back roads to get there. Or drive 5 additional miles out of my way to take the interstate. Ugh. No wonder gas is so expensive around here - they've got us by the short hairs and they know it.

[Deleted]

LOL..I hear you!

I have however come to realize that I'd rather drive seven miles out of my way and still manage to travel 20 miles in 20 minutes rather than sit in traffic for 30 minutes to go 3 miles.

That and the fact it's a PITA to get anywhere keeps from a) getting anywhere b) Spending money! I've come to appreciate that perk!

[housegeek]

I love living rural now that I'm an adult hah. Right now we're not rural at all, but due to traffic it still takes 40+ minutes to get 15 ish miles. Awfulness.

[tarheels]

I don't have those windy roads - you can get from one side of town to the other in 10 minutes. BUT I'm 80 minutes from a mall/Target/TJ Maxx. For the summer I'm living and working with DH at his work location in another state and I'm THREE HOURS from civilization. DH has to work this weekend and I'm going to go stir crazy. Three hours?! Online shopping, here I come!

[sierramist03]

I drive 20 miles just to work one way everyday but I love living out in the country in our small town it's so much peaceful the city never felt like home to us but now we feel like home. The only bad side is work evenings so driving home can be quit interesting watching for animals its basically a nightly occurrence to have to slow down or stop for deer.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Don't get me wrong, ladies - I looooove our current location and if the house was a little bigger or had a garage, we'd never move again. I just get frustrated at paying $4.30/gal to drive more than 2x the actual distance for just about every errand. Trust me, I'd rather live here than be a flatlander, staring at my neighbors out the window b/c the houses are 5ft apart. It's just a hard pill to swallow mentally.

[sierramist03]

No i understand what you mean though like the other night I ran out of staples at midnight and since the store was 20 miles I had to wait until the next day rather than just finish my project. I can't just make a trip to the store for one thing

[steenbean18]

I definitely get it! We live about 30 mins outside of Phoenix. Not really "the stix" ...but it seems like it takes forever to get to places because you have to drive through wide open space to get anywhere! I love the peace and quiet, large lot size, and being able to see the stars out here, but sometimes I'd like to drive 5 minutes...to ANYwhere!

[treedimensional]

Ugh, rural life is not for me.
It robs you of options, all the way around. Gas prices are but one example.
My inlaws live in the sticks. You have to drive 45min to get to Walmart. Or buy groceries at the bait shack.
No options for shopping, no options for schools, no options for dining, no options for recreation, no options for anything. And no cellular service. And no TV without a satellite dish. When we visit them, I am bored out of my skull because there is nothing to do but sit on your ass and read a book or maybe knit something (which I don't do). I couldn't even go jogging because I feared that I might be killed by a passing car on the twisty little roads with no shoulders.
I could NEVERNEVERNEVER live someplace like that.

[FoxInFiji]

Oh this is exactly why I love living where we do! The country is very accessible and it's easy to get to the city. All roads radiate from the city basically and then there are connecting roads in between. It takes us 15 minutes to get to the "interstate" (it's not technically) and from there we can get anywhere. To get to my work it's a total of 25 minutes to drive 15 miles. There are not many cities where you can own 3 acres of land and still be within 30 minutes of anywhere in the city! Especially with a first time home buyer price tag. We have high taxes but we have awesome roads because of it.

If we need something fast we're only 5 minutes from town. Town has the essentials...a medium sized grocery store, a handful of restaurants, a coffee shop, two gas stations (gas prices are only $.02 more in town than in the city), a Walgreens, and a general store.

We have high speed internet (15 MB! unheard of for the country), satelitte TV, and cell phone service in one half of our house LOL.

I can't stand big cities. Too many people, too small of space, and no privacy. I feel claustrophobic when I'm in a slow moving crowd or stuck in traffic. I could care less about overpriced name brand fashion. Clothes don't define me. I love looking out our windows and not seeing any other houses just my big backyard that I can make my own with as many flowerbeds as I'm willing to maintain.