Why I hate city life.....

[Rocky Raab]

Fabs, I visit relatives in New Jersey once a year. That's all I can stand. I not only feel absolutely claustrophobic, but since the East coast is so socialist/commie and criminal-tolerant, I fear for my life the whole time I'm there.

I much prefer it out here, where it isn't hard to find Interstate signs that say: "Next exit 110 miles." Those mountains you can seemingly touch are 40 miles away; and the light, altitude and air really do make them look purple. The smell of sage after a rain is intoxicating.

Visitors here, on the other hand, suffer from agoraphobia. There's nothing but deep blue sky from horizon to horizon, and you might have to drive 50 miles between trees anywhere in sight. Utah has one - yes ONE - commercial airport. Of its two million people, 1.5 mill live in an urban oval 15 by 75 miles. The rest of the state is all scenery. Nevada has a total of 17 cities. Reno and Las Vegas account for 95% of the population. Wyoming has 600,000 people. Total. More antelope there than people. Really.

God, I love it.

[fabsroman]

Rocky,

You need to stop describing these places because you are making me cry. The population of Montgomery County, Maryland is probably the same, if not more than, the population of Wyoming.

[gd357]

Rocky,

Wyoming sounds nice. Not very many people, a good population of wild game, I think it might be the ticket. Just need to find some rolling hills, and some timbered acreage (and last but not least, a way to pay for it all )

gd357

[Jabba]

I'd love to live out west. My trouble is I have family and extended family in the mid west. They are all more important to me that pretty skies and all the rest. I'd love to do it... but I can't get everyone to transplant.

If I win the lottery, I'm gonna buy a ranch out there somewhere... and build a compound for all of them.

Jabba

[Andy L]

I live a mile outside of a town of 4500, and its too crowded for me. Rocky is right. I have been scheming to get out west for good for some time now.

Trouble is, I cant figger out how to make a living. My wife, with her training, can get a good job anywhere. My trouble is, I have never really had a job. Always worked for myself. And I do make a good living at it, but its a small nitche in a particular area. Not something you could just pick up and go do anywhere. Too much competition from locals in those areas that are filling the niche there.

I have been reading alot lately about the border patrol putting on lots of new agents. Southern Arizona would suite me just fine. Land prices are cheap. Cost of living is cheap. If I could get a job there, my wife could get one real easy from what Ive seen, that may be an option. But, that is all I have come up with so far.

Listen to me. You guys are wanting to escape the city. I dont know how you live there to begin with. Here I am wanting to escape the country.

Andy

[Rocky Raab]

Jabba, the "whole family" compounds out here are all polygamists! Three or four men, 20 women in separate houses and 147 kids all dressed in curtain fabric.

gd357, the rolling hills part is easy - that describes ALL of Wyoming. It's the timbered acreage that'll be tough! There are trees in Wyoming, but they're mostly around Yellowstone Park. Land up there isn't cheap, and the economy is tourist-centered. You can make a decent living running a campground, though.

Fabs, this may come back to bite me, but anytime you want a visit, my door is open. Really. I keep trying to get Skinny out here to shoot PDs and rock chucks. You do more waterfowl hunting, I know - and did I mention that we have a million pintails plus Canadas, snows, tundra swans and even sandhill cranes huntable here? (Rocky twists the knife a bit harder!)

[Dom]

Yup, sometimes you have to put up with what life is dealing you at the moment.

I know this: Growing up in the country and living in the city -- you know what you're missing.

Growing up in the city and staying there -- you never know what you're missing.

Ya, it's painful bein' a city slicker -- I remember as a kid visiting relatives in the city and thinking, holy cow, look out their window and see house after house in the ol' subdivision and thinking man, I hope I never have to live in a city.

Ya just can't take the country out of the boy. One day I'll be back!! Waidmannsheil, Dom.

[Andy L]

Hey Rocky,
I may accidently be coming through your way in the next couple of weeks. Im going to Arizona to get a dog and we are thinking of making a tour of the mountains on the way. (Yes I know Salt Lake is not in line between Mo and Az. )

Anyway, talked to Blaine, thought I may try and visit him while there. If I make it, I would like to meet you as well if its handy and your of a mind to.

Ill let you know how its shaping up.

Andy

[Rocky Raab]

Do that. Maybe Blaine and Denton and I can all meet up with you for beer and lies.

[skeet]

Did you say the word PINTAIL?? I love the word pintail...especially in the plural sense. Always had a bit of trouble even thinking there was a limit on them...years ago, you understand! Now I like shooting PD's and coyotes etc. BUT my motto is ...If it flies...it dies!! As long as it can't shoot back! Oh, I love Wyoming too!

[Rocky Raab]

Yeah, we get a couple hundred thousand of them in every fall. Along with mallards, all three kinds of teal, widgeon, gadwall, and even good numbers of woodies. Divers? we get cans, reddies, both scaup - pretty much of everything. Geese are as common as flies.

On the down side, our pheasant population has pretty much crashed, but chukar and Huns are thriving. Lots of blue and ruffed grouse, and you can even find ptarmigan up high.

[fabsroman]

Now you guys are killing me.

Skeet and I might have to take a ride out there. To be honest with you Rocky, I would love to shoot groundhogs and PD's all day long. However, where I live there aren't many places that you can use a rifle, so I do not get out often to do it. In fact, I only have one farm that I can shoot groundhogs with a rifle. Every other farm I hunt is shotgun only. Hence, the reason I am a big wing shooter and not a rifle shooter.

[gspsonny03]

Amen to that Rocky, I can get in my truck heading east or west and be in the Mountains in a hour and a half, going north or south I can be hunting in good deer or antelope areas. I've had deer and antelope in my yard all winter long eating my green grass and the tips off my fruit trees. I have a small group of wild plum trees that I planted that they bed under for cover at nights sometimes. It's great and I love it. Couldn't pay me enough to live in the big cities.

[fabsroman]

GSP,

I don't feel quite as bad right now. I can drive an hour and a half and he in West Virginia or close to Richmond where the hunting is great. Problem is knowing somebody out there with land and getting permission from them to hunt that land. My biggest problem is finding landowners that will allow me to hunt around here. I see plenty of geese, ducks, deer and groundhogs around here. In fact, I have a groundhog in the common area of the development that the dog has almost caught a couple of times. I have a group of six whitetails that come around all the time in the same area as the groundhog and there are two storm drain overflow ponds out there that have ducks and geese in them almost all the time. I have seen more mallards during the past two weeks than I have seen while out hunting.

The big problem here isn't the lack of game, it is the lack of land to hunt on, or for that matter, landowners that will allow people to hunt on the land.

[Rocky Raab]

The good news here is that 70-90 percent of the Western states is public land, or listed as open to public access.

It's BLM or state land or railroad land. No problem finding a place, but it can be a big problem getting away from others doing the same thing. Deer and elk season can be like a war zone within a mile of any road. Or farther, if you count the road hunters who prowl the jeep trails in pickup trucks with four to six "hunters" in the back ready to open up on anything they see. You can hear when they spot something - ten to twenty rifle shots ring out.