Wyoming Bound

[Jeffersonian]

Greetings everyone.

I actually had decided to move to Wyoming before I ever heard of this forum, or this...movement? not sure what you like to call it. My wife and I are consultants, so we travel a lot, and generally work in different states than we live. We currently live in Arizona, but it occurred to us that as long as we were within say a couple hours of a major airport, we could live pretty much anywhere we wanted. Long story short, we chose southeast Wyoming. We're thinking of going probably around February or March. We'll rent at first, probably close to Cheyenne, while we look for a place to buy -anywhere within about a 2 hour drive to Denver International Airport. After reading about northeast Wyoming, it really sounds great, but I'm afraid it would just be too far of a drive to the airport.

I've recently come to realize that I've been Libertarian all my life, though I didn't know it until I started learning about what a Libertarian is a couple of years ago. In point of fact, I was once a full fledged neo-con, but I always felt like something wasn't quite right. Once I started reading about personal liberty, something just clicked, and I said to myself, "that's it!" Actually, it didn't happen all at once, but the end result was inevitable. The simple fact is, Truth Sells. My wife still has a ways to go- she still thinks I am a loon for not voting for the lesser of two evils.

Anyway, I'm happy to be coming to Wyoming soon, where the landscape is beautiful, the people are friendly, and best of all, where living as a free American still means something. I am interested in eventually becoming a member, once I've had a chance to look around and get to know some folks, and they get to know me.

[MamaLiberty]

Welcome! Can't wait to get to know you both. And look at the airport in Rapid City, SD. You could probably do just fine here in NE Wyoming with that. It's growing all the time.

[Andrew]

Welcome Jeffersonian,   glad to have you aboard!   My wife and I moved to Sheridan earlier this year from Austin and so far we couldn't be happier.   Like ML I think you guys should consider traveling out of one of the smaller airports.    I am a consultant and pretty much fly every week.     Although there are only three daily flights out of Sheridan, all to Denver, it has worked out well.   When you factor in total travel time, parking and security hassles of flying out of a larger airport, the regional or commuter airport has a lot of merit.   From my house I can be at the Sheridan airport, parked (for free BTW) and checked in within 10 minutes.   Generally, I leave about 35 minutes before my scheduled departure.   Now I do concede that the commuter airline, Great Lakes, that handles service out of SHR doesn't have the best track record as far as being on time, but I have only had a couple incidents which caused me to miss connections.

The drive from Cheyenne to DEN is at least an an hour and a half, in good weather, with no traffic... I'd also think that you would want to allow at least an hour before your flight to play your role in security theater.   So, you would probably be leaving about three hours before your flight.   Flights from SHR to DEN average about an hour and fifteen minutes.  Throw in a hour layover, and it's a wash.    And I've only spent 7 minutes in the car and in general had a much more relaxing experience since everyone at SHR, including the TSA, knows me.   Still, having that extra connection, and being so remote does come with some risk.  If something falls through with my flight out of Sheridan, next choices are Gillette, Casper and Billings all of which I can drive to in under two hours.

Now I'm really not trying to talk you in to Sheridan.   I just think you should consider how important it really is to live so close to a large population center.   I haven't lived there nor have I spent much time there, but from much of what I have heard, Cheyenne is very different from the rest of WY... much more liberal, more aligned with the Denver metropolitan area.   I don't know that you will find the freedom you are seeking in that part of the state.   Regardless, I wish you and your wife the best and hope that your dreams of settling in WY come to fruition.

[salmilo]

Welcome, Jeffersonian! If you're in Tucson or get here on occasion, Kyle & I would love to meet you for lunch or something! We're Wyomingites at heart & in mind.

[wyomiles]

Howdy Jeffersonian, I think phred has a valid point. You really should think about it.

[manfromnevada]

Welcome Jeffersonian,
Regarding the airport, I live in Crook County, right near Devil's Tower, and it's exactly 2 hours to the Rapid City, SD, airport.
http://www.rcgov.org/Airport/pages/
They have flights to Las Vegas, Minnesota, SLC, UT, and lots to Denver on United and Frontier (I think).
Also, even Gillette, WY, about 60 miles SW of here, has an airport with United Express (I think) to Denver.

I know how you feel. I used to think that surely I was the only one who thought the way I did. Then I started reading, especially some of the Ayn Rand books and realized other fine people actually felt the same!

BTW, I voted for Ron Paul last Tuesday.

You know you're among friends up here. You'll have to come up and meet some of us and look around. Good luck to you and your wife.

Mac

[Paul Bonneau]

After reading about northeast Wyoming, it really sounds great, but I'm afraid it would just be too far of a drive to the airport.

Billings. A fair amount of Wyoming is within 2 hours of Billings airport. And trust me, it's a lot less nerve-wracking dealing with Billings airport than Denver. Many people in Cody prefer Billings airport to the one in Cody for example. In our case Billings provides direct flights to Portland, where we still have a lot of connections and business. Billings airport is just large enough to have some good direct connections, but not large enough to be a pain in the rear. One added benefit is tax-free shopping when you go there.

[celeste]

Billings, Rapid City, and smaller airports will serve you well.  I live in Casper and fly out of Casper routinely.  The tickets on average cost about $150 more to fly out of Casper than Denver.  Casper has flights via Delta to Salt Lake City, Northwest to Minneapolis, United to Denver and Chicago - so you can connect anywhere.  The additional fight is easily made up for by the ease of traveling in and out of this small airport.

[manfromnevada]

The Rapid City airport is a PLEASURE to go to. No parking "structure". No cops patrolling the front drive up lanes. No yelling to "get moving". No traffic. When we pull in, we park right up front, literally right next to the sidewalk and roadway that separates the parking lot from the front of the airport. The walk is probably 200'. Inside, it is calm and quiet. No incessant recorded message about "non-smoking" (although it is) or "leaving your bags unattended". The single security line has NO backup. Walk right up and thru. There are signs all over regarding taking weapons in your luggage explaining that they MUST be checked and declared. I take this to indicate that LOTS of people have weapons up here. Never seen that at any other airport. Often, after parking the car, walking in, waiting with my wife and having her check it, I can return to the car and leave without paying ANY fee since the first 20 or 30 minutes are free. Once, I lost my ticket and searched frantically for it thinking they would charge me a whole 24 hours for "no ticket". I explained what happened at the exit booth, told the attendant that I had been there about 30 minutes, and he charged me a buck. No problem. They expect people to be honest up here.

Mac

[Jeffersonian]

Thanks for all the warm welcome, and the great advice!

I've been discussing it with my wife, and now we're thinking that we'll need to be a bit closer to an airport, due to parking issues. Sometimes I am gone for 2 weeks, and parking can be expensive for that amount of time; so, we're thinking that maybe we need to be close enough where one can drop off the other.

Casper sounds intriguing. How much different is it than Cheyenne? Keep in mind that we won't be living actually in the city, regardless of where we go- we're thinking probably 30-40 miles outside of town. We're looking for a bit of acreage, say 40-120 acres.

I don't know, a bunch of things to consider. We're even thinking that we might need for one of us to work locally (so that someone can take care of the pets and the livestock we hope to obtain, mainly), but I'm concerned I couldn't find work that would pay anywhere near what I make now. Is there much need for a software developer in Casper or any other areas in Wyoming? My wife does pretty much the same thing, but where I specialize in computer programming, she specializes in management and human resources. Plus, she makes a heck of a lot more than me. Right now, our adult daughter lives with us, so she takes care of the pets while we are gone, takes us to the airport and picks us up, makes sure the trash gets out on trash day, etc. She goes to school here though, and she wouldn't move to Wyoming, anyway. Once we move there, it will be just the two of us, and it is just difficult to run a household when no one is there for most of the week.

salmilo, we live in Chandler.

[celeste]

Casper has a nice mountain so that improves the view. 
Cheyenne rural you have a better chance of getting a producing water well - Casper area doesn't have great water availability. 
If you want to check on job postings, wyominghelpwanted.com and the trib.com will give you a taste.
Most of the cities (for Wyoming they are cities) have airports with daily flights to a major airport.
I think, as most people here always say, you should came for a visit to get a taste for what you can expect.

[jubal]

As was previously stated, Cheyenne is a fairly liberal city, so is Laramie considering the Univ. there. Cheyenne is the capitol and is full of politicians, lawyers and bureaucrats. Avoiding such critters is top priority for me. I would consider anything including Casper and north. Travel connections are not that bad at all.

[craigercj]

Great Lakes Aviation serves a bunch of small airports in Wyoming. Riverton, Rock Springs, Worland, Sheridan, Gillette, and more I think. All connections to Denver. I'm not sure how much more it costs. My flight from Rapid City to Rock Springs was $400, which surprised me. The small airports probably have free parking as well, Rock Springs does.

I will admit though, only Wyoming folks could endure those flights to and from Denver. It'll give you something to talk about at least.

[manfromnevada]

Jeffersonian,
Before you assume the high cost of leaving a vehicle at these airports, I'd suggest you find out for sure. They probably don't have Denver or LAX or Chicago prices around here. Plenty of parking area. Could be cheaper than a round trip of gas. Just thinking . . .

Mac

[rhodges]

Jeffersonian,
Before you assume the high cost of leaving a vehicle at these airports, I'd suggest you find out for sure. ... Could be cheaper than a round trip of gas. Just thinking . . .

Well, Rapid City does not seem so bad, at least compared to my rather old (and perhaps faulty) memory of Reno prices.
http://www.rcgov.org/Airport/pages/airport_services/index.html
Is seven bucks a day or $35 per week tolerable?