Hi Mark! Good to hear from you! Yes, the wife and I are leaving Atlanta in the end of March and are very excited. The Mid-West still has a lot of affordable homes for sale and that's our dream, to finally be homeowners. We are simply priced out of Atlanta, where a shoddy built, new townhouse will cost you $500k easy. We've already scouted out Cape Girardeau, found us a rental for a year, and couldn't be more excited to move.
The Mid-West has actually seasons, unlike the rainforest of Atlanta, is over 30% cheaper in all regards (home, food, fuel, overall cost of living), and I like Mid-Westerners, as they're friendly but direct and dont suffer fools or bs. My mother's people also come from Missouri and Illinois, so I'll meet relatives I haven't met before including a plucky, 93 year old great aunt, who is still full of vigor.
The 2 scouting trips we went on confirmed that Cape Girardeau is perfect for us. It's a quaint college town, with a nice downtown that we'll be living in. It's 40k population (80k entire county) is not too big but not so small where everyone is all up in my business. 90% of the people living there are from there, which is a good sign. Traffic is non-existent. No archaic morality laws regarding Marijuanna (Ill be starting up a greenhouse). The weather, on avg is about 5° cooler than ATL, so its probably the warmest area of the Mid-West, which makes my wife happy. Chicago and the real cold weather of the Midwest, is 5 hours NE of us.
However it's not all sunshine and rainbows. There's the higher poverty level in Cape Girardeau, than in Atlanta. There's also an airport but connecting flights often take 12 plus hours to get from Cape to ATL. Also they don't paint lines on many of the city roads there oddly enough, but the roads are much wider than in Georgia. Maybe that's the German immigrant's, of the mid 19th century, influence on the town? The closest Mitsu dealer is an hour and a half away in St. Louis, which sucks though.
It's good to hear from you Mark! I hope you're well and I'm glad that thug, Putin, hasn't invaded Finland yet.
Dirk, I envy you for the move and congratulations. I wish I could do that with my family.
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View my fuel log 2023 Mirage G4 SE 1.2 automatic: 43.2 mpg (US) ... 18.4 km/L ... 5.4 L/100 km ... 51.8 mpg (Imp)
I'm glad to hear your plans are still happening. It sounds exciting!
My oldest daughter & son-in-law had their first baby last October. I look forward to seeing my new granddaughter some day.
I haven't seen you on the forum much lately, & I thought I would ask where things are with your big move. I'm glad they are still moving forward. I hope you keep us in the loop, & I am excited for you & your wife!
I wouldn't fret about the location of the nearest Mitsubishi dealership. I test drove a Mirage 1.5 hours away, & purchased one 4 hours away the next day. If the deal is good for the right vehicle, the distance doesn't bother me. I don't see my Mirage needing any warranty type work before reaching 10 years or 100,000 miles. If you find a good small town mechanic, you'll never want to visit a dealership for service ever again (unless it is warranty or recall work done for free). The largest town in my county has 5,000 people. Hopefully, you'll adapt nicely to your new home.
I'm glad you're renting until you find that right house, too! That way you can take your time & really find what is right place for both of you. Sounds fun to me!
Good luck to you, your kitty, and your wife dirk
Thanks! My granddaughter was born last October (2023) in Helsinki. My daughter has dual citizenship, but I guess I haven't thought about that concerning my granddaughter. Given she was born in Helsinki, that rules out her becoming the President of the United States some day. Oh well, I hope she grows up & does something else great!
My daughter had to learn the language & pass a test to become a citizen of Finland. I sort of like that requirement. Given she has a double major in Linguistics & French, learning another language was easier for her. She taught herself the Elvish language when she was a young girl. She was really into Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and the movies were becoming popular at the time, too. Elvish is a bit like Finnish I am told. I think she's where she belongs, but I wish they were closer.
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View my fuel log 2023 Mirage G4 SE 1.2 automatic: 43.2 mpg (US) ... 18.4 km/L ... 5.4 L/100 km ... 51.8 mpg (Imp)