[Colbyt]

Did you find the housing to be as difficult as I expected?

Lexington is an hour and 45 minutes on a dry day. Still not New York but there are a few things to do.

[wayne james]

if your going to drive to Lexington then head over to Louisville for some city life

[snake]

Did you find the housing to be as difficult as I expected?

Lexington is an hour and 45 minutes on a dry day. Still not New York but there are a few things to do.

Housing was easy, but very expensive for what one gets. Pikeville is NOT cheap. I think I got lucky in my building and now I see, I could have done much, much worse.

Basically, I walked into a place, they did the background, and called a few hours later and I had the apartment in hand the same day. It's not the best, but it's a place to live and in an ok location and they only take professional applicants and medical students with a higher standard.

I was in Lexington last weekend and it was about a 3 hour drive. If I push it, which is not advisable due to the cops, I can do it in a little less.

Not much to do as I was recommended, so I just went to the urban sprawl areas, so at least I can shop there.

Charleston is barren.

Will try Cincinnati this weekend and Louisville later.

[snake]

Welcome to the "boonies"! While I don't live in rural Kentucky, I've been there before - I live in rural western Pennsylvania which is very similar.

Only advise I can give, which is survival for myself in an area like this (been living here for over 20 years) - stay away from those small towns. Find yourself a place to live out of town somewhere, and get used to being self entertaining. I am more the hermit type anyway and don't like being around any people at all. The most human contact (if you can call it that) is my daily rounds on forums like this. I hope you like to read, take walks, and otherwise keep yourself occupied. I manage to take some pics just about everyday within some of my walks.

I guess if you are used to a big city, this will be a very difficult transition for you. You may be used to being in the center of a town and being around lots of people, but in my 20+ years living in a similar area, you need to just forget about these small towns - the locals will never truly accept most outsiders.

Funny you mention car dealers - when I am ready to buy a car or pickup, I usually travel ~200 miles away to get a decent deal. The last pickup I bought new - the truck was at a local dealership that would not budge off sticker price. Over the internet and phone, I made a deal with a dealer 190 miles away for 15% off (that's a lot off a $42K truck). This dealer paid to have the truck brought to his dealership for me to buy. I actually had to drive right past the original dealer to go the the distant one to pick up my truck. Of course, on the way home, I had to stop at the local dealer to pick up a $8 bottle of touch up paint just to rub it in.

Edit to add - I just looked Pikeville up on Google Maps - wow.....you are really in the boonies for sure!!!! You are close enough to the West (by God) Virginia mountains to be in the same culture.

I noticed the closest city is Lexington - it might do you good to plan a trip to Lexington once a week to get your fill of people, stores, etc and to stock up on supplies. Lexington is very nice with plenty of shopping etc. plus surrounded by beautiful horse farms.

I don't know how long you are planning on staying there, but if you are looking for any advise or just someone to vent to about the "boonies", just send me a PM. By the way, I was born and raised in New Jersey, so I've been on both sides of the "tracks".

Thanks!

[snake]

The areas around Paris KY are filled with horse farms also..........very beautiful.........lots of history

This is where the middle eastern sheiks board their multi-million dollar racing horses...

Are they still out there?

Maybe I can make some friends out there to give me some diverse photo opportunities.

[Ratmagiclady]

Sorry if this is redundant, but a useful site is Stats about all US cities - real estate, relocation info, crime, house prices, cost of living, races, home value estimator, recent sales, income, photos, schools, maps, weather, neighborhoods, and more

Sweetie and I got quite a bit of use out of it when trying to find out about various job markets/places to go.

[GDRoth]

Are they still out there?

Maybe I can make some friends out there to give me some diverse photo opportunities.

I'll check. The one old uncle (who would have been perfect) died last year of lung cancer...

Dave

[Colbyt]

Are they still out there?

Maybe I can make some friends out there to give me some diverse photo opportunities.

What photo ops would you like?

Most of the farms are closed to visitors but I can give you some scenic driving routes. None of which would be more than an hour off the interstate. The farms are the prettiest in the spring.

One thing you might enjoy is doing part or all of the Bourbon trail and see the distilleries. Maker's Mark is the best of the bunch that I have seen. They still use the old cypress vats. This image is bourbon in the making:

[Medium FormatPro]

I'm not sure if this is better or worse than a mobile home. Either way I've elected to challenge ordinance here and build a version of one of these myself. An interesting way to spend 20k

[snake]

Well, as it turns out, I saved myself by leaving that region altogether. Not a very good experience, to say the least.

The town is not very nice, although the people are really nice to your face, there is massive mistrust of outsiders behind our backs. The townspeople are very protective of this town. Why, I don't know, since it's rife with meth and painkiller problems that are readily apparent.

Most alarming was how the pain management center is a landmark, so just about everything from giving directions, to even the banners for the nativity event are using that as a reference.

Quite glad to be out of there. I never want to go back to that region ever again.

[stormtech]

I don't want to say "I told you so" since it was good that you went there with an open mind and got to see for yourself. If nothing else, and good life experience.

Hell, I live ~10 miles outside of a town like that - been here for 20 years - and I still will not have anything at all to do with that town. We make a long distance trek twice a month to a small city to get all our supplies.

Funny when you talk about them being nice to your face, but have the massive mistrust behind you back - I am still very aware of the same thing here even after all this time.

[Colbyt]

Probably just as well. Saved them the trouble of tarring and wasting the feathers.

[snake]

Yeah, it was that same mistrust that pushed me out of my position, in favor or someone from the area and family, so to speak.

The scary thing was how far away from anything Pikeville is in any direction. Car breaks down and you're sunk. No way out.

Racism was not overt, except one experience with someone backwards, talking about how the university brings in blacks and turns them loose on the town. She made me pretty uncomfortable, asking very personal questions to figure out who I am and where I work and live. Made some passing statements alluding to if she sees me on her street, she'd shoot me.

I'm glad to be the hell out of there.

Photo ops weren't even very good. Always the worry of being on someone's property and getting shot. Overall, the state is a hole.

[jogiba]

PIKEVILLE, Ky. — Authorities in Pike County have charged a woman whose car plowed into a Subway restaurant, slightly injuring two employees.

Police said 55-year-old Toma Williamson told officers she was inhaling an aerosol computer keyboard cleaner as she drove down U.S. 23 on Saturday.

Restaurant employee Stacia Newsome told WYMT-TV ( Woman drives into Pike County restaurant) in Hazard Williamson's car veered off the road and drove into the restaurant. The owner of the building said it could take a month to make repairs so the Subway could reopen.

Police charged Williamson with DUI, failure to wear a seatbelt, having no operator's license and having no insurance.

Williamson and two store employees were treated for minor injuries.

PIKEVILLE, Ky.: Driver sniffing aerosol when she ran into store | State | Kentucky.com

[Medium FormatPro]

Overall, the state is a hole

Well it could be worse - it could be a bit east in West Virginia. The same WV that polutes the drinking water for many millions along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Sure people like John Denver sing about WV, but to viisit there today it to visit a toxic wasteland; West Virgina being a mostly statewide version of Love Canal