bimmerborn

Lol. You know, I don't see it as a bad thing.
If I drive my Vette in Montana, I prolly will be same as you described.

DWillys

I also used to live in Arizona. Met my wife there. When we were going out I mentioned how in AZ all the slow drivers were in the left lane. Later she said, "you know, you're right about that. I never noticed."

DWillys

I used to drive from Bozeman to White Sulfur Springs (~90miles) on a Saturday morning. Drive 90mph for 20 minutes and not see another vehicle.

Erik Zinn

Perfect description. I would add that some go slow and some do not. There are roads for everyone out there - beautiful paved straights and twisties, plenty of dirt roads and more than enough jeep trails. My Jeep, Bubba Truck and Corvettes will be very happy out there.

Erik Zinn

The last Montana to California trip I did, I didn't see a state trooper at all in Montana (including on the Interstate highway), saw a few in Idaho and Nevada, saw ten between the NV/CA stateline and Truckee.

I think that is mostly a function of population - with only about a million people in the entire state of Montana, you just don't need as much enforcement. Add the fact that MT drivers on the whole behave a little more reasonable than CA drivers and it isn't any surprise that you don't see troopers much in MT unless you need them.

Erik Zinn

You are not the only one. Add housing costs and the perception that crime is on the rise and you trigger the beginning of an exodus. I just saw this on the news this morning:

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/201...dus-residents/

Erik Zinn

Santa Cruz used to be like that in the 60's and 70's and even part of the 80's, including the same smog check status. Thanks to bleed off and bleed over from Silicon Valley, the Santa Cruz of yore is no more. We are just Los Gatos West now.

GotCorvette?

One of the things that drove my decision to leave Silicon Valley was when I last lived there in Cupertino, I went to the grocery store one evening, which was about two miles away, I counted nine police cars on the way there and back. I felt like I was living in a police state.

Erik Zinn

Yeah, that goes beyond CHP and speaks to the perception of crime. I am living in a house I bought in Santa Cruz 26 years ago. It was a very quiet place back then. I pretty much hear sirens round the clock now, the steady stream of car noise from 4am to almost midnight, and the bark of jets deaccelerating directly over our house round the clock (thanks FAA for rerouting the jets directly over our house). We went from being a sleepy retirement and fishing community to a bedroom community for Silicon Valley and a douchebag rookery for homeless people and drug addicts.

GotCorvette?

I haven't been to Santa Cruz since the 80s, and the wife since the 60s. We'd like to take trip down there sometime and I'm sure that except for the boardwalk I'd hardly recognize the place. From looking on the internet, I can see motel prices sure have gone up.

Erik Zinn

The Boardwalk lies in Beach Flats, which is colloquially referred to as the "Kill Zone" due to stabbings and shootings that occur there periodically. MS 13 setup shop down there once the drug market became very profitable and the usual crime that accompanies it happens frequently. After Trump was elected, Homeland Security made some raids, but enforcing drug use and gang warfare in this town and county is like playing whack-a-mole.

Traffic here is horrendous during rush hours and pretty bad during daylight hours. If you come here, hit me up and I will give you some tips on mountain roads that might be fun if you hit them up early enough in the morning to avoid the bicyclists, Priuses and other modes of transportation pursued by the self-entitled snots that live here.

GotCorvette?

That's really sad. It used to be a nice place to visit and live in.

Erik Zinn

I totally agree. I see this having played out alot from Santa Barbara to Santa Rosa. It is ultimately what led me to pick up a house in Montana and set up residency there. I still have to periodically come to California for my work, so I have not completely escaped the madness. My Montana time helps add a little serenity to my life and helps to slow my pace down though.

GotCorvette?

Things haven't changed much up here in Lake County since I came here in '91. The population is even about the same. I actually expect it to go down a bit in the next census since the fires in recent years took out so many houses many of which will not be rebuilt. Most notable change is while we are still an agricultural economy, the number one crop has gone from pears to wine grapes. And lots of marijuana, of course. A lot less meth now than there used to be, too.

I can understand the appeal of someplace like Montana, but neither I nor my wife can stand the cold. My retirement budget will not handle two homes.

Erik Zinn

If you don't like the cold, Montana is definitely not a good place to reside. I prefer the cold and I love to fish, bird hunt and big game hunt, so Montana is my version of nirvana. I also think that government should not be too intrusive into my life and personal choices, so long as I am not hurting anyone, so Montana's limited state and local government fits the bill for me too. The fees charged by the state for things like car and truck registration are unbelievably cheap when compared to California.

I have seen people that couldn't stand the wet, dark winters of Seattle come back to California, and people that couldn't stand the cold, dark winters of the northern Rockies and the High Plains come back to California too. You really do have be able to adjust to the weather AND the culture in order to prosper as a California transfer to those places.

You can buy a fixer-upper house on 1/4 to 1 acre for $30k in small towns in central Montana. That isn't chump change, but sure beats worrying about the higher prices we have to endure here in parts of California.

LS WON

spireland

It depends on what you want.

I have zero problem paying what I do to live in California, I love it here, to me the price is worth. Both me and my wife also have a lot better salaries than we would in other parts of the country.

I love that in February, I'm not only not storing my corvette, I drive it every day. I've had the top off more days this month than on.

To me that is worth it. I get why it isn't to others, but I really don't understand the California hate. Worry about higher prices? What does that even mean?

furioustylez

Gotta drive kinda far to find some good roads. But it's worth it.. roads like Skyline and Hwy 9 are worth the wakeup at 8am and an hour drive on a weekend just to get there

Vette_Fan

Politicians, cars, legal immigration, guns, and taxes in Kalifornia are issues nobody understands. These topics will go for another 100 Yrs and we'll still be on square1.

Vette_Fan

Speaking of road quality - I bought a C6 about 3 weeks ago from Oklahoma and drove it back to bay area (via LA). While I was driving through other states (especially UT & AZ) roads were so clean and smooth you couldn't tell how fast you're going.

This is true - while I was enjoying my drive without keeping an eye on the speed, I felt I had slowed down to 25-30 Mph. But I saw a car driven by an elder man on my left going the same speed - I was kinda shocked. I looked at the speedometer, it was actually at 75 mph and the car felt like an electric car, (stock C6 NPP closed flaps) no sound, no road noise, and so smooth, I couldn't tell the speed, it felt like a Tesla. I pressed the gas and went up to 95, which barely felt like a 40. Vans and SUVs were going Tripple digits. I'm not admitting to going triple digits, but you couldn't tell if you did Then I come to Komifornia where we have harsh/rough roads everywhere (don't know what they do with our taxes dollars); but yeah, I can tell when I'm at 70. Now add the traffic and bad drivers and we have a complete pkg that's not exactly a driver's dream