Waiting on job decisions, location questions. TX, AK, Salt Lake, couple others.

[Muskox]

I have my name on a ton of jobs waiting to come to fruition based on contracting and whats available and am pretty tired of any contracting bullshit. So I applied for less money jobs stateside hoping to find something.

I used to live in SE Alaska and applied for a couple jobs down there which I am comfortable with and a couple in Kodiak, Alaska. Haven't lived there, but it looks pretty good, other than butt rape expensive housing.

Also applied in Del Rio, Texarkana and Corpus Christi.

As well as in Salt Lake.

Anyone got any love or hate for any of those places?

The good thing about Salt Lake is it is 100 or so miles to Wyoming.

 

[45.308]

Not sure what is your area of employment. Or what you are after for fulfillment from the area. Alaska is not what it once was. Not sure how long it has been since you lived here but its really changed over the last 20 years, some good but mostly very bad. Too many outsiders have arrived from big cities like Cleveland, Detroit, New Orleans bringing those areas with them. SC is not quite as high of cost of living these days, its more like any medium city/area in the states. SE is higher and tighter living, not as much to do or as easy to get around to do those things. The island, I never lived there but did out on the chain. Very isolated and costly. Outside of our new laws and regs that cover the whole state, Kodiak is still almost Alaska. Depending on your situation, probably could be ideal.

Outside of Alaska, Wyoming is where I would want to live, we spent time in Arizona down around Tucson when I was active duty and loved it but hear crime is rampant.


good luck

 

[Mustafa]

Salt Lake is pretty nice. The booze laws such, but the gun laws are really nice. There are a bunch of shooters out here too and massive amounts of desert to stretch your xlr cartridges out. And of course mountains for hunting, shooting, hiking, camping, and skiing.

 

[Som3 Dude]

I love Alaska. I lived in Fairbanks for 5 years while stationed at fort wainwright. Never Made it to Kodak so I can't compare but I enjoyed Alaska no matter where I was.

My GF parents live and own a business in texarkana and I have very mixed feelings on that town. Being on the border, it can be very trashy or very nice. Some of the town is expanding quickly and is kinda nice but the older area should be condemned. There are many neighborhoods that are 80% boarded up and trashed out. Seems to be a large meth problem in the area too. This town seems to be about what side of I-30 you live on. Also stay out of Walmart the first 7 days of the month. The food stamp brigade makes it impossible to shop there. I guess the only reason I like the town at all is because her parents have 60 acres outside town and a machine shop in town I can play at.

There is money to be made if you want to be a landlord and repair trashed out homes. We just finished my GF parents 12th rental home. They managed to pick up a decent shell of a home for around 10k and had to refinish the entire inside. The tweakers went as far as wiring light switches with car speaker wire. But for the 25k they are into it, they have a bunch of people lined up to rent it at $650 and the neighbors have all been very happy they fixed it back up.

Only visited corpus a few times. To much city for me to live in.

 

[row111]

overall, in case you have not heard, texas is pretty gun friendly. we have concealed carry law, and just dropped the education requirement from 10 hrs to 6 hrs - an example of gun friendly.

del rio is a small town. next big town up the road is san antonio, which is a great place. it is a 'border town, meaning you have mexico right across the border. in the old days, this was fine - illegal immigrants were fearful of The Man, and stayed out of trouble. In the recent decade or two, with such an open border, and because it is more hassle to book an illegal immigrant than a U.S citizen, illegal immigrants almost have a certain immunity to laws. -A buddy of ours, disabled, out-of-work, living out of his car, was hit by an illegal immigrant - and the officer simply would not file anything since there was nothing to get from the illegal immigrant. Since the border is not severely watched, if you get deported you just come back over.

This is what I dislike - a class of people here who fairly well have figured out that the law does not really apply to them. We are not racist, generally. We are either Hispanic, or have Hispanics in our family by marriage. It is the PC idea that has the hands of authorities tied, and anytime you create a region of lawlessness you will have trouble.

Border towns have these problems. As does Corpus Christie, up the road a bit. But Corpus is pretty nice. It is still a modest -size town. The next big thing is San Antonio or Houston. These drives are easy, as long as your car has a/c. We don't get snow or ice, and the land is f l a t flat with nothing to look at.

If a job paid well enough, you could take 5-6 long weekends a year in San Antonio or Houston, and have a good time.

It is not much - 5 hrs - to get past Houston to New Orleeans. Another 5-6 hours gets you to the beautiful beaches of the Florida panhandle. Colorado is within reach, too.

i am sayin all of this because if you can handle Del Rio or Corpus for a couple years, you would be in striking distance of interviewing in San Antone, Houston, Austin, and Dallas - all in the top 10 big cities of the U.S., all growing, and all noted as top great places to live, cost-of-living relative to quality of life.

 

[Muskox]

I am a defense contractor (not the bang bang kind). Just been applying to jobs I thought we could handle until we get our life figured out after 20 years in the military.

Our kids are babies, so we don't have to worry about schools for at least 3 years. And between the retirement and a new job even if we had to pay for private school in a less than ideal town we could do it.

I am a native Wyomingite, it's hard to think of another place I'd like to be. But we have family drama in Wyoming and at least at this time it isn't worth us living in Wyoming. We need a couple hundred mile buffer minimum, and the wife likes adventure and we both speak spanish so why not.

I lived in Sitka in 2000, and I have lived in Fairbanks and on the slope. Personally I'd love to live in Alaska again, but we'll see how it goes.

We are working on getting the job that offers the best end result. Meaning a job that will offer enough oppertunity for growth. Don't mind moving around a bit to get it, as I have been mostly nomadic my whole life.

Hell I have lived on 5 continents.

 

[kraigWY]

I'm with 45.308. I spent 22 years in Alaska (72-94), it changed a lot during that period, and I understand it got a lot worse since '94. I left Wyoming for Alaska, only to find everything I went to Alaska for, was better in Wyoming.

More so now then back then.

 

[Muskox]

I would love to live in Wyoming again, it is the last best place.

And I am sure I will again before I die, but at least for the immediate future it is not in the cards.

 

[45.308]

Sounds like you are more after a job than an area which means to me that no matter where you end up you will make the best of where ever that is. With children, I find the isolation of Alaska is very hard for most. You just cannot jump in the rig and drive a few hours to visit or get a visit. A family of 4 to visit the states from Kodiak can be a small fortune and a full long day to reach most areas of the states. Cost of living is high of course as is finding housing but there are worse. If you are defense contracting you should be able to get assistance, its just how helpful it may assist.

Play time, Kodiak has few equals but will you be afforded the time and have the resources?

The problem is we just do not have enough qualified Alaskans for the job market. This means applicants and hiring come from big cities around the rust belt where jobs are poor and of course, these people have great influence and have brought it all to Alaska. Our good applicants are leaving at an alarming rate to the states. Schools, not sure about the island but the SC bowl in Alaska has become a cesspool for education. What we need is a boom like the 50s where self sufficient, love of God and country middle America arrived.

If and its a big if, we can ever get some exploration and it sent to market, Alaska is set for a huge boom like the 70s but I fear Alaska is locked up for ever, good or bad its locked up.

Hope this helps but either way, good luck

 

[Muskox]

45.308,
I am and not a boomer, I joined the military the second time from Alaska and had been until my retirement serving overseas. I lucked into a couple overseas contractor gigs for the past few years. I haven't even touched America since 2010.

I have been an Alaskan since 2000. I have voted and bought a hunting/fishing license every since then. As part of maintaining residency.

Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas have the same problem with people from the South coming up and working in the oil fields. Similar boomer problem.

Cost of living in Alaska is not high, it is higher than the national average in the bush and southeast, but not in Anchorage or Fairbanks. I have had lots of $12.000 hamburgers in King Salmon and Barrow, but honestly I have 10 times as many in major cities anywhere in the USA.

Here in Australia a McDonalds meal is $10-15. The house we live in was $750,000 and it's a 4 bedroom 2 bath, 2 car garage in a very normal suburban part of town. We typically pay $120 to fill up the bank of Jeep Cherokee and our Toyota Camry for each car. Shitty hotels are $100 in Australia. I have stayed in several hotels that were $350.

We lived in Washington DC before we came here and it was almost expensive as Australia was. Only food and fuel were cheaper.

 

[45.308]

I feel you missed my point or I was not clear. I did not say you were a boom or did not know about cost of living. Alaska has changed some good and some bad like I said. SC cost of living is like any medium city now, like I said. When Walmart and other national chain retailers arrived cost dropped dramatically. It is not like it was years ago. The chain is similar to bush at least when i lived there, housing very tight, stuff on the shelves dependent on barges and higher in price.

We have a boom of people arriving from cities that bring their beliefs to Alaska, and crime and such has risen exponentially with the entitlement mentality very alive. Anchorage has one of the most active east coast gang elements in the states and the city of Anchorage is now very divided by race. No where did I say you were one of them but it is a fact they are coming in hoards, not like the farmer boom of the 50s, the gold rush boom or the oil boom from middle America and self reliant America...its different.

Things have changed, some good and some bad, depending on perspective is all I was trying to do is inform.

I spent months in Tokyo so I also know what high prices are, same with areas of Europe. I am talking about change and in a state of constant change, good or bad its changing rapidly. If you know all this sorry but I was offering to your question about living / moving to Alaska.

 

[Muskox]

Were good 45.

I was blown away by the crime underground in Anchorage every time I went there. I am hoping for the Kodiak or Fairbanks jobs to work out.