I Want to Go Live in a Remote Location

[Taiso]

Last year, on my birthday, I visited the home of Robert E. Howard in Cross Plains, TX. It was a lifelong dream of mine and something of a pilgrimage.

It was about a 2.5 hour drive from Dallas to Cross Plains, and along the way there were a shit ton of ranches, wide open country and, most importantly, vast stretches of just...nothing.

I loved it.

I've been seriously considering selling my house in IL after my mother passes away (currently her primary caregiver) and my wife completes her PhD (should be at the end of NEXT term). I really love my current job and my coworkers but I am really ready to just fuck off to the middle of nowhere and become a reclusive writer.

I was wondering if anybody had some other recommendations for places where one could live an isolated country life. I liked that part of Texas because it wasn't so far away from Dallas that I couldn't go there if I needed something important but it wasn't so close to anything that I really needed to deal with other people on the regular.

Is anybody here living like this currently or does anybody have any other suggestions of places that might be a good fit? I've been told Arkansas is another place like this.

This isn't some mid-life shit. I've just decided I have no use for living IN society but recognize that sometimes I may need something FROM society.

 

[NeoSneth]

Uhh, If you are in Illinois then just look at the rest of Illinois that isn't Chicago metro area. There are a ton of great rural areas, though Texas probably has better weather.
Almost everything that isn't Champaign or Chicago has a nice rural feel. Hell, even parts of Peoria can be quite remote.

 

[racecar]

maybe try renting a camping trailer and test out the wilderness first ... and take the long drive up to alaska

 

[StevenK]

I've had similar thoughts before, I'd like to not know what my neighbours even look like. It is a life stage though - when you're young you need people around you for fun, when you hit middle age you become more self sufficient and less reliant on other people for entertainment. But when you get old you need people, and lots of people, close by whether you like it or not.

2 things put me off making the break -

1) my kids - it's not fair to push this lifestyle on them as it's definitely shit for their needs
2) life flies past so fast when you hit our age. I feel like the passage from self sufficient middle aged to old bed shitting senility will be the blink of an eye and barely worth the hassle of two huge moves.

I should also probably add that it's almost impossible to live more than a metre away from someone else in the UK unless you're a billionaire or are prepared to live in some scottish mountain.

 

[Taiso]

Uhh, If you are in Illinois then just look at the rest of Illinois that isn't Chicago metro area. There are a ton of great rural areas, though Texas probably has better weather.
Almost everything that isn't Champaign or Chicago has a nice rural feel. Hell, even parts of Peoria can be quite remote.

Part of leaving is going far, far away from where I am.

I really don't want to just drive downstate.

I just want to go, man, go.

 

[LadyVamp]

Kentucky looks like a nice place. I know some people who live there and my brother drove through there as he used to live in Texas (Tomball), so, he went through on his way moving. I would like to visit it sometime in my life. The people I know live in Ashland. For me personally, I am sick and tired of city life. I have noise and people. I would love to live in a place where the next house is so far that I can't even see it. Hoping to make that a reality within the next year. Not sure where I will end up exactly, but, a large sum of money is expected at some point, so, I am definitely going to get outta this city dump.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Go for it. You can always turn back, but that's not even the point. When something speaks loudly on the inside you would be a fool to turn a deaf ear to it. I know its not that sort of thread either but whatever. We have this one life, we should honour it by heeding the truth we find along the way, be that within or on the outside. Bidding you good tidings on this venture

 

[Taiso]

Kentucky looks like a nice place. I know some people who live there and my brother drove through there as he used to live in Texas (Tomball), so, he went through on his way moving. I would like to visit it sometime in my life. The people I know live in Ashland. For me personally, I am sick and tired of city life. I have noise and people. I would love to live in a place where the next house is so far that I can't even see it. Hoping to make that a reality within the next year. Not sure where I will end up exactly, but, a large sum of money is expected at some point, so, I am definitely going to get outta this city dump.

I've been to Kentucky, but only just over the border from Cincinnati.

I really loved that mountainous region with its valleys and asymmetrical roads that most but conform to the topography.

My only concern is weather. Rough winters in the midwest and not sure I want to deal with snow in mountainous regions.

But I will say that I really liked the quaint, small town feel I experienced when I was there.

We stayed at a motel the night before driving back to IL. There was a really funny sign on the window to the office of the motel.

'We do not charge by the minute.'

 

[RAZO]

You got balls bro. Not easy to just pick up and move for most but more power to you. I got too much going on to just pick up and leave.

It's funny because me and my co-worker buddy have been talking about this for the last year or so about when we retire, where to go. We both are in agreement that we just want to get away from it all. As far away as possible from the City and to a nice small rural country town. I personally don't mind the cold and love seasons but my wife loves warm weather. The places on my list are Arizona, Texas, and Florida. I don't know maybe just fuck off and move to Europe.

 

[Marek]

I did it. Its great.

Left with a backpack full of stuff, 10 years later I'm a homeowner living in a stand of 50-80yrs old pines.

 

[snes_collector]

Do you like mountains, ocean, or desert? Warm or cold weather? What do you like to do out doors? Hiking, skiing, fishing, canoeing?

Where I live in Virginia is basically becoming a retire from the city area it feels like. A good percentage of houses sold are to out of state people wanting a break from city life

 

[RAZO]

I did it. Its great.

Left with a backpack full of stuff, 10 ueats later I'm a homeowner living in a stand of 50-80yrs old pines.

I'm pretty Jealous. I wish that sometimes I could hit that reset button and start over somewhere else.

 

[Taiso]

Definitely want to get away from winters.

Warmer weather, preferably.

Although when I visited, it was uncommonly cold due to a fucked up weather pattern. Some pretty nasty tornadoes hit the Dallas area on the night we flew in. But as I understand it, that kind of cold weather front isn't common for that part of Texas.

 

[Arcademan]

If you're looking for warm weather, the Arizona deserts are your place. This weekend temps are going to be between 114 to 118 degrees and those overnight lows in the 90's go with it. With that said, it is a dry heat this time around with single digit humidity

 

[wyo]

I like the Smoky Mountains (TN). Natural beauty, not too cold in winter, not too hot in summer, friendly locals, reasonable property prices... I'd consider moving there if I was looking to get away from big city life.

 

[SpamYouToDeath]

I grew up on a farm. It sucks.

The schools suck. Your children will ride the bus for an hour to a factory-farm of a school that can't afford textbooks or teachers.
The hospitals suck, if there's any left at all. Anything beyond basic care will mean a drive to a real city.
The Internet sucks. Get ready for HughesNet to bend you over every month. Or, try the ADSL that was installed in 2002 and never turned on because the phone lines are rusting on the poles.
The economy sucks. Unless you want to flip burgers, good luck finding a job. If you want to work remote, see above. If you want to farm commercially, study bankruptcy law first.
The laws suck. If you thought big-city politics was bad, you'll be astonished at the scale of the petty, local bickering.

If you have no children, and no medical problems, and no desire for a career, and no reason to use the Internet, you might consider it. It's not a productive or fulfilling life, though. It's more like a shortcut to your own grave - to bypass all the excitement and productivity, and get straight to the rotting and decay.

 

[LoneSage]

Do TEFL for a year or two in a foreign country, and don't choose a big city like Beijing or Tokyo or Seoul, choose the smallest, most unheard of place you know. It would be the adventure of your life.

 

[LoneSage]

I'm pretty Jealous. I wish that sometimes I could hit that reset button and start over somewhere else.

grass is always greener bro

 

[Taiso]

I grew up on a farm. It sucks.

The schools suck. Your children will ride the bus for an hour to a factory-farm of a school that can't afford textbooks or teachers.
The hospitals suck, if there's any left at all. Anything beyond basic care will mean a drive to a real city.
The Internet sucks. Get ready for HughesNet to bend you over every month. Or, try the ADSL that was installed in 2002 and never turned on because the phone lines are rusting on the poles.
The economy sucks. Unless you want to flip burgers, good luck finding a job. If you want to work remote, see above. If you want to farm commercially, study bankruptcy law first.
The laws suck. If you thought big-city politics was bad, you'll be astonished at the scale of the petty, local bickering.

If you have no children, and no medical problems, and no desire for a career, and no reason to use the Internet, you might consider it. It's not a productive or fulfilling life, though. It's more like a shortcut to your own grave - to bypass all the excitement and productivity, and get straight to the rotting and decay.

Thanks for the caution but I think I'll be fine.

In a sense, committing myself to a life of 'fuck off, world' comes with it the implicit notion that there will be challenges to overcome.

Which I shall.

 

[LoneSage]

Where will your wife fit in with this plan?

 

[wataru330]

Southern Humboldt County, CA.

Salmon Creek/Redway/Garberville.

If I was still dolo, I’d do it in an instant.

As it is happily married-current 5yr plan is making tracks to Nevis or [emoji1066] Bonaire once the kiddos move out.

*Stage is on to something, if you fancy leaving the USA. There’s a village out there w/ your name on it; that you could write from, that would *pay* you to move there.

 

[Taiso]

Where will your wife fit in with this plan?

As an anthropologist with a focus on the impact on South American communities affected by deforestation in the Amazon, she is likely to be doing a lot of research abroad, participating in exhibit design, writing papers, field work and working with colleagues on expanding awareness of the issue.

As such, she may not even be home that much. She intends to be quite active on the subject.

 

[LoneSage]

*Stage is on to something, if you fancy leaving the USA. There’s a village out there w/ your name on it; that you could write from, that would *pay* you to move there.

It really is the best option for him. Of course the biggest problem is, is that no countries will accept Americans for a long time because of the coronavirus. But for an example, he could choose some bumfuck county in China and work at a college teaching English for about 10 hours a week, if that. Free apartment, free food at the school canteen, and ten teaching hours a week (not including lesson prep). Buy a bicycle and ride it through the villages during his free time, exploring as much as he wants. Doesn't have to learn the language because there will be plenty of people willing to practice their English with him.

Doesn't even have to be China. He could do this in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek), or Kazakhstan. Do an online 120 hour TEFL course and boom you're a certified teacher of English as a foreign language.

I think every man at least once in their life has this romantic dream to pull a Thoreau and live in their own Walden's Pond (of course, with modern necessities like AC, internet, and indoor plumbing) to get away from it all. But no one ever mentions that even Thoreau went into town every weekend and was without financial worry. It's a romantic, unattainable dream now to live the wild west life in 2020 without people, and if you do then SpamYouToDeath summed it up best because American infrastructure in rural areas is hot garbage.

On a personal note, you doing OK Taiso man? We know Howard is a hero to you, and taking care of your mom can be tough (but big props to you, that's what good sons do), but doing something like this is wayyyy out of left field. "No man is an island."

 

[Taiso]

I'm okay. Taking care of an aging mother who is succumbing to dementia is no picnic but I have a lot of support from immediate family.

As for wanting to go to a 'fuck off, world' kind of place, I mean just that. I don't want to interact with anyone IRL unless absolutely necessary.

The world is done with me and I'm done with it. My government betrays me on the daily. The media lies to me on the daily.

Everything I read is fucking Poe's Law made manifest.

I can't laugh. I can't cry. I don't trust anything or anybody anymore. It's all bullshit.

So I want to go somewhere quiet where nobody has to worry about me and I don't have to worry about anyone else.

I'll just write, self publish, see if anybody likes my stuff and breed horses or some shit.

It's probably a form of depression. But there is no more reason or enlightenment anymore. There's just binary rage, fear induced decisions and hypocricy.

It's clear that it isn't going to get better any time soon. So I just want out of the hub.

I want to retire to my mansions of rest. I think I've earned it.

 

[HDRchampion]

Taiso - It sounds like you're burned out taking care of your mother. I think a nice 2 week or 1 month vacation might do the trick. Maybe ask family to help out more when you come back. If you have siblings take turns taking care of mom at their place and do switch off monthly.

With that said, we are still looking for our retirement home. I want remote place but the wife wants a lakefront/beachfront home w people nearby. I hoping to find a compromise in having a lakefront home but somewhat secluded but not out of nowhere. There are quite a bit nice ones here in the northwest but out of our price range for the moment.