"Why Would Anyone Want To Live In California?"

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bgross

Recusant Infidel
Joined
Nov 5, 2010
Messages
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Location
San Clemente, CA
The short answer is "There's no place like home!"

We've done a bit of traveling (30+ states, including Alaska & Hawaii; 20+ countries on four continents) and have enjoyed diverse foods, languages, cultures, sights, sounds, smells, art, architecture, people, geography, views and weather.

(Notice I left out the forbidden two: politics & religion.)

Every time we come home, we say the same thing:

"There's no place like home!"

California has been my home since my birth, a few miles from the Rose Bowl. It was where my mother was born and died. Her father (my grandfather) was born in Los Angeles in 1897 - the same year that his grandmother (my great-great grandmother) wrote a newspaper article in which she described L.A. As "to me, the Paradise of earth."

My father was raised in the Bay Area. My children were born here.

So the answer to the "why California?" question is a lot like the answer to "Why the U.S.A?":

It is the "land of my fathers".

Roots run deep.

My family tree - traced back on both my father's and my mother's side - goes back to before the Declaration of Independence - nearly 100 years before California was a state. My ancestors have fought in EVERY war abroad - and on both sides during that most costly of wars in the 1860s. It is in our blood.

I am as proud to be a Californian as I am to be an American. Just as proud as some of you are to be from Dixie, or New England, or Canada.

The fact that I'm writing this in my dining room, overlooking the Blue Pacific, wearing shorts & a tshirt... Is just icing on the cake.

Trying to decide which bike to ride - on any day of the year - is nice, too.

Leaving my house at dawn, riding over Ortega Hwy, out to Julian for pie & coffee, down through Anza-Borrego, to the Salton Sea, cross the border into Arizona - and be home before sunset?

Priceless.

Yeah, California has it's share of problems.

But it's where my home is.

By birth.

By choice.

Until they slip a tag on my toe!

 
I'm glad you like it.

It's a different country than the rest of the United States from what I've seen.

I hope you can keep it....

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If Cascadia ever became even remotely possible, I'd push for inclusion of California

There's more chance of me winning the lottery, and if so I'd be moving south in a heartbeat

Meanwhile, it's snowing here. Again.

 
+1/2

I spent a little of my prior life in Cali, in the north Bay area, while in the USN. I didn't quite get it then, and I'm not really enticed to go back to live. Too many people in most of it. I know there are places away from the maddening throngs, but then you still have to play by their rules. And their rules suck, IMO.

I think we all have a fondness for our points of origin, don't we? That is the best way I can explain how (or why?) I would still be located in this dog-forsaken part of the country, where it is excessively expensive to live, with ridiculously brutal winters such as the currently prolonged one.

But, I guess there are the family (can't move them all with us) and inertia to blame. Inertia is brutal when you've lived in the same wooden box for the past 25 years. You've collected up all that detritus, what are you gonna do with all of that? Ditch it?

And family, especially those family elders that did their best to provide for you, and are still surviving after all these years, it's awfully hard to just walk away from them, I'd guess.

We all have our own reasons for living wherever we do. Not always the best logical reasons. Hell sometimes we are conflicted internally about being where we are (and wish we could escape!), but we each make our own choices and then we get to live with them. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Me? I'm spying the Carolina mountains for a posible retirement future. Maybe become a neighbor of that guy from Wheaton, Ill. Just so he wouldn't enjoy hisself too much.
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I'm glad you like it.

It's a different country than the United States from what I've seen.

I hope you can keep it....

smile.png
Thanks!

My paternal grandfather was born about 60 miles north of you, in Rogers.
*High five* slap...

:)

You have good genes.

I'll support you in the fight to keep California a part of the US.....

 
California is a horrible, horrible place. Crowded, lots of traffic, full of liberals and illegal aliens. Stay away!
Once the State of Jefferson is founded, there would be no need to deal with the fruity and nutty liberals and illegal aliens, and yet enjoy the best motorcycling that God has to offer. ;)

 
I spent a few of my USN days in Sandyeggo. Enjoyed the sheet out of it. I just dont see how anyone can afford to live there anymore. It was dirt cheap, or so it seemed to me in '75.

 
Why would any state set rules that no other state ...
Oh, nevermind....
Like this?

lanespilitting.jpg


Well I think this was originally not illegal because of air cooled bikes overheating while stopped in traffic, but I'm sure glad it's still allowed because my 25 minute 17 mile commute would be 45+ minutes otherwise. It's also legal in many other countries, so I'm wondering why it hasn't caught on with SOME of the other 49 states.

I would've never started riding if I hadn't have moved out here 8 years ago. That alone, to me, is why California is amazing. Two wheels is a viable, fuel efficient, year round means of transportation. Add that to the sights to see, national and state parks, and amazing roads, and this place is hard to beat.

 
As any teenage girl would say,,,"whatever"

Born and raised in California. If it weren't for the weather, nobody would stay here. Everybody knows it. I'm just willing to admit it.

 
I was born in California and have lived on the Monterey Peninsula and in the Mojave Desert; spent a fair amount of time in the LA and SF areas as well. Many great things about the state and the variety of places and people makes it hard to sum it up in a few words. Kind of like Alaska in that regard. Fairbanks is no more like Sitka then LA is like Carmel. That being said, I would never want to live there. Cost of living and politics play a role in my opinion. For now, to me it is a great place to visit, but I would not want to live there.

When I think about a place to live, I consider those satalite pictures taken of the continent at night. I am attracted to one of the big dark areas, and to one of the places on the Verizon map where there is no coverage.

 
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California is a horrible, horrible place. Crowded, lots of traffic, full of liberals and illegal aliens. Stay away!
Northern California is the worst, people are much better off anywhere south of Yuba City
I was stationed at Beale AFB (just East of Marysville/Yuba City) in the early-mid 90s. It was great. Loved the weather and the riding. Being military though I didn't have to deal with a lot of the State's crap like the no registering vehicles with less than 7500 miles. Since I kept all my vehicles registered in my home of record it didn't affect me, I also never had to worry about getting SMOG checks.

 
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