Successfully moving to "the middle of nowhere."

[joeyboy]

If you do that make sure and hire someone to put a bounce house and play (the music I am thinking in my mind) at the highest levels until 2 am. Do this once per year to remember why you left.

Edit: No, I'm not bitter at all.

 

[martym]

We have a ranch smack dab in the middle of nowhere. 6 1/2 miles off the road. 1 hour to Laredo, Texas. Right at the City Limits of Bruni, Texas. From the road it’s about 13.5 miles from Hebronville, Texas. No one for miles.
That’s my get a way from all of life.

 

[KUfan]

I grew up on a farm in central Kansas, and we were 15 miles from a town (Abilene) which had most things for sustaining life in the countryside. So it could be said we were close to "the middle of nowhere". Our closest neighbor was 1/2 mile away. It was so quiet on a calm night you could hear trains from several miles away, along with semi trucks from a couple miles away. Those two elements tied us to civilization, as the railroad and highway both passed by within a couple hundred yards of our farmstead. If you want the feeling of being alone where nobody will bug you, the middle of nowhere will do it. Getting close to nature and the great outdoors are beneficial, not to mention the pleasures of a glorious sunrise and sunset, and how many stars and constellations you can see at night. Your life will likely be enriched in ways you've yet to discover. If you choose this simpler way of life, my best regards to you.

 

[Tarak83]

This is something my wife and I talk about more and more often as of late. We went to a wedding in the Ozarks on the MO/AR border over the weekend, and it REALLY intensified our feelings about just bailing out on city/suburb life and getting a house on a piece of land at the edge of a forest. Something with acreage, easy access to deep woods, and preferably no neighbors for at least two miles in any direction.

We both work from home, but I need to occasionally go into an office and to client meetings. My wife works from home and doesn't need to visit an office for any reason. Because of my occasional need to actually SEE people, the move would be inconvenient. But more and more I think the pros vastly outweigh the cons (the biggest con being easy access to emergency medical care). We were created to live in a garden. Nature is restorative. The older I get, the more I need it.

Have any of you done this successfully? Are you happy with your decision?

Well I’m the last 7 years we’ve gone From a town of 200,000 to 10,000 in the middle (and I mean middle) if Iowa. Does that count

 

[BradWorld]

At the end of the summer of 2023, the wife and I will sell everything we own and hit the road in an RV and never come back. We will make our home where we want it, and move every time we get the itch to see somewhere new. No plan, no route in mind. We will just go where the wind takes us. And that wind will most likely not take us to any densely populated area for more than just a quick visit. We envision spending most of our time in the middle of nowhere.

 

[pault]

Just be aware you never know , when you move what will follow you in a few years.

For example, I moved to cent fl from NH . to a town where the building dropped off, roads were bumpy after 20 years of patching it. Most lots were empty lots vs, one with homes. No street light or sidewalks and is quiet day or night.
I bought a short sale, at as stupid low price, had what we wanted, pool, lanai, and quiet with privacy. And cheap.
I am 15 mins from highway, 10 from wally world, and 20 from 2 major roads that have all the stores you want.

It is a joke to us as in NH 5 mins 10 the most could be anywhere we needed to be. Here we laugh cus when we go out it is at least an hour trek or more due to the driving. But being retired, we dont take off that much as working folks.


Fast forward 6 1/2 years, the roads were re paved, my empty lot next door now has a new home on it.
Many other lots are being built on, but the 4 in back of me are still wooded. Taxes of course are creeping up but still cheap compared to nh. It is still quiet , well when there not building another house nearby.Basically not bad , but the point is , never know what will settle around you after you get there.
Good luck

 

[MntnMan62]

Just be aware you never know , when you move what will follow you in a few years.

For example, I moved to cent fl from NH . to a town where the building dropped off, roads were bumpy after 20 years of patching it. Most lots were empty lots vs, one with homes. No street light or sidewalks and is quiet day or night.
I bought a short sale, at as stupid low price, had what we wanted, pool, lanai, and quiet with privacy. And cheap.
I am 15 mins from highway, 10 from wally world, and 20 from 2 major roads that have all the stores you want.

It is a joke to us as in NH 5 mins 10 the most could be anywhere we needed to be. Here we laugh cus when we go out it is at least an hour trek or more due to the driving. But being retired, we dont take off that much as working folks.


Fast forward 6 1/2 years, the roads were re paved, my empty lot next door now has a new home on it.
Many other lots are being built on, but the 4 in back of me are still wooded. Taxes of course are creeping up but still cheap compared to nh. It is still quiet , well when there not building another house nearby.Basically not bad , but the point is , never know what will settle around you after you get there.
Good luck

This is so true. The only way to be sure is if you acquire enough land so you have your own "buffer". Or if you land is adjacent to state or federal land that will never be sold or built on. Then you can have a better chance of things remaining fairly remote. But even then, sometimes states or the federal government finds itself strapped for cash and they go and sell land to raise funds. With you being from NH, I would think you could find isolation further north up in the White Mountains area? I love it up there. My hope is to find that isolation in the northern Adirondacks.

 

[pault]

This is so true. The only way to be sure is if you acquire enough land so you have your own "buffer". Or if you land is adjacent to state or federal land that will never be sold or built on. Then you can have a better chance of things remaining fairly remote. But even then, sometimes states or the federal government finds itself strapped for cash and they go and sell land to raise funds. With you being from NH, I would think you could find isolation further north up in the White Mountains area? I love it up there. My hope is to find that isolation in the northern Adirondacks.

LOL,,, ya well I am done with snow, lowest I get is 40 in the winter..

 

[JCarr]

It seems like an enormous undertaking. Especially because we have three kids. We live 15 minutes from downtown St. Louis now though, and the current political climate is *this* close to turning the city into a warzone which will undoubtedly overflow into the suburbs. That's as close as I'm going to get to a political statement here though.

I salute you for wanting to get away from that. I would be trying to do the same if I were in your shoes.

 

[sentrydriver]

We made at least a half dozen trips to New Mexico looking for our retirement home. Living in a small town or even off the grid had definite appeal. My wife was an RN at the VA Med Center in OKC so she knows the difficulty of not being close to needed health care. Another factor is that a little old man and little old woman living together in the middle of nowhere are fine until one of them passes. We also factored in our hard earned military and airline benefits which are worthless without access. In the end, we chose a 55+ community in southern NM. We have three military commissaries and exchanges within an hour and the El Paso airport close by with good AA connectivity. I guess what I am saying is, don’t focus on just where you live but how you will live when you move there.

 

[pault]

We made at least a half dozen trips to New Mexico looking for our retirement home. Living in a small town or even off the grid had definite appeal. My wife was an RN at the VA Med Center in OKC so she knows the difficulty of not being close to needed health care. Another factor is that a little old man and little old woman living together in the middle of nowhere are fine until one of them passes. We also factored in our hard earned military and airline benefits which are worthless without access. In the end, we chose a 55+ community in southern NM. We have three military commissaries and exchanges within an hour and the El Paso airport close by with good AA connectivity. I guess what I am saying is, don’t focus on just where you live but how you will live when you move there.

Yup, we have everything here and is quiet, in the sw corner of brevard county. so if things happen we are still close enuf for services, but i had no interest in a 55 community, we bought a house and havnt regretted it at all.

 

[_MementoMori_]

We made at least a half dozen trips to New Mexico looking for our retirement home. Living in a small town or even off the grid had definite appeal. My wife was an RN at the VA Med Center in OKC so she knows the difficulty of not being close to needed health care. Another factor is that a little old man and little old woman living together in the middle of nowhere are fine until one of them passes. We also factored in our hard earned military and airline benefits which are worthless without access. In the end, we chose a 55+ community in southern NM. We have three military commissaries and exchanges within an hour and the El Paso airport close by with good AA connectivity. I guess what I am saying is, don’t focus on just where you live but how you will live when you move there.

Lots to think about there. Thanks for posting. It makes you wonder (macabre though it may be) how many elderly people living in remote areas have passed at home alone and went undiscovered for weeks or even months.

 

[Rushman2112]

I'm originally from a small-ish town in England, population around 150,000, and then moved to a v. small village of less than 5,000 souls where I lived from about 11 yo until I left home at the earliest opportunity and started work. I went back to the home town, Ipswich. Then my job moved to London so I worked there for a few years but could not move there as the ball and chain's job was back in Ipswich, which meant commuting, no big deal, lots of opportunity for drinking on the train home. I enjoyed the buzz of London, and when the job moved me back to Ipswich I really didn't like it.

A couple of years later, I was sent to Jakarta. From Ipswich, straight to a 10m people megalopolis (it's now 30+ million) which was daunting at first but after getting settled, I loved it. Still do. From 4 years there, I had 3 in Bangkok, 16m people, and now in Singapore which is a city, an island and a country. Roughly 6m on an island 280 sq miles in size, so tightly packed.

Asia is 24/7 (not withstanding current restrictions) and I like that. There's always something happening.

But, it is tiring and a few years ago, we bought a house in France, in the middle of nowhere. It's 2km in either direction from really small villages, neither of which even has a bakery. One has a small cafe and some mornings by the time I raise from my stupor, it might have some bread left, but usually not. The nearest town is 20km away, it has decent shopping, restaurants and supermarkets and crucially, medical facilities.

We originally thought that was the retirement plan, and while we love the place, and the peace, it is too remote. There is no public transport, and no easy access to a doctor. French supermarkets do a collection service but not delivery so if you get sick, tough.

Yes, we have wifi and yes, civilisation is only 20km away. Yes, there is a TGV station in Tours, about an hour's drive and then Paris is 2 hours on the train, but we both need a bit of infrastructure so the revised retirement plan is something in a small town and retreat to the house in the middle of nowhere when we need a break.

 

[Owen Bawn]

This is one of the things you worry about when you buy "in the middle of nowhere." I own 14 acres that abuts part of this property near the Margaree River on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. I bought the land 35 years ago believing that by now I'd have built and moved into a home on the land as my retirement home. I've done neither. But now this 140 acre camp and its' adjoining land is for sale, and could easily be converted into holiday homes if the economy ever straightens out, thereby making "the middle of nowhere" the centre of it all.

I don't why I'm worried about it, however. I haven't even been up there since 2014.
For Sale: 1195 Marsh Brook Road, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia - More on POINT2HOMES.com - https://www.point2homes.com/CA/Vacant-Land-For-Sale/NS/Cape-Breton-Island/1195-Marsh-Brook-Road/87011108.html

 

[Avi]

We have always lived in cities and now live out in what really is now the suburbs but in an old ( 1800’s) house with 3 acres of land or so ( that’s rural enough for us). I don’t know if I would call it a culture shock but it’s definitely a different lifestyle. That said every 6 months or so .. we ask ourselves “what are we doing out here? .. We should move back to the land of subways and noise.“ Coronavirus has tempered that a bit - that said that will pass.

Somewhat weirdly I am half convinced a small one / 2 bedroom condo is a perfect retirement future. If I am too old to drive, having usable public transportation, shops walking distance, world class healthcare, accessible arts etc feels perfect in a way car centric suburbs and rural areas simply do not. It’s the opposite of the get away from it all worldview but with free time a city seems perfect ..

Perhaps the best is having both .. need to buy some lotto tickets tomorrow

 

[Toothpick]

Ain’t done it yet but my plan is to do just that. It doesn’t even have to be the middle of nowhere. It just has to be far enough from my neighbors that I can’t see or hear them.

 

[martym]

@_MementoMori_ ,
My wife and I were looking at some new Rosaries. We got matching Thin Blue Line Rosaries made with paracord. But I thought of you because there was an option to have them “memento mori”; skulls for the our father beads.
I didn’t tell my wife I was thinking about a guy on a shaving forum.

 

[_MementoMori_]

@_MementoMori_ ,
My wife and I were looking at some new Rosaries. We got matching Thin Blue Line Rosaries made with paracord. But I thought of you because there was an option to have them “memento mori”; skulls for the our father beads.
I didn’t tell my wife I was thinking about a guy on a shaving forum.

You should float that one past her just for her reaction, haha.

 

[_MementoMori_]

Ain’t done it yet but my plan is to do just that. It doesn’t even have to be the middle of nowhere. It just has to be far enough from my neighbors that I can’t see or hear them.

This is probably more practical. As long as it FEELS like the middle of nowhere, it's probably good enough. I would love to be able to shoot my guns in my yard though, and I don't think I'd get away with that unless I really do live in the middle of nowhere.

 

[martym]

I have shot from the bathroom window once but dad got really angry with me so I haven’t done it since