[Jammie]

Jessaka, they said they have 200,000 to 300,000 tourists every day of the summer in Grove. The only problem we'd have with that is the traffic, but we hope to find a home close to our employment.

[Harleygal1991]

Having lived in 38 states in my life, I consider myself a bit experienced when it comes to comparing different parts of the country and folks thereabout. There is certainly beauty everywhere. One of our favorite places for beauty is Montana, and all along the Northern Rockies, but Oklahoma wins hands down for great people! Okies are nearly all friendly (except for the ones that are transplants from other states) lol, and there are some truly beautiful parts of the Sooner State. In the fall take a drive down from Tulsa to Broken Bow, or along the Talimena Highway and enjoy awesome foilage, and in the spring, Muskogee has some of the most beautiful Azaleas in the world. Southeast OK is more mountainous, and has many lakes to enjoy and quaint stores. The natives certainly enjoy visiting with you, and are about as helpful as one could ever hope for. I find business opportunities in abundance in nearly every area, and honestly, it seems that life is just about what you make it no matter where you live. I'm old, but life experience has taught me that attitude is about 98% of what you find wherever you go. If you are truly unhappy about where you are, you owe it to yourself and your family to get somewhere else that will enable you to be happier. You are living your life, and you should sure make the most of it. You might be able to tell that I am a true fan of OK, and all of the hard-working resilient people that make up this State. They are still pretty trusting, and that is rare in this day and age.

[Jammie]

Harleygal, your post is really encouraging since you've lived in so many places. Montana is very beautiful, but it's COLD there in the winter. We're very happy in So. Dak and we've lived here our entire lives. Actually, western So. Dak. has some of the most beautiful scenery there is. We've traveled a bit in the U.S. and have learned what we like and dislike about areas. We're just looking for a place with a bit more warmth in the winter then we have here. We felt right at home in OK and the people are definitely friendly and welcoming. We really feel like we'd fit right in there.

[Griffis]

Originally Posted by Jammie

Jessaka, they said they have 200,000 to 300,000 tourists every day of the summer in Grove. The only problem we'd have with that is the traffic, but we hope to find a home close to our employment.

Is there a way to ascertain the accuracy of this figure? This seems remarkably high. Maybe they are counting the mosquitos that appear in summer.

I have serious doubts that the entire state of Oklahoma has 2-300,000 tourists over the course of an entire year. (The tourism board here would probably differ, but I expect that they count every person passing through OK and paying toll money or something.)

2-300,000 tourists on a single day in a place like Grove would utterly gridlock every passage in and out of an entire county for an entire season. This would be like every person from Tulsa visiting Oklahoma City every day for three months.

[Jammie]

Griff, I can't verify those numbers. That was the info we received from the owner of the motel we stayed at. I was thinking that the traffic and congestion must be awful with that amount of people there, but the Lake is pretty big. At the time I was thinking that people from Ar. Mo., etc may do a bit of their vacationing there, but like I said, I don't know how accurate those numbers are.

[Farouche]

Hey, Jammie,

I hope you don't consider me presumptuous to offer suggestions about a state I've never been to, but I've done a little bit of research on Oklahoma, and as you've helped me a bit on this forum I thought I'd offer some suggestions. As you know, I've been considering a move away from Massachusetts and maybe to your home state of South Dakota. I'm not sure I'm ready for all the cold, either, which is why I check out places like Texas and Oklahoma.
The two towns I'd recommend that you look into in Oklahoma are Tahlequah and Guthrie. Tahlequah got voted the most favorite small town in Oklahoma, and Guthrie has a real "Old West" feel that might be reminiscent of some of the towns in the Black Hills. It has the largest urban historic district of any city in the country, I believe. Tahlequah is fairly close to Tulsa, and Guthrie is north of Oklahoma City a few miles. Google both cities, and you'll get tons of information.
If you'd consider a move as far south as Texas (no income taxes and great people!), I'd consider checking out Granbury or Glen Rose, about 30 miles south of Fort Worth. I have been there a couple of times and it's a beautiful and somewhat undiscovered area. Hope this helps some.

[Farouche]

Jammie,

I was just reading your other posts, and see you already know about Tahlequah. Sorry about the redundancy.

[Jammie]

Farouche, any info is welcome so it's great that you recommended Tahlequah. So. Dak. is a very nice state, but the older we get, the more we dread the oncoming winters. Our last two winters were very nice, but that's unusual.

I'm keeping score and up to this point, Tahlequah seems to be a fave for so many people. We were just down in that area a couple weeks ago. Tulsa is SO nice and has so many nice things, but of course, it's a bit too big for us. I definitely will check out the Texas towns that you listed mainly because we're not used to paying state tax and that may shock us in OK. Yet, OK seems to have very reasonable cost of living. We stayed in the eastern part of the state and it's very pretty there.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Jammie

Farouche, any info is welcome so it's great that you recommended Tahlequah. So. Dak. is a very nice state, but the older we get, the more we dread the oncoming winters. Our last two winters were very nice, but that's unusual.

I'm keeping score and up to this point, Tahlequah seems to be a fave for so many people. We were just down in that area a couple weeks ago. Tulsa is SO nice and has so many nice things, but of course, it's a bit too big for us. I definitely will check out the Texas towns that you listed mainly because we're not used to paying state tax and that may shock us in OK. Yet, OK seems to have very reasonable cost of living. We stayed in the eastern part of the state and it's very pretty there.

I was looking forward to reading your impressions from your visit to OK. Do post them.

[Griffis]

Originally Posted by Farouche

The two towns I'd recommend that you look into in Oklahoma are Tahlequah and Guthrie.

You know, as much as I bash OK, I really can't think of much bad to say about Guthrie. I always thought that seemed like a cool little place with nice people. They have a Masonic Lodge there that is a real pretty building (I'm not a Mason, btw.), some real history, a super cool jazz banjo festival every year (attended by players from all over the world, etc.) If I recall my OK history, I believe Guthrie was the original capital of the state.

My only problems with Guthrie are that

A) the OKC area isn't as pretty as the Tulsa area. Plus, if you want to get to a big city, I'd prefer living close to Tulsa over close to OKC.

B) Guthrie isn't as prosperous as some other towns in OK, such as Tahlequah. It's not a failing community or future ghost town, but it's somewhat stagnant.

Another town I hear good things about is Shawnee. Shawnee is between OKC and Tulsa, but closer to OKC. I've been through there but don't know much about it. It's rather pretty. There's a catholic university there that has a real pretty campus and even a little monastery.

Bartlesville, about an hour north of Tulsa and very near the Kansas border, is also not a terrible place.

As i've said before, my biggest problems with OK are the politics and the summer heat. It's also not nearly as pretty as a lot of other states, but there really are worse places.