In Northern Nevada away from Las Vegas but not too far from Reno or Carson City (Henderson: home, construction)

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by nowhereman427

Here is San Francisco and San Francisco Bay area 40 mile radius.

You would wonder why nobody drives here then, the traffic would be so much lighter. For one thing, if San Francisco is anything like LA, they don't have left turn signals, nor parking. We have tons of FREE parking everywhere, and we have left turn lanes on most streets with left turn signals. If Los Angeles would do that they wouldn't have a traffic problem either.

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

You would wonder why nobody drives here then, the traffic would be so much lighter. For one thing, if San Francisco is anything like LA, they don't have left turn signals, nor parking. We have tons of FREE parking everywhere, and we have left turn lanes on most streets with left turn signals. If Los Angeles would do that they wouldn't have a traffic problem either.

It's worse than LA.

[Buzz123]

You can mow your lawn all you want, but we'd (Clark County) prefer you didn't have a lawn because of perceived water shortages. And, as far as wood burning fireplaces, you can only get gas logs in a newer home. Older homes that already have wood burning fireplaces can still burn wood, but they now make up a small % of homes here, and most are in parts of town you might not want to live in anyway. I don't think they'll let you burn wood in Washoe County (Reno area) under any circumstances.

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

You can mow your lawn all you want, but we'd (Clark County) prefer you didn't have a lawn because of perceived water shortages. And, as far as wood burning fireplaces, you can only get gas logs in a newer home. Older homes that already have wood burning fireplaces can still burn wood, but they now make up a small % of homes here, and most are in parts of town you might not want to live in anyway. I don't think they'll let you burn wood in Washoe County (Reno area) under any circumstances.

mY Understanding is stay out of Washoe, Clark and Douglas Counties because of smog tests and gun laws?

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by nowhereman427

mY Understanding is stay out of Washoe, Clark and Douglas Counties because of smog tests and gun laws?

Heavens no. You have to smog your car in all Nevada Counties, and that's no big deal. Don't you have to do that in every state now? Anyway, the smog people can't cheat...there's no reason to; and the report is instantaneously sent to Carson City as pass or don't pass. I think everybody passes, and the state gets some more money. We don't have State income tax, but we get you on your car registration.

And Nevada has very liberal (or should I say conservative) gun laws. Of course, you would need a permit to conceal carry in any county, but that's probably true in every state. You can open carry, but you might cause some old ladies to faint. Until this past year you used to have to register your hand guns in Clark County, but the Sheriff decided he didn't want to do that any more, so we can all throw those registration cards away now. North Las Vegas has some law about having hand guns in your car (unless you're on your way to the range), but it's unconstitutional. I know at least one judge who is ready to declare it unconstitutional, but everybody pleas it out, pays a fine, and it never goes to court where he can do that.

Are you a hunter?

[cre8lite]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

You have to smog your car in all Nevada Counties

that's not entirely true - no smog testing in nye county. i'm sure we're not the only one, from the dmv website:

Vehicles Requiring a Test
Passenger cars, trucks, RVs and motor homes need an emissions test if they are:

Based in the urban areas of Clark or Washoe county;
Gasoline powered (regardless of weight or size)
Diesel powered with a manufacturer's gross vehicle weight rating up to and including 14,000 pounds; and
1968 model year or newer
New vehicles on their third registration. First and second registrations are exempted. Hybrids are exempt for five model years.

[johninvegas]

I wouldn't sweat the smog test, if you have a car that is only a few years old it will pass all the time. The fee is only $23 so no big deal. If you have a car that is much older, you can tag it with "classic" plates and smog only once and then never again. The DVM is supposed to check that you are using the car less than 5000 miles a year, but they never do.

As Buzz says, traffic is a non-issue most of the time, even here in Las Vegas. I agree with you that traffic in SF is much worse than in LA. One thing to remember in Nevada though, the NHP will not push cars over to the side to clear an accident on the freeway as the CHP will do sometimes. That means that if there is an accident on a busy freeway, traffic can be tied up for hours here in Las Vegas (especially on I-15 or hwy 95).

I think you'll find that many costs are higher in the rural areas. I've found food to be much higher in Reno than in Las Vegas, mostly because we have a wide variety of ethnic grocery stores that don't try to rape you every time you enter. Of course, heating costs will be much higher than in the south, but that may be offset by the lessened need for a.c. And bear in mind that the driving you might be doing from rural areas to get to decent shopping might be much more than you are used to.

There are nice areas in Gardnerville that don't look like tracts homes and I find parts of Sparks to look like the midwest of the 50's and 60's--yes, tract homes, but not cookie-cutter types.

If you don't mind being out in the sticks, you might want to look at Winnemucca or even Ely or Elko.

By the way, I see on another thread you started that you don't have a 4x4 or awd car. I would warn you not to look at too far out from Reno unless you want to buy one. Also, the winters are much colder in Northern Nevada than you are used to.

[Buzz123]

I don't remember the first registration of our car, but it seems to me we had to have it smoged. I know we have had to from the second one on. If they don't require smog tests in Pahrump they probably should. Maybe not Tonopah. But I bet half the people in Pahrump work in Las Vegas, and besides they're gaining population. As johninvegas says, it might be more expensive in rural areas, but if you want to get away from it all, there are lots of places to do that in Nevada. If you are healthy you may not need to worry about good medical facilities. But it not, the only place you'll find that is Las Vegas or Reno. I'm just saying, it wouldn't matter whether you choose Las Vegas or Reno - you'll probably be much better off than in California. We just don't have all the problems you face on a daily basis. When I go there I think, hey, this is nice. Then I realize with all those people on top of each other it would drive me crazy to live there; not to mention all the rules and regulations and expenses.

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by johninvegas

I wouldn't sweat the smog test, if you have a car that is only a few years old it will pass all the time. The fee is only $23 so no big deal. If you have a car that is much older, you can tag it with "classic" plates and smog only once and then never again. The DVM is supposed to check that you are using the car less than 5000 miles a year, but they never do.

As Buzz says, traffic is a non-issue most of the time, even here in Las Vegas. I agree with you that traffic in SF is much worse than in LA. One thing to remember in Nevada though, the NHP will not push cars over to the side to clear an accident on the freeway as the CHP will do sometimes. That means that if there is an accident on a busy freeway, traffic can be tied up for hours here in Las Vegas (especially on I-15 or hwy 95).

I think you'll find that many costs are higher in the rural areas. I've found food to be much higher in Reno than in Las Vegas, mostly because we have a wide variety of ethnic grocery stores that don't try to rape you every time you enter. Of course, heating costs will be much higher than in the south, but that may be offset by the lessened need for a.c. And bear in mind that the driving you might be doing from rural areas to get to decent shopping might be much more than you are used to.

There are nice areas in Gardnerville that don't look like tracts homes and I find parts of Sparks to look like the midwest of the 50's and 60's--yes, tract homes, but not cookie-cutter types.

If you don't mind being out in the sticks, you might want to look at Winnemucca or even Ely or Elko.

By the way, I see on another thread you started that you don't have a 4x4 or awd car. I would warn you not to look at too far out from Reno unless you want to buy one. Also, the winters are much colder in Northern Nevada than you are used to.

Sparks looks to be in a good location by Reno/Carson City and perhaps the weather isn't too extreme there as far as snow goes? Winnemucca, Ely, Elko and Nye County how hot does it get in these areas and how bad is driving in the snow in those areas. Fallon and Fenley might be good and not as far as Elko. I prefer cold weather over hot weather. San Francisco weather is pretty neutral all year round. The summers are the foggiest there from August. To me SF has perfect weather between 55-65. The WEATHER is the only good thing about SF to me. It doesn't to form extreme heat to extreme cold. However everything else there is not good

[Buzz123]

Sparks and Reno are pretty much the same city like Henderson, North Las Vegas, and Las Vegas are one city with three unnecessary governments. But when I lived there Sparks was sort of low end Reno. Might be better now; I just don't know.

In Nye County you have the population center of Pahrump with the lively ghost town of Tonopah 200 miles away as the county seat. Pahrump is 65 miles from Las Vegas, and very close to Death Valley, but I think weather is pretty much the same as Las Vegas. Pahrump used to be all cotton and alfalfa farms so it's pretty spread out all over the desert. It has become a bedroom community for Las Vegas, as many people there work in Las Vegas. Once in a while in winter, Spring Mountain Pass between here and there is temporarily closed due to snow; but we're talking short closures I think. I wouldn't live there, but they're getting a lot of retirees for some reason. Probably because they want to think our little towns are like Midwestern towns, but they are nothing like that at all. For one thing, in Nevada, you don't have a little community every five miles (or a half days' horseback ride away) like they do nearly everywhere east of the Rockies. Ours are more like a small bunch of miners, and a ranch or two, about 100 miles apart. That's actually the reason for legalized prostitution in the "cow counties". Taxes and lonesome cowboys.

Ely and Elko are very remote, and both have extreme weather conditions in winter. The bad thing for retirees is lack of health care. Both are sort of fun places sometimes though, especially Elko, where they hold the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and the Basque Festival.

Fallon is another town a long ways from anywhere, but it is home of the Navy Top Gun program. I'm betting you would like Fernley though. Nice little town, and a relatively short drive to Reno.

Gardnerville would probably be a great place to live...actually any place near Carson City would be nice. You'd probably even like beautiful downtown Reno. Reno is a nice town in a great location.