Narrowing down the choices

While Casper might have seemed like a good option at first, I’m now learning that it is one of the windiest cities in the country.  Seriously!  How terrible is that?  Very.  Not only do I strongly dislike wind (I’d rather have freezing cold than mild and windy) but I have a dog who absolutely refuses to walk in the wind.  It’s blowing over 10mph outside?  I better be in the mood to carry an extra 23lbs when I walk because he will.not.move.  I am actually considering sending a video to Cesar because it’s been pretty windy here lately, and will be throughout the next month and a half or so, and he refuses to walk.  He’s going to get so unhealthy!  When we’re outside I literally have to drag him until he cries out in annoyance (or pain, whichever).  Sometimes I really do carry him.  I’m that girl who carries her too-big-to-be-carried 5 year old spoiled rotten Shiba Inu because, like a rotten spoiled child, he refuses to obey his mom and she lets him get away with it.

Other downsides to Casper (I read about these on Google so I know they are reliable……………..)

• – The breast cancer rate is very high for the size of the city – not cool.
• – There are a lot of rude cowboys – even less cool.
• – There is a meth problem in the city – down right disgusting.

Jackson would be gorgeous, fun, an adventure, blah, blah and exciting despite the excessive amounts of snow…. and colder weather due to its geographical location, but I have found some other issues with Jackson Hole as well –

• There are only a few (seriously, like 3) apartment complexes in Jackson Hole and since I absolutely want to reside in the town, as close to the hospital as possible, and prefer an apartment- this is a problem.
• Rent is higher than Casper.  It’s about the same as a 1 bedroom in Denver – which exceeds my budget.  Since I don’t want a roommate during nursing school – this is a problem.
• I am finding that the apartment complexes that do exist are not very dog friendly.  This makes me angry.
• I would need a new car.  Not necessarily brand new but new to me.  I can’t take my corolla s up to the mountains – even with my snow tires. I have my heart and mind set on a Subaru Legacy – it’s foreign, safe and gets great gas mileage despite being all wheel drive – 31mpg highway!-   I don’t want anything else!  I’ll take a used one of course.  But first I need to figure out what to do with my car and assess my finances.  And so forth…

So while I feel like I’m narrowing down the choices (Rock Springs and Wheatland are out) – I’ve added Gillette into the mix.  I don’t know much about the city of Gillette yet, except for that it has good ratings on Google and is considered “real Wyoming living” – whatever that means – by the people who reviewed it.  I also read that it isn’t much to look at… but at least it isn’t as windy as most of the other areas of Wyoming.

To be quite honest, I’m leaning more and more towards Jackson Hole every day… I just need to figure out how to make it work.  And convince Andrew to move to Jackson Hole as well since I have no hope that our relationship would work out with me being 8.5 hours away from Colorado in a place that gets virtually no access to the outside world for a few months out of the year because of the snow bringing road and airport closures.  Yesterday he said he would move, for us, but I don’t know how serious he actually was.  Moving to Jackson Hole is a huge deal!  I just wish I knew someone who lived in Jackson Hole and could tell me more about actually living there rather than people who tell me they visited for two days 10 years ago… or tell me the want to visit… or have heard it’s cool…

Tough, tough decision..