Fed Up With Blue State Tyranny, Half My Extended Family Moved To South Dakota

[Fishrrman]

https://thefederalist.com/2021/11/16/fed-up-with-blue-state-tyranny-my-extended-family-moved-to-south-dakota/

Fed Up With Blue State Tyranny, Half My Extended Family Moved To South Dakota
Fatigued from the punishing and arbitrary restrictions, we saw South Dakota like a man dying of thirst sees a glass of water.

November 16, 2021
Georgi Boorman

I shut the car door and sighed. “I don’t want to go back,” I said, stuffing my mask in the cupholder. We were about to get back on the interstate as we wound our way through Montana toward Washington state, our home.

It wasn’t a decision, just how I felt. But saying it out loud set us on an unstoppable course. Just a few months later, we were traveling back across the I-90 to the Black Hills of South Dakota—and this time, we wouldn’t have to go back.

My angst about the situation in Washington had been growing for some time. By late April 2020, I was frustrated I still couldn’t go to church. By May, I was indignant enough to rip the caution tape off the playground. By summer we were less “closed” but the new, ever-changing rules somehow made even less sense.

My in-laws had to restrict their café’s dining space to adhere to pseudo-scientific diktats from unaccountable public health officials. I was ordered to cover my face any time I was indoors in public, even when I had a preschooler and a baby with me and wasn’t near other people. My family’s whole life hung on arbitrary and capricious edicts from a power-hungry governor who constantly gaslighted about a virus that wasn’t deadly to the overwhelming majority of people and wasn’t overwhelming hospitals.

By July we decided it was time to start looking at moving to another state. Washington was being strangled not just from COVID policies, but leftist ideology more broadly. Leftist control was affecting in everything from taxes to the explosion of homelessness and rampant drug addiction, to riots and defunding the police, to indoctrination in the public schools.

By contrast, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem had advertised her hands-off COVID policy and the natural beauty and business- and family-friendly climate of her state while Lockdown America was hurting in both economy and morale.

Rapid City, settled at the foot of the Black Hills in western South Dakota, looked appealing on paper: a smallish city with an array of shopping and cuisine, not too much traffic, and a police department that was fully funded. The landscape was gorgeous, and the unpredictable weather and above-average number of sunny days sounded like a refreshing change from the Northwest’s constant cloud cover. A road trip to the Black Hills to look around couldn’t hurt, could it?

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[Smokin Joe]

The Rapid City area is beautiful. I hope they are prepared for the annual inundation of the Black Hills by bikers from around the world (Sturgis Rally).

[Ghost Bear]

Interesting article. Although I live in Texas, I am seriously considering moving because we live too close to Austin. The evil there is starting to ooze out into the surrounding communities. It's just a matter of time before we are subsumed. While I was thinking we would just move further out but stay in Texas, I am beginning to think that a state without a major city (or formerly major city, such as Detroit or New Orleans) would be a better choice. The evil of leftism seems to concentrate in the large cities.

[rustynail]

Nice article.  What does she mean about 'wild weather'?   How long are the winters up there?

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Nice article.  What does she mean about 'wild weather'?   How long are the winters up there?

Compared to areas of Washington state, i suppose Rapid City is a lot more variable than the cloudy Washington state.  Colder in winter and hotter in summer.

My son lives just south of Rapid City and tells me right now it is 75 degrees

[libertybele]

Interesting article. Although I live in Texas, I am seriously considering moving because we live too close to Austin. The evil there is starting to ooze out into the surrounding communities. It's just a matter of time before we are subsumed. While I was thinking we would just move further out but stay in Texas, I am beginning to think that a state without a major city (or formerly major city, such as Detroit or New Orleans) would be a better choice. The evil of leftism seems to concentrate in the large cities.

If we were in better health I would move to a much more remote area.  As much as I love the heat, we'd be heading for the mountains -- probably northern Georgia where it doesn't get too cold.  FL is a great place to live right now, but the leftists will eventually set out to oust DeSantis and turn FL blue just like they are trying to do with TX.

[berdie]

Interesting article. Although I live in Texas, I am seriously considering moving because we live too close to Austin. The evil there is starting to ooze out into the surrounding communities. It's just a matter of time before we are subsumed. While I was thinking we would just move further out but stay in Texas, I am beginning to think that a state without a major city (or formerly major city, such as Detroit or New Orleans) would be a better choice. The evil of leftism seems to concentrate in the large cities.

You might also look at east Tx. Beautiful area, no real large cities...and pretty darn red.

[Ghost Bear]

If we were in better health I would move to a much more remote area.  As much as I love the heat, we'd be heading for the mountains -- probably northern Georgia where it doesn't get too cold.  FL is a great place to live right now, but the leftists will eventually set out to oust DeSantis and turn FL blue just like they are trying to do with TX.

My wife and I both have multiple health issues too, as well as simply getting older. I don't know if either of us is actually able to move our household, but we may have to in the future. And the longer we wait, the more difficult it will get.

[roamer_1]

If we were in better health I would move to a much more remote area.  As much as I love the heat, we'd be heading for the mountains -- probably northern Georgia where it doesn't get too cold.  FL is a great place to live right now, but the leftists will eventually set out to oust DeSantis and turn FL blue just like they are trying to do with TX.

Health care should not stop you... We are a high-dollar retirement area with world class health care. Coeur d'Alene, same way.... Salt Lake City is a major health hub. So is Great Falls MT and Spokane WA. And ALL of them are remote by comparison, even though some of them are big cities. Get a few miles out of town and it is wilderness.

[Ghost Bear]

You might also look at east Tx. Beautiful area, no real large cities...and pretty darn red.

We would probably be more likely to head into west Texas, not far west but into the Hill Country at least.

[Smokin Joe]

Nice article.  What does she mean about 'wild weather'?   How long are the winters up there?

Just a little shorter than North Dakota's and a smidgin milder than Wyoming's.

Temperatures have ranged from an all time high of 120 degrees in Ft. Pierre in 2006 to an all time recorded low of -58 degrees in 1936 in McIntosh. That gives a range of 178 degrees F at the extremes, just three degrees below North Dakota's range of 181 degrees (121 for the high, -60 for the low) The difference between freezing water and boiling it is 180 degrees (32 to 212F).

Winters tend to be a little milder in the Black Hills than out on the open prairie, which is why the Sioux had their winter camp there. Rapid City is on the north end of the Black Hills. Just down the road, Spearfish logged the fastest temperature change:

Spearfish holds the world record for the fastest recorded temperature change. On January 22, 1943, at about 7:30 a.m. MST, the temperature in Spearfish was −4 °F (−20 °C). The Chinook wind picked up speed rapidly, and two minutes later (7:32 a.m.) the temperature was +45 °F (7 °C).

That's 49 degrees warmer in two minutes.

For gardening, the last frost is generally around mid May, the first fall frost is about the third week of September, which gives Rapid City a balmy five week longer growing season than we get in my neck of the woods up in ND.
It is a lovely area, with topography and trees, I-90, and not far from Devil's Tower, the NO. 10 Saloon (Deadwood) where Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane were known to hang their hats (both are buried on Mount Moriah in the cemetery at Deadwood).

[IsailedawayfromFR]

You might also look at east Tx. Beautiful area, no real large cities...and pretty darn red.

Yep, we have Louie Gohmert as our Representative.

Although I grew up in Austin and have lots of family still living there, I would never go back there to live.

I chose East Texas not only for its more amenable political and affordability landscape, but also due to its higher rainfall and numerous lakes.  Austin is plagued by being dry and the influx of people and the demands made on water sucks the lakes there to the limit, and the underground aquifers are continuing to drop water levels.  Water will be a major issue in times to come compared to East Texas, and I did not want to go through that.

[Bigun]

You might also look at east Tx. Beautiful area, no real large cities...and pretty darn red.

Shhhh! Be quite @berdie!

[rustynail]

Thank you Smokin Joe that is 'wild weather'.