Why West Virginia: The Beginning

In West Virginia for a Week in May 2024

It has been almost a week since we arrived "home" in West Virginia and two weeks since the move from Idaho. Several times, I wanted to open my laptop and write, but there was still so much going on with cleaning, unpacking, and, for lack of a better way of saying it, adjusting.

As the title suggests, and so many people asked when we said we were making this cross-country move, this will explain why. Or, maybe not explain, instead paint a picture as it unfolded in my head.

Let's fade out and start where this next great adventure began. Now, bear with me; this will sound like missing marbles to some. My entire life, I have felt like a square peg trying to shove myself into a round hole (using that phrase in honor of my husband; he likes to use it often).

I grew up in Montana, where we did many "Montana" things: camping, fishing, huckleberry picking, backwoods keg parties, and horseback riding. I even went on a cattle drive (granted, it was only from the upper field to the lower field for branding, but it was an all-day affair) and occasionally learned how to shoot.

There were things I loved and things that I didn't. I loved horseback riding, camping, and huckleberry picking; occasionally, the backwoods parties could be amusing. The other stuff bored me or seemed like a colossal waste of my time. I was not a great white hunter or a pro fisher person. After one of my best friends, Jenny, and I shot each other with the BB Gun to see how it felt, guns of any kind became a form of protection if needed, not something I was going to be using for sport or rodent control. By the way, I don't recommend letting your best friend shoot you in the ass with a BB gun because she may miss and hit you in the back, and that shit really, really hurts! Square peg - Round hole.

From a young age, I always said I would not get married; children were definitely out of the picture. Fast forward past high school graduation, a move to Los Angeles (a story for another time), move back to Montana, then to Idaho in 1991, where I would get married and have three beautiful children. For 31 years, I called Idaho home (there were two years in between when we lived in Kent, WA, another story for another time). For a time, this square peg felt like a round peg, a bit rough around the edges, but it fit.

My roller-coaster marriage finally found its stride as I grew, and my children blossomed into adults. Then, something in the world shifted. People want to blame the pandemic; it started long before that. The events during COVID only seemed to add more coal to the fire to send the train careening downhill. Our small town was becoming something I didn't recognize, making my rough edges look square, which started the search for some sandpaper.

My husband, Tom, had found his stride in Lake City Bicycle Co-Op, the non-profit we started that provides bikes to kids who otherwise wouldn't have the means to have one. I had finally landed in a position with the Post Falls Chamber of Commerce; my dream job rolled into one fabulous package. Our children appeared happy and healthy. I felt my edges smoothing. But, alas, it would not last.

Many people had moved to our community who claimed they did for our way of life. Still, they quickly tried to force their ideologies onto everyone around them, picking up the outliers who had always been in our community. Rhetoric started to become mainstream. A movement began to ban books, a group of knuckleheads were bankrupting and causing the potential loss of our community college, the hate of the Aryan Nations that was gone from our community resurfaced in a more sinister way, and kindness seemed to drain away except in the corners where those of us kept stoking the fire.

Our slice of Idaho, where a family could earn a living and buy a house, evaporated for over 75% of the local population, including my family. Rent became insane, but luckily, we found a place in Post Falls where all my adult children could live with us and share the burden of the monthly rent. It would mean we would be living paycheck to paycheck, saving a bit for minor emergencies, but if rent went up any higher or one of us couldn't work for whatever reason, we would have to make some tough decisions.

Then something unexpected happened. Every year for the five years I worked at the North Idaho Small Business Development Center (where I was before the Post Falls Chamber), I bought a raffle ticket for the North Idaho College house giveaway. Well, I won. Yes, an entire house valued at $590,000. Now, it sounds fabulous, but there are some things like Federal taxes that you pay before you get the title, as it is considered income. Luckily, we could borrow over $114,000 to pay those and take possession of the house.

Should we move into the house, use it as an income property, or sell it? Those were the questions, but there was only one answer. A $30,000 plus state tax bill would still be due in April; we needed to pay back the borrowed money, and what opportunities would be available if we had the cash. We sold it and paid off all our credit card debt. Tom fixed up a vintage truck he had been working on for a year, and I had a lot of dental work that was now possible (broken teeth are no picnic, but you learn to deal). The rest of the money we put into CDs and high-yield savings accounts that, at the time, were earning 5% interest while we looked locally for a house to buy that would accommodate the entire family, but unless we used all the cash, purchasing something locally without still having a monthly mortgage payment was not possible. It would only change our situation a little.

It did get us thinking about actually moving to another state. Can we purchase something for cash that still leaves us some money as a safety net? Where would that even be? The research started, and ultimately, life events turned us in a direction my husband hadn't considered. The youngest and I had already been looking at East Coast states as there were still places where you could find something to buy under 200,000.

West Virginia came onto the radar when Tom's dad passed away. He grew up in Welch, WV, but he and his family moved to Idaho when he was around 11. Neither of us had been to West Virginia, but after his father's passing, we thought it might be a good time to check out where he ultimately came from. Find the family cemetery where his grandfather and other relatives reside and place some of his father's ashes there. Before we went, we looked at home prices, the economy, climate, and all the things because you never know; maybe we will find something to buy where we could ultimately retire.

The universe had other plans for us. What we discovered was a depressed economy that was making a comeback, much like where we come from once had been. Friendly people outnumbered the angry, a far cry from what we had been experiencing. Now, this will sound ridiculous, but I felt like I was home. We contacted an agent and started to look at homes while we were here. Before we left, we had put in offers. Ultimately, after some deals didn't go through for half our cash, we purchased two homes in Bluefield and a commercial building in Princeton. They all need work, but we have cash left to fix them and still money to live on while we work on income.

Our entire family was moving to West Virginia to start on our next (and probably last) GREAT adventure. We could leave something to our kids that would provide them with future income, create a family business as we fixed up the properties, and finally slow down to take a breather. Don't get me wrong; I still feel like a square peg, and the world is a round hole, but for some reason, here, I don't care.

So, back to the original question: Why West Virginia? My answer to that is, Why NOT?!

**Stay tuned as I plan on writing more about this new grand adventure, and for more daily updates, follow me over on the socials. See ya'all later!**