What is North Carolina Like?

[itself]

Any part! I would like to know about the "warmer" part of the state.

[TsPoet]

Any part! I would like to know about the "warmer" part of the state.

Wow! Check it out first. Like you, I moved from Az to NC and I hated it there. I had great friends and everything was OK in that regard, but tree trees trees trees... you can drive right by a major city on a major highway and not know you've done it.
and humidity, ug!
As far as lifestyle, I'm not entirely sure, but I can ask a good friend of mine about that. He lived there at the same time I did and we all got along great, but the RTP area is a weird gamish of educated scientists and profesionals and local folks. I don't know how the society as a whole was.
PM me and I can either ask Jack for you or get you guys in touch with each other.

[sfa]

Coastal areas are generally mild year-round and flat, flat, flat. Four seasons, but rarely any bitter cold or snow. I lived in the piedmont (Winston-Salem) where summers were unpleasant (although, honestly, not as humid and hot as Baltimore), fall and spring were heavenly and lasted forever--none of these two weeks of pleasant weather stuck between months of heat on one side and cold on the other. Winters were dreary, drizzly, and icky. We got snow once in the couple of years I was there. The mountains are gorgeous--beautiful fall colors, cool summers, and lots of snow in the winter.

In some of the towns, people are pretty cool about different lifestyles--Raleigh Durham in particular since the major employers are the universities and tech companies. There are a lot of transplants from the rest of the country in Raleigh Durham and Charlotte. Other areas, not so much--lots of small town mentality and intolerant of outsiders. Politics are largely dominated by the Christian right, although remember that this is also the home state of John Edwards (make whatever jokes you want, but he got elected there with a liberal populist platform). I suspect as more people move to the state from outside of the state, politics will become more mixed--it was an entirely Republican state when I lived there, but Obama barely won the state in 2008, something I never would have imagined was possible.

The warmer parts of the state--south and east--are pretty rural. Small towns, poultry processing, pine forests. I think it's probably the ugliest part of the state except when you're actually on the coast, but I LIKE trees and hills and snow, so maybe I'm the wrong person to ask!

[Grits]

I live in the central part of the state and grew up at the coast.

The weather is relatively mild, although this summer was unusually hot with a record breaking number of days above 90 degrees. I can cycle regularly about 8 months out of the year, keeping in mind that I only will go out if it is above 40 degrees. Dec. - March, there are quite a few days that I can ride, but it is not regular. There are days with snow and temps that do not get much above freezing during those months. Not a lot of days, but some. If you don't have the 40 degree cut off, like I do, then you can ride almost all year.

The coast is warmer and gets less snow and is, of course, flatter. I have heard that New Bern and Wilmington have nice retirement communities.

The weather is usually considered to be mild, except (in my opinion), July and August which are miserably hot and humid, and Feb. and March, which can be miserably cold (for here - I know it is much colder elsewhere!).

The mountains get quite a bit of snow, but are beautiful. I especially like the Asheville are.

Cycling varies by city. There is a big cycling community where I am with a lot of clubs and organized rides. I imagine most cities here would have the same. If you have any more specific questions, I can try to answer them.

[OakLeaf]

I will add that WNC is totally overrun by halfbacks (i.e., people who retired to Florida but hated the congestion and the lack of scenery) right now. We considered moving there for a while, until the situation became clear. Property values are very inflated as a result. My neighbor, who had vacation property in WNC, says there's quite a bit of resentment among the locals, especially toward people coming from Florida.

[GLC1968]

We didn't like it. We moved to Greensboro from the Tampa area in 2004 and lived there for 3.5 years. I LOVED my job and the company I worked for, but my husband never found career oriented work and felt very professionally stunted (we are both engineers, for reference).

Socially, it was tough. I know that Greensboro is different than Charlotte or the Raleigh/Durham area, but wow...were we outcasts. We did find a nice little cycling commuting, but we never truly had real friends. We have more friends here in Portland after just one year than we did when we left NC. I'm going to be blunt here, but we were not accepted because 1) we were not church goers and 2) we had no children. I was *this close* to lying to people to tell them when they asked (because they ALWAYS did) that I was barren or something so that they stopped judging us for choosing to be childless. And even those who didn't actively judge us, didn't really want to befriend us. Almost all social activities in the greater Greensboro area centered around families/children or church. It left us out, a lot. Edited to add: This may have something to do with our age, too. We were late 30's when we lived there so too old to hang out at bars but not accepted at family events because we had no family. Experiences would probably be different for people who weren't in the prime parenting age bracket to begin with...

We also had issues with the weather. We chose NC as a compromise because I'm a northern girl and hate the heat and my H is a southerner and cannot handle cold winters. We were wrong. The winters were too cold and miserable for him (can you say constant ICE storms???) but not nearly cold enough for me (I like snow!). Summers were miserable. HOT, HOT, HOT and because of the humidity, it didn't cool down much at night. And yes, it's humid in the summer - even for FL transplants! Greensboro also had frequent drought problems when we lived there, so our plan to do the small, sustainable farm was not suited to the area. I will say that fall and spring were spectacular, weather-wise.

And the NC mountains are wonderful - lots of interesting people, beautiful scenery, and amazing cycling!

[FunSize]

I'm grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, went to college in Greenville, SC and am looking to go to grad school in NC. I can vouch for the southern transplants.

I really like the mountain side of the state. I've also been to Charlotte, Oak Island, Durham, Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem, Hickory, Raleigh, and Wilmington.

You can kind of get whatever you want in NC. If you want mountains and some snow, you can have it. If you want to live on the beach, you can do that, too! Also, if you live in the mountains and drive diagonally southeast, the beach in SC is about 5 to 6 hours away. Depending on where you live and how fast you drive. However, some areas of those SC beaches are extremely... kitschy. (Myrtle Beach... yuck)

Summers are definitely hot, but you get used to it. If you ride your bike midday in the summer you really feel the heat on hills and stops, otherwise its bearable. Still HOT, but bearable.

Out of the mountains and the beach will be the warmest areas during the winter. It's still summery weather right now, actually. The nights are getting chilly (and "chilly" is like... 60 degrees?).

One thing I would recommend is considering what kind of city you would like to be in. I grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis. The south was a bit of a change for me culturally. I also was used to having a big city near me. So, if you want the city life, it might be good to consider Charlotte or Raleigh. If you want a little less city. Greensboro, Winston Salem, and Durham are all smaller. Wilmington is a good sized city on the water. Asheville is a good sized city in the mountains. Brevard and Hendersonville are quaint mountain towns. Oak Island is a quaint beach town. Outer Banks area are beautiful beaches.

All in all, I really like North Carolina. Ideally i would like a lake house in the mountains. But that's just me.

[divingbiker]

I lived in Durham and didn't like it. I lasted 3.5 years before I moved away.

Like others have said, I couldn't abide the the politics and churchiness. When Jesse Helms beat Harvey Gantt for Senate in 1990, it was time for me to go.

The cities are tolerable, but the rural areas, which are right at the edge of the cities, are really rural and conservative. I was there for a visit this past weekend and it reinforced to me that I was right to move.

Do your homework.

[FunSize]

I think a good thing to know is that usually academic areas are going to be a little more liberal than rural areas. Usually, professors and academic communities try to stay forward thinking.

Also, city areas, depending on the city, will be a little more liberal too. But yes... it is the south and there are definitely a lot more conservative people around. You can definitely find people that you'll get along with. It's just that not every person you pass on the street is going to be that way. I wouldn't argue that a lot of the social networking comes from church or kids, but that's true for many other places, too. You just have to work a little harder to find those groups that have people more like you if you're not a conservative, church going, child-rearer. I think that that will be much easier in a more urban setting.

The one downfall is that since it is so conservative in a majority of the state. You're going to usually have conservative politics in your town. If the politics and political actions taken in your town are important to you, definitely keep that in mind when moving to a predominantly conservative area. Now, I don't know how you feel about those types of things, but it is something to keep in mind.

I think "do your homework" is a good thing to say. Just be sure to know what you're looking for, what you want, what you don't want, what you can live with, and what you wouldn't be able to reconcile.