making drastic changes in life

[shootingstar]

I did a little half-fun, half-serious infographic about the 3 different Canadian regions where I've lived, worked and biked. I know, I choose some weird facts. And yes, there is a fact for comparative cycling experiences.

A person can read a ton of info. about a region. But until one actually lives there for a few years, there are some things one has no clue if one is not at resident at all.
While it's romantic to believe that good people don't think about race, ethnicity of others, influences attitudes, initial impressions, it's not realistic. I'm not going to kid myself that I would enjoy at midlife or close to retirement, to live forever in Spain or Germany. My gut feeling is being non-white, non native Spanish/German, one needs to become quite linguistically fluent in the language to even come close to being accepted as a "local". Even then, one still may be viewed slightly as an outsider. That's still no guarantee of relating to people on a equal footing.

I love travelling abroad, but after a few wks., I like coming back to Canada....a country in spirit historically and now, is an immigrant based country that allows a person to start off fresh anew, a different life.

Being here in the prairies, feels at times, like being stuck in the middle ..of vast open nothingness. In Alberta, the politics, funding matters on infrastructure, health care ends up with only 2 major cities (Calgary, Edmonton) vs. rest of rural Alberta. There are 3 other much smaller cities under 100,000. Guess where change has been driven from to redesign Albertan communities, include more and better multi-modal transportation systems, social justice programs......from people who have relocated from other parts of Canada/other countries. There are only 2 universities in Alberta ... so different from Ontario where it's a powerhouse of knowledge capital (over 8 large universities), more diverse industries, more diverse cultural activities, etc. Just going cycle touring you have towns, cities closer together for more enjoyable, less exhausting trip planning in southern Ontario. (But still, it's absolutely not like some smaller European countries where towns are even closer.)

Am focusing on geography. It's amazing how a country's geography influences us so heavily for health, transportation, comfort...or even as physical barriers that creates at times unusual psychologically subtle fences. Living in British Columbia, it was easier to be lulled to think only of the Pacific coastal region....because there are several mountain ranges to cross to get to Alberta: Cascade, Monashee Mtns, Selkirk and then Rocky Mountains. It was just easier to forget about rest of Canada when living in British Columbia. It often stuns me when just flying between Vancouver and Calgary, just how much of Canada is sheer unhabitable wilderness.

Am here in prairies because of a job, like many people who relocated to our city in the past 15 yrs.: it's either for a job or education. It is not for retirement unless one already has family/close friends. My vacation benefit limits me from returning to Vancouver often. But I do it when I can ..and he comes over to enjoy prairie /Rocky Mtns., especially when Vancouver has its heavier rainy season in late fall and winter.

I enjoy living in a place with 4 distinct seasons-- even if winter anywhere in Canada means cold, some sloppy days. I do like some distinct drama in seasonal changes.

[north woods gal]

There is no doubt that geography and the land shapes and molds us. I spent most of my life on the prairies of the Dakotas and Nebraska and even though I dearly love our north woods of Wisconsin, where we live, now, I do miss my wide open spaces. I think you have to be raised there for it to really get in your blood, though if you live there long enough you can certainly appreciate it. If you're new to these vast landscapes, though, it can be intimidating and even unsettling. As kids, I remember cousins from Pennsylvania visiting us in North Dakota and they were genuinely terrified to be able to look miles in any direction without seeing a tree. Me, I loved it and still do.

When it came time to retire, I knew my husband would have a hard time adjusting to such vastness, since he spent his whole life east of the Mississippi. We compromised and headed to the north woods and are quite happy, here. Still, I am haunted by my prairie memories and long to see and feel the wind blowing over miles of grassland. Of course, that prairie wind was an ever present factor in my bicycling. Calm days were a rarity.

[Blueberry]

Ah yes. Wide open spaces. I officiated RAAM last year and it was my first time seeing lots of open space. There was a fire on the course in the AZ desert, and the headquarters folks asked me to find it (yes, in fact, drive towards a brush fire in the desert with high winds). I was on the phone with emergency dispatch. They kept asking me how far away the plume of smoke was, and I had to quite frankly say I couldn't tell. They pushed for an estimate, and I was about 20 miles off. So hard to tell distances out there.

I loved it, though. I prefer my large distances over water as opposed to land, though.

[Pax]

So many different geographic areas, they really do seem to distill into a preference or a comfort level for many of us as we age. Wide open spaces are absolutely a part of me; if I go to the beach often enough I can get my fix, but when I can't get there for a while I start feeling really claustrophobic, it's very closed in here with trees and vegetation... as soon as I get back to the prairie and can see for miles, I feel like my mind can rest and I can breathe again.

[emily_in_nc]

Since I've lived all my life in the east and usually surrounded by woods, forests always comfort me, even with the snakes, bugs, etc. I love the beach too, though, and am always drawn to water, be it an ocean, creek, lake, or river. The first time I visited the southwest US, I was absolutely enchanted by the desert and its special beauty; ditto for the first time in the plains and prairie with the big sky I'd never really seen in its entirety before. I love and appreciate all the different environments but do feel vaguely uneasy whenever I am in a place where there's a larger chance of tornadoes (and that can include my home state of NC at times as well, Florida, etc).

When we moved to the KC area for a year, my mother was so worried about tornadoes that I had to do some research and determine that KC itself actually has very few tornadoes; most in Kansas are in the western half of the state where it's dead flat. In fact, the greater KC area is full of huge deciduous trees and hills! It's gorgeous and not easy cycling as I thought it would be at all. I sent Mom lots of stats I found online and eased her mind.

[Crankin]

I know I could never live in a prairie/open environment. One of things that bothered me the most about Miami and Phoenix was the flat brownness of each place. I love the desert, but unfortunately, like the song, "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot." You could see the mountains, but you had to travel a ways to be in real desert. So sad. The last time I was in AZ, we stayed in Cave Creek, which is far, far north of where I lived. In the boonies. But, it felt like real AZ. I also loved northern AZ, but alas, always said it looks just like NH! The beaches in Florida were nice when I was a teen and in college, but over the years, I have become less of a beach person, and more of a mountain person, thanks to cycling. I need to live near a coast, but not necessarily to sit on the beach! I like to walk on the beach, and observe the scenery, but beach towns hold no allure for me.
I learned a lot, though from my moves. I like diversity of scenery and the ability to drive places that are different within 2-3 hours.

[Jolt]

I don't think I could live in a prairie-type area either…no privacy when there aren't any trees! My grandparents, who are from Montana, have always said they feel claustrophobic from all the trees when they have visited us on the East Coast so it's definitely a matter of what one is used to. I just moved into a beach town, so will probably become more of a beach person just because it's so easy to get to…will be interesting to see how crazy it is around here now that summer is starting!

[north woods gal]

I know I could never live in a prairie/open environment. One of things that bothered me the most about Miami and Phoenix was the flat brownness of each place. I love the desert, but unfortunately, like the song, "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot." You could see the mountains, but you had to travel a ways to be in real desert. So sad. The last time I was in AZ, we stayed in Cave Creek, which is far, far north of where I lived. In the boonies. But, it felt like real AZ. I also loved northern AZ, but alas, always said it looks just like NH! The beaches in Florida were nice when I was a teen and in college, but over the years, I have become less of a beach person, and more of a mountain person, thanks to cycling. I need to live near a coast, but not necessarily to sit on the beach! I like to walk on the beach, and observe the scenery, but beach towns hold no allure for me.
I learned a lot, though from my moves. I like diversity of scenery and the ability to drive places that are different within 2-3 hours.

Of course, in the remote areas where most of those plains and prairies are, you'll only have cows or maybe antelope for company. Some of the counties in this region have the lowest population density in the U.S. That lack of population, though, can also add to some folk's unease.