Originally Posted by
Chandne
Thanks for the detailed information, fishboat. I can tell that you make some valid points. I'll look into all this. I love mountain biking so I like that aspect. I don't ride on crowded streets and ride right for home here so I will miss that and probably go for group rides instead. I have 30 miles of private trails here too and the mtn biking is truly epic. I can make the most of it though. It will help if I get some roadies and mtn bikers there. The wife works form home and no kids. She can work from anywhere as long as there is good/fast internet access. I can stay here and let's say make around 100K (but I also support my aging parents) or I could move and make 130-150. My gut tell me not to move but that is natural if you like the place you live. I love Colorado and Utah. My brain is telling me to be more open-minded and move if needed because that extra 30-50 could make a big difference in a few years. I don't think I could be happy in a place like Atlanta but I think North Carolina would be nice. I'll see how I feel when I visit. I know one of the guys in that company is a big cyclist so I will talk to him while I am there. I hear the people are friendly too.
Colorado sounds somewhat similar to Wisconsin in terms of trails. NC/SC do have much lower taxes that WI, but, from what I could see, the lower taxes equate to a lower quality of life in terms of trail systems and bike-friendly roads. I did a search of "bike trails and Charlotte" 3-4 years back and found just one trail in Charlotte-proper..just a mile long. Compare to Milwaukee(local for me) where the Oak Leaf Trail runs nearly 100 miles in and around the county that is about 80% dedicated, paved multiple use trail that's connected by about a dozen parks and low-traffic parkways. Madison is similar in having tons of trails. Many WI counties cater to cyclists with trails, rural road routes, and festival/rides. Below is an image of the NC region, showing trail density, taken from the Rails to Trails Conservancy (traillink.com) site. The same image for the WI region follows, same map scale.
I did find out about MeetUp.com from my Charlotte-biking searches(I have a post in the great lakes regional forum to give you an idea of meetup..), which has been very useful. You might look into MTB trails and distance from Charlotte. There's lots of trails in that region, but I'm not sure how close to the city they are.
The pay..yah..it matters today and in the (retirement) furture. I was in the same (upper) wage range. That's a strong income in the area as locally posted jobs will pay less. Housing is pricey in the commuting range, relative to 1-2 hours outside of Charlotte. Suburb-developments are big houses on tiny lots while more rural homes(south and southwest of city) are few and far between..I tried... Locals can be nice(another local joke..a hello involves "what's your name?", followed by "what church do you belong to?..") but it'll take a while to meet them as everyone I met in the corporate world was from somewhere else. Lots of companies moving there. Charlotte is said to be a mini-Atlanta now and will be catching up to Atlanta as time goes on. Charlotte is a big banking center. The International airport is more regional than international..currently, but this will change as things grow. Ask your cyclist friend and see what he thinks. A friend from highschool, born and raised in Wisconsin, lived in Charlotte for 6-7 years and he loved it. He is a Harley rider(no biking) and rode nearly year around. If an inch or two of snow falls..it's a snow day and everything shuts down.