Thinking back and connecting some dots, I note that while in the ( upper ) midwest, and in the northeast, I used to get eaten alive by mosquitos and black flies. The itching was horrific: I feel like I could scratch away my skin to the bone.
I’ve never ever been bitten/stung by a mosquito in the central Piedmont in the past 20+ years. Swarmed by annoying gnats, yes, but no mosquito stings. Honest. Of course I don’t live in swampsville.
Up in CT, we called them deer flies. They would draw blood when they bit you. A screen house was essential at certain times of year.
Yes, we definitely have some skeeters here in NC, but you can usually eliminate them from your yard by getting rid of standing water.
Now, the pine pollen season is something else altogether…
I have had drifts of pine pollen on my porch some years.
I am also retired and moved to Wake Forest, NC, about a year ago. We followed our daughter and her husband to the area to be around them and grandchildren. He had done his Masters at Duke and really liked the area. He has since convinced HIS parents to relocate from Florida to the area too.
When the kids were looking at areas they wanted new-ish build, the right price, nice family neighborhood, not too far of a drive to the centers or Raleigh and Durham. They looked in Cary and Apex, but found it to be too expensive. There is a ton A TON of new building going on all around the Triangle, and Wake Forest fit the bill. As for specific neighborhoods/developments, they ended up in Heritage. We would have moved in next door to them if we could have, but there wasn’t anything available in that exact neighborhood, so we ended up a few minutes away in Traditions. Curiously, we have met a number of fellow retirees in our neighborhood who have kids that live in the Heritage area. From where we are downtown Raleigh and downtown Durham are each about a half-hour drive away. Lots of restaurants & breweries and such in those areas. Only a handful nearby.
As for how I specifically am adjusting - well, I grew up in a small town and moved to Los Angeles as an adult, and lived there for many years. I find that I very much miss urban living and feel like my roots are there, and feel like I’m back in small town life (which I left). I’m trying hard to get into some kind of lifestyle and meet like minded folks, but it feels like an uphill slog. The weather this summer has been just a little too hot to enjoy outdoor activities. But that’s just me.
Politically, I appreciate that the local area shades in my direction, but overall I can’t shake the feeling that I’m in the {{shudder}} SOUTH with it’s history of enslaved people and tobacco plantations.
Interesting, @Icarus , as this is my hypothetical reasoning whenever anyone asks why I don’t move from Los Angeles (I’m a native) to cheaper place. I don’t have kids to attract me, so I’d be having the same issues and disincentives if I lived somewhere like that.
We lived in Chapel Hill (the third corner of the Triangle) for quite a few years, during undergrad and my husband’s grad school. It’s quite different from the rest of the state. If you are of a left-leaning bent, Chapel Hill and Asheville are the two oases of liberalism in an otherwise very conservative state.
Highway access is definitely better than it used to be. When we lived there, I-85 was the closest interstate; I-40 was just being extended through the area. The nearest Amtrak access was Raleigh, though I gather there’s now a train that goes through Durham.
It’s reasonably central to both the beach (3ish hours one way) and the mountains (4ish the other way). You’ll find plenty of options for medical care, between UNC and (:::spits::
Duke. And you don’t have to go all that far to get to less-developed areas - though when we passed through a couple years back, on our first trip in decades, Chapel Hill was pretty unrecognizable. There used to be a definite undeveloped area between that and Durham - now it’s all one strip-developed road.
Bumping with an update because I know y’all have been eagerly awaiting news about our move. 
Turned out that we didn’t like the semi-nomadic life nearly as much as we thought we would. We ended up buying a house in Durham toward the end of last September. We spent more than we had originally planned, but it was move-in ready with a lot of features that suited us extremely well.
…and we are so happy here. I really can’t believe how quickly we’ve felt really at home in Durham. We have met some lovely people, the food scene is surprisingly good, there are plenty of options for live music, RDU is a dream compared to MIA (and only 25 minutes from our house), my wife has plugged into the local sewing communities, and I have been enjoying the craft beer scene. Most of the drivers are not actively trying to kill me. I have never not missed a place more than I don’t miss Miami.
Only negative so far? The Pollening kicked. My. Ass. I have never been particularly sensitive to such things before, but this was on a whole 'nother level from any place I have ever experienced. I think next year I will dig out our supply of N95s for going out in public, and maybe get some higher-grade furnace filters for those couple of months. I think it was as much just breathing in all the particulates as it was any specific allergic reaction. Holy hell, that was miserable.
Yes, the heat has been bad, but nothing like South Florida. I’ll take it if it means I get to have four seasons in a year.
So - thanks everyone for the input, and know that it was greatly appreciated. We’re very happy in our new-found home.
I have similar pollen/allergen issues in Nebraska several seasons of the year. I have found 3M Filtrete™️ furnace filters to be worth every penny. There is a broad selection to choose from to target a solution for you.
I order mine online from Costco and often find an even more discounted deal from them during sale periods.
Again, worth every penny in indoor air quality and personal comfort.
I don’t know what the pollen is like in Nebraska, but I can tell you that I have lived in over a dozen states and nothing prepared me for NC pollen.
My wife moved down here 15 years ago from CT, just before were married, and bought a house. When it got warm in the spring, she started opening the windows. I explained that this was a bad idea. “Oh, I’m used to pollen in the spring from living in rural CT!”
She wasn’t.
Of course, she also wanted to wait to put in a fenced yard for her dog. “Have to wait under the ground thaws for the posts.”
No, you don’t.
According to this site, CT should have prepared her for NC, but obviously didn’t. I imagine the pollen season is longer in NC because it’s warmer and wetter earlier in the calendar year.
wyndly says NE(24th) is less worse than CT or NC, NC(39th) is less ‘worse’ than CT (45th worse). They list CT in their top 5 of bad locales for pollen allergy sufferers. By their manner of listing, NC is 5 steps less worse. I think they could have presented it more clearly.
Nebraska and Iowa are home-I was born and raised here and I’ll put up with the seasonal allergens to enjoy “the good life”.
::waves:: Glad you like it here! And yeah, sorry about the pollen. It gets bad enough during pine pollen season we get drifts of it on the porch and driveway some years. Everything is coated in green stuff.
Make that “greenish-yellow very sticky stuff.”