If your friend is even remotely liberal, politically this place is a hellhole.
I’ve always joked that “Wyoming” is an old Native American word for “windy”.
Here in the northeast, the temperature can range from literally -40° F to 115° F over the course of the year.
There is plenty to do for outdoorsy types, nothing whatsoever for those who like cultural events, and there is a lot of open space between populated areas.
Cost of living is pretty high in most places- grocery prices tend to be higher here than what you would find on the coasts. Rental prices can be fairly inflated depending on which part of the state you end up in.
It’s surprising how little that can matter here- I have literally been subjected to an anti-liberal spiel in a sex-toy shop, for no reason other than that was what was on the shop owner’s mind.
Around here, every (and I do mean every) public space with a television will be tuned to Fox News 24/7. Waiting rooms, restaurants, bars, health clubs… it is inescapable.
Thanks for all the responses, I will show this to my friend and recommend a trial run. I think he’s just fed up with taxes or the bad streets or something. (I don’t know what he was complaining about NYS snowfall for. I’ve heard blizzards in that part of the country - Wyoming, the Dakotas - have buried locomotives at times.)
I’m not saying anything against Wyoming, but it sounds like it IS different and it would take a special kind of person to live there full time.
Around here they are all tuned to CNN and it doesn’t bother me. But I can see you are probably someone to whom politics does matter more, also somebody more likely to tell me it’s not symmetric because CNN is straight down the middle but Fox is evil right wing propaganda, etc. But left wing opinions here (inner NY area) are also pretty inescapable, I don’t agree with them, but it doesn’t particularly bother me.
The dream doesn’t have to die if Wyoming doesn’t work out. The wind combined with cold would be a deal breaker for me but there are similar places that are more habitable. Southern Colorado springs to mind but there are plenty of other choices. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
I lived in Casper, Wyoming for about a year in the late 90s, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
As people have already mentioned, a lot of how the experience will be for your friend depends on their political standing. If they’re a right wing conservative, they’ll probably love it. If they love guns, they’ll love it. If they love hunting they’ll REALLY love it.
Cost of living is cheapish (food was kinda expensive if I remember correctly). But there’s not much in way of entertainment if you’re not into hunting/outdoors stuff. There’s like, nothing ‘cultural’ unless it has to do with hunting/outdoor stuff.
Weather suuuuuuuuuuuuucked so much. But I don’t think that would be a surprise. The entire state is completely barren though. When I was there, Caspar was the SECOND LARGEST city in the state with 35k people. Only beat out by Cheyenne. Which was over two hours away. Other than that, nothing. Little towns here and there but mostly nothing.
It is beautiful, I’ll definitely give you that. But…being far left on the political scale, I only saw the beauty in the nature around and for damn sure not in the people around me. It’s VERY difficult to be an ‘outsider’ there. Especially if you’re coming from one of the ‘liberal’ states. My parents were unable to find any job there because their resumes made it clear they were from California. At the time (I’m sure it’s still like this to a degree), there was a huge stigma against people like them ‘taking over’ the state. So they were not at all welcomed with open arms. Something to maybe consider.
Overall, I really wouldn’t suggest anyone live there unless they have two first names and at least one of them is Bob or Ray.
Yeah, I know, but when I was there, I had my wife and our (then) 3 year old son. It was mid/late october, and as mentioned, the car was at the dealership for repair. Wasn’t about to do a lot of walking. Thankfully the walmart was across the street from the motel and a good source of toys and caillou books for the guestling and entertaining locals for the Mrs. and I to people watch as we browsed
Just wanted to defend Rock Springs, but I hear you. We spent about 15 days on the road, driving around the country and staying in Comfort Inns mostly, and only one or two of those nights wouldn’t have been a disaster without a car to go someplace decent for dinner.
Rock Springs wasn’t one of them.
This. I live in Montana and talk to people from Wyoming all the time and they are always surprised it’s not windy where I live. And while wind may not be that big a deal in the Summer, it sucks when the air temp is -10 and the wind is 40 mph.
If your friend is serious about moving to Wyoming they should spend some time there in the winter and the summer, maybe a few weeks, to see if it suits them. I moved from California to Montana and it took quite a while to completely adjust to the slower pace and more dramatic weather. No regrets.
But I can see you are probably someone to whom politics does matter more, also somebody more likely to tell me it’s not symmetric because CNN is straight down the middle but Fox is evil right wing propaganda, etc. But left wing opinions here (inner NY area) are also pretty inescapable, I don’t agree with them, but it doesn’t particularly bother me.