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Post / Chat whores post here (2026)

We are in Marina. We rode up from San Simeon yesterday morning on the Pacific Coast Highway right after it opened after being closed due to the fires for some weeks.

It was wonderful. We are very happy.
 
have family outside of carson (immediate vicinity). i would vote no on that. dust, gamblers and barflys.
But is the livin' cheap? Less concerned about the people (mostly unless I'm gonna be getting shot at or robbed all the time) mostly concerned about where I go to make a living that actually covers the cost of, ya know, livin'.
 
Good morning,

Appetite is back and I am also up a creek without a paddle if my Face ID stops working for some reason. I really only know one password, and that is the one to get me into my Apple/Google account. From there I can get to all of my other passwords through their included password manager apps.
 
But is the livin' cheap? Less concerned about the people (mostly unless I'm gonna be getting shot at or robbed all the time) mostly concerned about where I go to make a living that actually covers the cost of, ya know, livin'.

My opinion of Carson is that it is a sleepy rural farm/cowboy town with enough strip mall sprawl to be called a city
Does that appeal to you? Go check it out.

Living in a place that I want to be > having a job in a place I don't want to be. Ymmv
 
I have no real knowledge of the job opportunities these days.
I'd look for a company that'll pay to relocate you.....
 
But is the livin' cheap? Less concerned about the people (mostly unless I'm gonna be getting shot at or robbed all the time) mostly concerned about where I go to make a living that actually covers the cost of, ya know, livin'.

There are lots of places that are super cheap to live.

And there are usually very good reasons for that...some of which:

- less economic opportunity overall (Walmart the largest employer)
- wages relative to lower cost of living
- "difficult" climates
- less proximity to really appealing things like great restaurants, bars, entertainment, beautiful natural outdoors, etc that drive up housing demand in places that have them

But if "cheap" is the only criteria you are looking at, you have a very different priority set than I do.

I see in your posts that you like to roll by the zeitgeist and have a beer. That implies some desire to be in a cool hip progressive Urban environment. As far as I know, Reno has plenty of places like that, Carson on the other hand I don't think so.

Does Carson have micro breweries and bars? I'm sure. But not the same vibe as Reno, and Carson is very proud of that
 
Carson had some nice spots when we visited.

Bars, Restaurants.. a Casino and deer wondering downtown at night.
Not a bad spot from what I could see.
 
Well ok fine, I don't want the sticks of Nebraska cheap, I want proximity to fun riding and a divey watering hole or two for a post ride drink or two. Restaurants are fine I guess, the closest I get to eating out is the occasional burrito because I can't justify the cost these days. Last time I was through Carson (which was years ago) it's tiny downtown area seemed passable, we found decent food, met some folks from Colorado who'd moved there and used their bicycles to get around town and then ended up at a nice dive bar for drinks and a good collection of characters. Seemed like I could make it work there and while I do enjoy walkable or bikeable living, I'll give that up for cheaper rent / mortgages and ideally a garage if there is a trade to be had.
 
Carson had a couple really good dive bars.

We never did go Rally there again, but if you move to NV maybe we will.
 
What about Sparks?
I'd consider it if the price was right, rode through there on the way back from a trip last year and it was a very cookie cutter suburban installation. Seemed kinda expensive, and it'd be more of a haul to get to good riding, but, ya know, compromises and what not.
 
Reno and sparks are one place, really

There is massive sprawl taking place in 360 degrees from the epicenter of what you would call downtown Reno. The sprawl goes out quite a bit.
Yes the newer communities are a lot of cookie cutter condo townhome developments on top of each other as far as the eye can see. There are also the luxury home developments, but there is a lot of funky single family homes with a patch of dirt all over, values have been rising, deals are still to be had. But not like they were a few years ago.
I bought a funky tiny two bedroom home in the wells district of Reno, easily walkable to downtown and the midtown strip, with a garage for $299 about 8 years ago, just sold it for almost double that .

I believe Carson will be cheaper than Reno or Sparks unless you get something older and more remote.

Look around at jobs and houses for sale in those areas and see how they relate to each other
 
Yeah, starting to explore my options, applied to a few jobs already but I'm getting the sense most places aren't gonna consider anyone who's not already in the area. Also got word from the city that a job I applied for has gone to the next round so that may or may not materialized into something (not being far more likely)

Anyhoo, today will be a good one. Caffeinating, then I head to Livermore to get bunch of rotors stuffed into a back pack on my bike (as such the fun route will only be taken on the way there). Then I'll start work on getting the KTM back together and see how far I get before heading to the moto social.

But first, coffee...
 
Now that our plans to cash-out of the Bay Area and move to the foothills is pretty much dead (due to fires/insurance), Reno/Sparks is one of a few areas we'll be looking at (although I don't know that I could ever actually pull the trigger on leaving Cali)
 
Proximity to mountains and good roads is the goal, Reno and Carson tick that box, I'd consider Oregon and Washington as well, possibly New Mexico or the elevated parts of Arizona. I've ruminated about Alaska for the experience, but they're a bit short of really good sport bike roads and winter is kinda serious business there.
 
NV Things to know....

- Outskirts of Reno/sparks have fire danger also
See the recent hawk, bug, pinehaven fires. They tend to be more grass fires than the forest fires the Foothills have, but still an issue

- washoe county NV still requires annual smog of vehicles, auto reg and insurance is no cheaper than Cali. I was excited to save money registering cars down there, but it was a wash.
Counties outside Washoe do not have smog 😁

- the anti-cali/blue vibe can be real, there is a different political vibe and those folks tend to be loud and proud these days, if you can shrug that off, you'll be fine, but if having it in your face will bristle you, it is omnipresent.

I'm sure someone reno/nv full-time residents can add more
 
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