Maybe ten years ago one of my younger shirt tail relatives graduated from college and said "no bullshit jobs for me" and he and a buddy drove to Utah and got a job at a ski resort where they knew someone.

He's worked at ski resorts doing almost every thing, he's had jobs working for some towns, he's run construction crews building back woods fly in fishing resorts. He's skilled with his hands and adapts quickly and has always had work, even if it hasn't been the six figure jobs he would have had if he'd stayed in NY and worked in an office.

When he's not working he's skiing, biking or rafting. He has tons of friends he's met through friends and online. Over the years I think he's gotten good at knowing who to raft with and who is dead weight. He skis off mountains that would have me crying in terror. He's goes rafting trips where he hitchhiked, then just slept in a field until his ride was going to show up. When they did show up the truck was full so he rode in a raft that was on the trailer for a couple of days.

I've met some of his friends and my guess none are local or Mormons. To me I think they people who started out as ski/mountain bike kids who left home to work tourist jobs around ski towns in the west. They seem like nice cool young people, plenty of athletic pretty girls. They take off in informal groups to raft or bike all the time.

He's become a skilled outdoorsman. He's off in the woods or on rivers every minute he's not working. Although he's not really into them he's skilled in atvs and snowmobiles. He's run across bears, cougars and moose, he doesn't think twice about them and doesn't own a gun.

I moved to southern Utah about a year ago and have a family with little kids. I've spent a little time here and there in mountains in the middle area of the state and on the Arizona strip. There plenty of desert in the south and mountains in central Utah. Some of it is empty like if you die there no one would find you some of it you'll see other guys bombing around in trucks and atvs and you'll find people camping.

You'll see and hear people shooting. It's pretty common to see guys shooting pistols and carbines along the road or out in the woods.

Open carry is legal, it's uncommon but no one cares, at least where I live in the south. It's common to own ARs and lots of T shirts and hats with guns. There are not really any state gun or weapon laws and really no one cares.

If you want to be a man of action and can accept that Utah is the "jump at your own risk" (my son pointing out the sign at a trampoline park) state then Utah is for you.

Rent is high, like ridiculously high, and often pay is low by east coast standards. Salt Lake City is a retarded liberal city that thinks it's San Francisco but is more of a small town, like it seems smaller than Nashville. But the liberals are mostly confined to Salt Lake City, I think, I almost never go there

St George Utah is on the border with Arizona and is a city of only 100k and lacks the suburbs and towns surrounding Salt Lake City. It's conservative, there's no real crime, it's very small town-fine by me. It's very expensive, a small house is 750k, I rent and know other people who rent who would normally own a house.

I think the schools are okay despite being underfunded. The school my daughter goes to grows by hundreds of students every year. Lots of new people moving in all the time. Lots of wealthy people, not all from California. Also normal regular folks from Utah, usually from further north.

It is hot as blazes in the spring and summer which is tough on the kids. It's nice the rest of the year. There are no hippy shit heads like in Salt Lake City. Everyone is nice. I've never had any problems with Mormons. I have met other immigrant guys who complained to me that they insular or whatever. Not my experience. My kids don't even know which of their friends are Mormon. My kids play with Mormon kids and go do stuff with them.

I've met a bunch of gun dudes who are from CA. A lot of not Mormon immigrants guys are men who hated Ca and fled to Utah.

St. George is small town, don't expect big city shopping, restaurants or nightlife anywhere in Utah but more so in StG. It's a quick two hours to Vegas and about four hours to Salt Lake City. There is a small airport in StG that major airlines fly out of. Las Vegas is a lot cheaper.

StG is surrounded by famous parks and empty blm land.

If you live in a big city/suburban metropolitan area it could be culture shock for the wife and kids. If you want to shoot shit, drive off road, fish and not give a fuck what liberals think this is the place

I have little experience with Az but I'd take Utah over Az. It's more conservative and likely to stay that way

Only if we can keep the New Yorkers out....

I've only met one other person from NY. I was at a poolside bar and they called my order by my phone number and she recognized the area code. She said she'd moved from a town in the Adirondacks, I was surprised at that, then she said in an annoyed voice "but we're HERE NOW"

Nothing more NY than standing next to a beautiful pool with a bar and palm trees and blue sky and be like "oh enough with the no snow and beautiful weather at this resort!"

212 is Manhattan. I'm from upstate.

I took my son into the orthodontist this week, we'd never been there before and just needed this odd device he needed fitted. The receptionist asked if we were in town for Christmas. I was like "I live here" and she went "oh?" Huh :p


I still haven't met anyone else from NY. Now it's moslty people upstate Utah or Mexico

One of you New Yorkers lives down the street from me.  Used to be pretty active here on the site but he hasn't posted in years.  We still chat on FB from time to time.