Long story short, it's always been my plan to retire to the Cody area.

I'm giving myself 5 years to be there. Summer 2023. Likely to have my cousin and his family with me.

We're looking at buying about 40-50 acres, throwing two small homes on it and living a more simple life.

I'm not 100% sure what I'll be doing for work while I'm there, but I have a free degree waiting and 5 years to secure it so that shouldn't be a problem. I just need to research what is in good demand (and will likely not go bust in the next decade).

Any input would be great, we'll likely build homes rather than buy. We've been looking at solar options, well costs, utility costs, etc.

ANY advice or suggestions you guys can offer? I understand the difference between living out west and in a big city. But any specific advice for those that have made the move or grew up there?

Not sure if I could give any suggestion as this is the plan for the wife an I.

My hope though is we can get some high-speed internet on the property to support streaming and simultaneous surfing.

Lived in Wyoming for a few years earlier in my career. While the stark and vast nothingness of WY is too much for some, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Cody is big enough that you won't be all alone, but can be if you want to. Plus, you're much closer to the more scenic areas than I was in Gillette. I miss the summers.

quote:

Originally posted by SigM4:
Lived in Wyoming for a few years earlier in my career. While the stark and vast nothingness of WY is too much for some, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Cody is big enough that you won't be all alone, but can be if you want to. Plus, you're much closer to the more scenic areas than I was in Gillette. I miss the summers.

This is what I'm hoping for. The contrast to big city life is the number 1 draw for me. NW Florida is getting WAY to big. And spending 4 years on OAHU will spoil city life for anyone.

Have lived in Cody for almost 40 years.
Email in profile if you have questions.
This may give you some idea of cost of living here.
http://www.usamls.net/parkcoun...nu_id=46292&lid=4065

PC

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
I'm not 100% sure what I'll be doing for work while I'm there

Dental Floss tycoon? Oh wait, that’s Montana. Water Pik tycoon?

A friend just moved there from ABQ. It's a nice little town. We like Sheridan a bit better. Get yourself a National Park pass and you can explore Yellowstone before it blows. Close enough to Devil's Tower, Little Bighorn, and Pompey's Pillar to boot. Plenty of moose and elk wander along the river to see. Hooty owls out in the deep woods.

A great place to jump off to visit Montana as well.

Buffalo Bill built the hotel. It still has that Old West flavor.
Hotel Irma, named after Bill's daughter

Cody Theater

We would love to spend more time at the Historical Center. That's a world-class museum.

Buffalo Bill Historical Center

those pics remind me of one of our vacations.
We loved Cody, Irmas has a great restaurant and the museum....was awesome.

Sounds like a good plan to move there.

Pompey's Pillar where Wm. Clark of Lewis & Clark left his mark. One of the few places they know of where the Voyage of Discovery made camp.
Famous Grafitti

Butte is lousy with history.
Butte

The Little Bighorn Monument

I took a tour of National Parks in 2009 that included Cody, Wyoming and the area around it. My photos from that day are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/...s/72157622722660134/. We did Little Bighorn and Crazy Horse the next day: https://www.flickr.com/photos/...s/72157622728470152/ and Deadwood, Mt. Rushmore, and Custer State Park the day after that: https://www.flickr.com/photos/...s/72157622606173371/.

flashguy

I used to live there. Wyoming is one of my favorite states, precisely because no one there cares who you are, what you believe or do, or your reasons. Break down along the road? Someone will help you. Want to open carry? Go ahead. Need a hand moving? Good chance you'll get it. Want privacy? No problem.

On the other hand, looking for work? Good luck.

Since Cody is a relatively small place, it's no surprise that PCWyoming and I from up above know each other. I'll also extend the offer to shoot me an email if you have questions.

I've lived in MN, ND, AZ, KS, CA, and now Cody, WY. Cody is hands down my favorite. When we moved to WY, we originally lived in Buffalo for 2 years, which is about 30 miles South of Sheridan. I had to drive to Cody for a doctor's appointment at a specialist one day and was immediately sold. I told my wife that if we'd seen Cody before moving to Buffalo, we'd have moved there. After her first visit while I was shooting a USPSA match here, she was sold and we moved. Even the weather is significantly better than the Sheridan area.

To address the Internet concern mentioned in one of the responses, it's touch and go. I'm 6 miles outside of Cody and have good Internet through TCT West. Good enough that I can work from home for a company out of CA and do video Skypes without issue. Others aren't as lucky and have to have HughesNet. After using X amount of bandwidth, they throttle back your service. If you use it for emails and SigForum surfing, you're fine. Netflix would be out.

40-50 acres can be found, but those kind of places are few and far between aren't going to be cheap. The ranchers have the majority of the land, the rich, out of staters, have most of the rest.

As for work here, it's a highly seasonal area, with Yellowstone being the obvious attraction. We run a couple AirBnB's in addition to my job and do fine. The AirBnB's are booked near solid for about 3.5-4 months, then absolutely nothing for the rest of the year. They just passed a law in the city stating that unless your place is zoned for business, you cannot operate a vacation rental. That should push a LOT more business to places outside of town like yours and mine.

Lots of trade type work around here, and if you're really on top of your gun game, there's Gunwerks, Wyoming Arms, Best of the West, Huskemaw Optics, etc.

Again, if you have any questions during any part of the process, feel free to email at the addy in my profile. I think 100% of the Wyoming residents replied to you, so you did pretty well.

Thank you gentlemen, this has always been a dream of ours and I thought I was gonna have to wait until I was 50, but it looks like 40 is doable. We’re tough guys, grew up country. We know it won’t be easy but we kind of want it that way.

If you could recommend any degree that would be sellable in that area, what would it be? Remember we both have military service to boot always a plus on resumes. I speak Korean, but I’m assuming the Korean population ain’t a booming lol

Thank you for posting this.
Heading out that way this summer on a family vacation, also taking a serious look at possibly retiring out there too.

I'm about ready to give up chasing Huggie Bear and start chasing Yogi Bear.

But will you have as much fun in Wyoming chasing Yogi as you do in Chicago chasing Huggie,lol.

Almost moved to Cody back in the '80s. It was to work for John Linbaugh of big bore revolver fame. Hes no longer there. I believe they have a huge Rodeo every year.

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:
I believe they have a huge Rodeo every year.

Kinda like Cheyenne?

The Cody rodeo is much smaller, but runs nightly (if I recall correctly) all summer.

I had lunch with Park County Sheriff, Scott Steward awhile back to coordinate on SAR ops into the Teton Wilderness. Wyoming has a county numbering system on our license plates. Park County is #11. Teton County, which includes Jackson is 22.

Scott said, “Park County is 11 because we’re only half as fucked up as Teton County.”

Good guy, but then the sheriff of Teton County is a really good guy too.

quote:

Originally posted by BadDogPSD:
The Cody rodeo is much smaller, but runs nightly (if I recall correctly) all summer.

Yes, I think you are correct.

We took our travel trailer to Cody to see Yellowstone, back in 2014. We loved it there. What a great place.

We bought tickets for the rodeo, then had to go get a steak dinner for my wife's nephew and didn't make it back in time, but the steaks sure were good !

It was well worth the drive from MI and being able to see the curvature of the earth on the horizon is quite an experience.