deranger[OC] Sunset on the James River
š Alexander Daychilde šHello from Newport News. You canāt be too far away since thatās clearly the estuary. :)
Dharma Curious (he/him)Iām not there anymore, but I grew up in Newport News and Portsmouth! God I want to move back so badly l{lol
I had intended on moving up to Seattle when I was able, but we ended up in Virginia, andā¦ Iām definitely happy here. Nowhere is perfect, but itās pretty damn nice.
Although winter this year was relentless. heh. If this had been my first year up here, I would have regretted it. lol
Lived there for aout 15 years, and moved around in August 09 to Tennessee. The year we got to TN, they had heat advisories to like crazy because it was going to be 80 whole degrees! We should have figured out then just how unprepared we were for Winter. That first winter was one of the worst since moving here, and oh my God, I did not expect it. Haha
I do seriously miss Virginia, though. Itās not where Iām from originally, but Hampton Roads is where I think of when I think of home.
LOL, 80Ā°, eh? I grew up in DFW - only a little hotter than Hampton Roads. But lots of years weād have >100 days over 100Ā° in a row for summer. I donāt miss that feeling of walking out and just instantly melting. heh
Yeah, if theyāre issuing warnings for 80Ā°, Iām not gonna be a happy camper come winter. lol. This is about as much winter as I want right here. I think even Richmond would be sligtly too much, and DC even more slightly too much. heh. This seems to be a really good spot. :)
I grew up in DFW, lived 16 years in Panama City, FL (panhandle), and now 8 years in Hampton Roads. I think Iāve decided this is home, even more than I did when I was in Florida. Thereās things and people I miss from DFW and FL, butā¦ ehā¦
Yep! I can still remember this crossing guard woman in Kingsport, TN we spoke to. Weād been there a few days at most. My momās wearing like a light cardigan, Iāve got shorts on under my jeans in case it gets hot, and this lady is telling us sheās āmeltingā and how she just doesnāt know if she can handle this or not. For what itās worth, they donāt really issue the warnings for that temp anymore as it has gotten warmer, yeah. Haha.
I also lived in Florida for a while before VA. Homestead. Down in SC, now, and after 17 years in Tennessee, Iām the person who feels like theyāre melting at 80. Haha. I spent 17 years trying to figure out how the hell to dress for winter, and I finally got it the winter before I left! Got my layering down pat, discovered scarves work well for meā¦ And then ended up back down south with no need for it.
And Iām glad you found home! If I could convince my people to move back there, Iād be back so fast. Do you know where Cradock is in Portsmouth? Thatās the neighborhood I grew up in before we moved to the peninsula, and we were right there where Jefferson Ave and Denbigh come together. Itās funny, since moving, whenever anyone asks where Iām from I just have to tell them Virginia Beach, because they have no idea where the rest of it is. Lol. I always feel like Iām lying to them, because I was only in VAB for a year before leaving the state lol
Ah, Homestead. My wife grew up in Ft. Lauderdale - well, Plantation specifically, which was fun to explain to her mixed college class in Dallas! lol
I had a below-knee amputation three years ago and it made pants a real pain in the ass (because the leg comes with the shoe, so itās like putting on pants with your shoe on) - so I basically wear shorts now. Gets me some odd looks, and it is a little cold, but Iām usually only outside long enough to go to the car or go from the car to inside. heh. But I layer t-shirts under my shirt for warmth - ever since Florida, I feel like I gained the right to wear Hawaiian shirts, and I like the reactions I get - Iām old enough now that I donāt care what people think except I like to make 'em smile. :)
I donāt know where Cradock is, alas. Well, I just looked it up, though. Iāve been through there a couple of times, but havenāt spent much time in Portsmouth.
We moved to VB in 2018 and lived for a year in the flight path of Oceana NAS - right up against I-264 just east of First Colonial. Then my wife got hired at Colonial Williamsburg and was making that 1h15m+ commute to Wburg, so we ended up moving to James City county, which I thought was awesome living in the county that Jamestown is in. But we just moved down to Newport News. I like Wburg, but we wanted to be with a little more variety of food, and with all the military down here, itās much better.
So Iāve been on probably most of the major roads in every one of the cities except Poquoson and the nearby part of Hampton over there on that side of I-64, and I havenāt been much around Portsmouth to Suffolk, but Chesapeake, VB, Norfolk, most of the Peninsula, I have. heh.
Hampton Roads is wild. Before we moved here, I really didnāt know much about this part of the country at all, and I hadnāt really heard about Hampton Roads; Iād heard a little bit about Norfolk and knew there was some navy stuff here, but that was about it. heh.
Actually, in 2009 I did an internship in Seattle but had an orientation for it in DC, so I drove from Florida - but I wanted to drive through a few extra states to say I had, so I peeled of I-95 and came over to Hampton Roads so I could cross the CBBT (which was amazing) and go up into Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, then back down I-95 to DC for the orientation. So I think itās hilarious I drove through here before we moved here 9 years later. heh
Oh, and forgot to get back to that bit - I am right now right off Jefferson just south of Atkinson, so not too far north of Denbeigh. hehe. Itās perfect since all my doctors are in Williamsburg and Rachel still works at CW, so while her commute had been like 7 minutes, now itās still only just over 20, so itās really not bad.
I really did like Williamsburg. After growing up in DFW, when we moved to Panama City with 150k people in the metro area, it was just so small. Moving to VB felt like civilization again, but after a year I kinda liked the small-town feel of Wburg. But now Iām back to liking being in a real city. lol. The traffic really isnāt bad, and thereās just so much more stuff down here.
I really hope South Carolina feels like home for you for as long as youāre there. I know every place has its positives and negatives. I definitely wouldnāt want to go back to DFW at this point. I miss the severe weather, but I donāt miss tha traffic, and Iāve grown to be spoiled on real trees. This winter has been damned long with the spate of really cold temps, but summer is just that much prettier, I suppose. Iām even getting used to fall. Winter even, for a couple of months. lol. Iām working on it. :)
Iām sorry about the amputation. That sucks. Of all the problems I imagined having to deal with with that, the shoe-through-a-pants-leg bit did not occur to me.
You said you were right in the flight path. I wonder how close my old place was to yours. Do you know where Laskin and Bird neck is? We used to live in the Link Horn apartments there. The planes were so low we could literally see the pilots as they took off and landed. We used to wave at the pilots and they would wave back!
Also, jealous you got to live in JCC, I always wanted to move to the historic triangle. My mom used to take us on day trips to York Town when I was kid. Absolutely loved it up there.
Life happens re: amputation. heh. Appreciated. Could be worse - could be dead :)
I do know where that intersection is. :) We were on the south side of 264 in Piperās Landing - i.imgur.com/jSEjpVp.jpeg - so VERY close, although a solid few minutes to drive from one to the other. hehe. Oh, man, the jets were so LOUD there. And so often so late at night! I sort of got used to it, sorta, but I really was so very glad to get away from that. But yeah, it felt like you could just about jump up and catch the planes. lol.
I always though the 7-Eleven right around the corner from our apartments was wild - since it was in Williamsburg, there was no signage on the building itself, and only this out front: i.imgur.com/Flv7Spv.jpeg - thatās at 199 and Jamestown Rd. heh
Iāve come to the conclusion that given electricity, air conditioning, and good internetā¦ I can pretty much live anywhere. But Virginia really is a nicer place to live than many places. heh. Nowhere is perfect. But itās nice.
But I know a lot of areas have been getting better and better - I know more about North Carolina than South, but hopefully youāre in an area that matches what you want :)
Thatās wild weāve lived so close to each other, and we both ended up on Lemmy.
South Carolina isnāt my favorite, tbh. I love my family there, and the town Iām in is nice, but the area as a whole isā¦ Depressing, I guess would be the word. I miss living in an actual city.
I love the internet for exactly that reason. I host a lot of the internet presence for Simutrans, an open source game thatās almost 30 years old. Because of that, I get to talk to people literally around the world - itās a small community, but a global following. And then thereās times like this - finding someone who was very close in proximity that I never would have met othewise. lol. Itās awesome. :)
Well, I feel your pain on SC - thatās probably not unlike how I felt moving to Panama City. Well, not only was it a tiny community (I went from what was at the time I think 6 million down to 150,000. lol), but also I grew up inland, so it kinda freaked me out being on the water. I didnāt feel like I was gonna fall off the edge exactly, but it was weird to me not being able to just drive in any direction. lol.
Small towns definitely have some big disadvantages. I think the lack of interesting places to eat is my worst complaint. lol. But even moving from Williamsburg to Newport News has opened up - we have an African market around the corner, and apparently the Yemini community is well-represented in local restaurants. heh.
Hopefully you find sufficient comfort in the family and the town so long as youāre there. I do miss a very few thngs about Panama City. Not much. But a few. hehe
150k is absolutely enormous compared to where I am now and have been since leaving VA. Haha.
I feel about the geography change! It freaked my brain out not constantly having the ocean to my east! It was so hard getting used to the idea of not just constantly knowing where east was, and learning how to live in the mountains, with the roads you can just straight up fall off of. Haha
Also, sorry for the delayed reply. My phone broke and I just got a new one
I opened the tab so Iād not lose track and my ADHD kicked in. Itās been sitting here waiting on me, sorry - Iām afraid it happens. :(
I donāt know if I could handle THAT small. I grew up in Dallas but with family in Mississippi - so several times mom would drive me (and herself) to visit family in Natchez, which has around 20,000 people. Maybe another 5,000 across the river in Vidalia, Louisiana. Not much in that town, surviving mostly on tourism especially after the last industry - a paper mill - closed down. Very very sad, which is also a bummer because itās really a pretty place with some history (although I suppose a lot of the history they trade on is a bit distasteful).
Actually, worth mentioningā¦ itās easy to google my name - Isaac Eiland-Hall - but that is, of course, my married name. When mom was pregnant with me, they were living in Natchez at the time. Obviously they had my last name - Hall - and waffled between Jacob and Isaac eventually settling on Isaacā¦ but they couldnāt come up with a middle name. Driving around town one day, they passed by a particular antebellum home, and mom jokingly said āHow about Isaac āStanton Hallā?ā - and dad, not seeing where they were, thought about it, and liked it. And then mom thought and liked it too, so I was named after a building. heh.
It actually caused me to have to sit and think when I found out my wife wanted to hyphenate. Iād vaguely heard about it before and was fine with it - but it would āruinā my name thing! But I finally decided she was more important than it (and I wanted to share the same last name) lol.
Itās funny how where you live changes perspective. It definitely freaked me out in Panama City with the huge expanse of the Gulf, although by the time we moved up here, Iām fine with having the Atlantic close by. heh. I kinda like it. Itās also still weird after eight years growing up watching the NYC ball drop at New Yearās at 11pm, then watching whatever local event at midnight. Now, of course, the ball drop IS midnight. lol. And growing up with television talking about programs playing like āWatch the latest episode tonight, nine Eastern / eight Centralā. Now Iām the Eastern. lol.
I do kinda like living on the east coast, though. There is some lack of respect for places inland. And while Iām not particularly interested in the military, having Norfolk here feels nice. And as much as theyāre a pain in the butt to use, the bridge-tunnel complexes are just cool and rare infrastructureā¦
Iām sorry for the broken phone, dealing with that sucks. Iām glad you got a new one. :)
And mountains are the one thing I wish we had closer. My time in Seattle got me spoiled on them. But I guess you just canāt have everything. lol.
Thatās hilarious! I opened your reply up and held it for later and did the same thing, before ever reading your reply! Lol
And way too much coincidence. I wonāt post my whole name, but Iām actually a hyphenate as well. My mom wrote her ex husbandās name on the birth certificate because when I was born it was a c section, but when they cut her she felt it. Sheād had so many epidurals previously because of her surgeries for her disabilities that he had just built an immunity to them is our best guess they had to knock her out, and they asked her to sign the birth certificate before the drugs had fully worn off. Haha. So the birth certificate had one name (her ex husband and my brotherās name) and SS had another (my fatherās) name, and no body ever realized the mistake until it came time to get it drivers license. I ended up hyphenating them as it was cheaper than getting one or the other changed at the time.
Should I ever get married I want to just add the third name. I really like the idea of collecting names haha
Also! Bridge tunnel story! The entire reason we moved to Hampton Roads is because we were living in a school bus, traveling and setting up with the carnival at the time. Very long sort of fall from grace type scenario. Haha. But the bus broke down inside in the tunnel. We were stuck there for hours and hours. We caused a huge traffic jam. And my mom was terribly claustrophobic. By the time the wrecker got there and got us out of the tunnel she told them to take us to the nearest camp ground instead of a mechanic. She was done. We stayed in a campground in Chesapeake for a few months and then didnāt leave Hampton roads for 15 years