Brits on Tour

A while ago, Pam at http://pamokc.blogspot.com/ asked how a couple of Brits from northern England ended up in Oklahoma. I did tell her I would post about it one day, so here it is. I warn you though, this is a long, and rambling story, so do yourself a favor and stop reading right now.

It all started back in 1994 when we went to stay with an old friend of ours in the San Fernando Valley, just outside of LA. Towards the end of our vacation, Mick was offered a job at the company our friend worked for, and we told them we’d give the offer some thought when we got home.

Arriving home, and staring at the prospect of another miserable English winter, all that California sunshine was very tempting. But we both had good jobs, nice cars, and our own home, so we had a lot to lose, did we want to throw it all away on a whim? I think the thing that really swung it for us was, we were both of an age where we thought if we don’t do it now, we never will. In the end, we decided I would take a two year leave of absence from work, we would rent out our house, and come over for a year, thereby minimizing our risks.

We lived in the SF Valley for a year, and though we enjoyed it, the pace of life was a bit hectic for a couple from a small rural village in England. So, when Mick was offered a job in northern California, in a lovely little main street town called Benicia, forty miles outside San Francisco, we decided to give it a whirl. We lived there for 4 years, and absolutely loved it. While we were there, just before my leave of absence was coming to an end, the Civil Service (luckily for me), decided to jettison some staff, and as they don't make people redundant, I ended up getting early retirement.

Then Mick was offered a job back in southern California, at a place called Oxnard, which is right on the Pacific Coast. We had both always wanted to live by the ocean, so we moved again. The company Mick worked for sponsored Mick for his green card, and eventually we both became permanent residents here.

After that we decided to sell our house back in England, and buy something in California. But house prices were so high there that we couldn’t bring ourselves to take out a massive mortgage on a property we didn’t even like. That’s when we started looking into relocating. We spent a long time researching a lot of different states, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. But something kept steering us towards Oklahoma, and we moved here in May 2004.

We took a monumental risk moving here, we neither of us had a job, we had no home to go to, and we didn’t know a soul here. Anyway, it all worked out well in the end, and we are both so glad we moved. Sure, there are disadvantages to living out in the sticks, but in my opinion the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

So that’s it in a nutshell.

Toodle pip ‘til next time.