Originally Posted by
MoonShot
I have commuted to every airline job I’ve had (20+ years). I do a long drive AND a flight. I’m totally over it. It’s a complete waste of time and tough on the body.
That said: I’m not moving to a base either. Some reasoning: We aren’t city people. We like rural areas and our friend/family network where we are. We live well below our “possible” means. This allows me to work less and have more time off to keep the sanity vs. continually commuting. I’ve found flying less at a higher rate (CA) is preferable to “working the system” as a senior FO. Fly a few trips a month and chill. We’ve got quite a bit of acreage and built the “captain’s house” in the country. If we sold it all, we might get a 3 bed/2 bath on a 1/4 acre built in the 80’s at most of our bases. Just can’t justify that..
Surprisingly (to me not from there) northern New Jersey I actually have a bigger house and more land than I did in Wyoming (granted I lived in city limits in Casper, WY)
I can only see the nearest neighbor if I look out two windows on that side of the house on the 2nd floor.
200 acre boy scout camp across the street and a couple thousand acres of state forest behind that. Running water/waterfall on the property. Backs up to a large pond, although the pond frontage is conservation land so no building a dock and walkway to the dock. But it cuts my property tax bill in half.
5 miles from downtown Denville which is basically Mayberry with better delis. 6 miles to the train station. 1 hour to NY Penn on the train but I normally drive vs NJ transit to Penn, LIRR to Jamaica and then Airtrain to JFK.
Another 10 minutes down the road to basically any shopping I need to do. That was a problem for my wife in some of the more rural places we lived when I was doing oilfield stuff. 90 minutes one way to the nearest Walmart/Target/non IGA grocery store gets old.
The only "wanted but didn't get" was room to build a motocross track on the property. Technically have the acreage but the terrain isn't conducive to mx. Hard Enduro or trials it's great for.