Unabashed

I’ve spent time in a lot of different places. I lived in Jacksonville, Florida for a few years and enjoyed my time there. I liked Pensacola, too. I’ve lived in or near Birmingham most of my life, though, and though it’s got some good points it’s not what I would call a “Great Place to Live.” According to CNNMoney.com, Trussville, which is a suburb of B’ham, is one of the top 100 (no. 56). My boss lives in Trussville. I’m very familiar with the area, though, and I wouldn’t rank it as high as Helena, which is near where I live (picture is of a small dam in the town of Helena).

There are a few places that I’ve never visited that have always seemed like they would be great places to live: Asheville, NC and Austin, TX. I don’t know why they seem so appealing to me, but whenever I read or hear anything about them it only intensifies my belief. I’ve seen Austin City Limits on PBS, which is a great show, and Asheville has the Biltmore Mansion. I read an article about Asheville in Adventure Magazine that called Asheville the “Boulder of the East,” I suppose in reference to Boulder’s rep as an adventure/outdoors-enthusiast destination. The article made Asheville’s cred rise significantly for me.

Other places that I’ve heard are good places to live: Chattanooga (actually, I wouldn’t have believed this, having been there a few times, but apparently Chattanooga has gone through a revitalization over the past ten years), Boulder, Scottsdale, Boise… To me, the qualifications for a Great Place to Live include plenty of restaurants, theaters, and bars. There’s got to be some outdoors activities–hiking, biking, climbing, camping, fishing, etc. There’s got to be some scenery of some kind: a rolling river, a beach, mountains, something. Smaller is better, but it’s got to be near somewhere big.

Where do you live? Do you know of any Great Places to Live? What makes them great?

Sometimes I drive this route to work instead of taking the interstate, just for the view. This area is called Bluff Park on Shades Crest.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Alabama, Arizona, Asheville, Austin, Boise, Chattanooga, Helena, Idaho, Scottsdale, Texas, Trussville

Burning south on British steel–it’s autumn but there’s no fall color. Skies clear,
air brisk, running 90mph all the way to Tuscaloosa with plenty of throttle left.
Suzy’s arms wrapped around me, hugging me tightly, wearing the Wolverine tee
shirt I bought her when I was working in Abilene.

The girls at the shop where I bought it thought it was supercool, me buying my
wife a Wolverine tee shirt; one of them had a tattoo of the baby Endless and
asked me if I knew what they were. I told her and she almost came apart, as if
she didn’t know there were people like me in the world–thirty something,
corporate-looking, blond, no tats, no piercings but knowledgeable about some of
the same things she was. Maybe I am. I’ve been reading comics since before I
could read the words–my collection has swelled into the thousands but now it’s
only about five hundred. I was a Wolverine fan before it was cool to be a
Wolverine fan. I named my son Logan and yes, he’s a superhero. But I digress…

In T-town we ate burgers at the Coppertop and drank beers and watched some of
the GAME (Alabama vs. Ole Miss–American football, ye lubbers!). It’s called the
Coppertop because the bartop is made of copper. Then I bought three cigars, Suzy
got her belly button re-pierced and we blew town, north again at about the same
clip that we’d done southbound.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: abilene, Alabama, coppertop, endless, t-town, Texas, tuscaloosa, wolverine