The Local Top 10

As we contemplate moving, I would just like to list my top 10 reasons to stay in this town, which was named after a General who is boasted to have said, "If anything is ever named after me, I hope it will be a spring of water," after taking a drink from a spring at the base of a nearby hill. Instead of the spring of water namesake...:

10 - The famous saying when anyone moves into town (one I have heard from everyone since my first day here) is "Yah, but we're getting a Walmart..." I hear about it, I know where it's supposed to be built, but I have never seen anything built...

9 - When you have company (those two times in three years - one of which was thanks to the roads being closed in every direction), you rack your brain for something fun to do and find your self asking if they'd like to go see the "old state pen", where you can pay $100 to be locked in for the night on Halloween....?

8 - When you tell your friends you're going to move here, they tell you that the town doesn't even have a place to eat???

7 - When the wind stops blowing here (gusts that are faster than the speed limit and have a tendency to close the roads), everyone falls over.

6 - When you suggest to family that they need to come visit you sometime and they with a laugh, "Yah, right." When a family member does finally come, they keep saying over and over, "You really need to move."

5 - When the people at the store ask, "Did you find everything you wanted?", it's the city joke and you're expected to smile and say, "Yes, thank you" as you add another item to your list of Things to Buy When We Get to a Real City.

4 - How many other grocery stores from other towns can claim a two hour drive to the nearest competition.

3 - You have to hope for snow storms to get your company to stay.

2 - What other county do you know of that can honestly declare their county a "national disaster" because of the wind and snow (seriously, they are trying to declare the area a disaster...)?

1 - Where else can you get told at the Subway when you ask for the weekly special, "Uhhh, we don't do that here..."

All joking aside, we have had the best neighbors ever, some of the most wonderful examples of true service, memories we will cherish, and wonderful and often unknown camping areas to the south. While we were here, our family grew from three to five and we have experienced some truly choice blessings and opportunities here.