QotD: (Not) Far From Home

How far from your last home do you live? Why did you move and are you glad you did? 
Submitted by Matthew 25.

We currently live in Orlando, FL which Google Maps tells me is 2,359 miles from our old house in Henderson, NV outside of Las Vegas. That is by far the biggest move I've made in my life.

We moved to the Las Vegas area because prior to 9-11-2001 the town was booming. Not just from tourism, but it was also experiencing the beginnings of the housing bubble and some overflow from the dot-com bubble. In our industries we thought work would be plenty, living would be easy, and we would raise our happy family in suburban bliss.

Unfortunately, that fairy tale had a nightmare ending. The one bright spot is that we managed to sell before the housing bubble burst so our transition east to Orlando was made easier.

Why Orlando? We'll we wanted to be close to a Disney theme park. We couldn't afford to live in Southern California in the lifestyle we wanted. We didn't want to learn Japanese or French, so that left Orlando.

All in all it's been a pretty good choice for us. We have a good neighborhood, good schools, I love my job, and we've found some old friends and made some new ones. Do I miss being able to drive to Disneyland on a whim. Sure. But I don't miss Las Vegas and I don't miss SoCal traffic. Ask me again in three years.