I’ve driven between the midwest and Alaska a total of 6 times:
- 1996 Ohio to Alaska / Alaska to Ohio
- 2001 Kentucky to Alaska
- 2010 Alaska to Missouri
- 2010 Ohio to Alaska
- 2013 Alaska to Ohio
And I’ve got some photos from these epic 4,000-mile journeys. This post is the fifth and final post in the series.
July 2013: Anchorage, Alaska to Toledo, Ohio
By 2013 I had accomplished about everything I wanted to accomplish, career-wise, in Anchorage. While there were (and are) viable jobs on the Last Frontier, there wasn’t really a career path available. Plus, as my parents were entering their later years, I wanted to be closer to home. We’d lived though the passing of both my wife’s parents—we were in Alaska, and they were in upstate New York—and that long-distance experience was tough on everyone. Add to that a grim economic forecast for Alaska as the oil dried up, a major new natural gas pipeline proposal kept receding into the distance, and the corrupt politicians in Juneau failed to develop the State’s future… it was time to go.
While we had discussed living in the desert southwest, as a contrast to Alaska, and explored Bend, Oregon, too, we knew we needed to be closer to family in Ohio, not just anywhere in the Lower 48. And in Ohio, the only destination we considered was Columbus.
Scouting the move
To prepare, and possibly to find a job, I flew down to Columbus in June 2013. I met with potential employers and re-acquainted myself with a city I hadn’t lived in for 17 years. I would discover a lot had changed. The June trip included two events that cemented the feeling that Columbus would be a great destination, because it was dynamic and growing and full of new experiences.
Getting a job meant quitting a job
Despite meeting with a few potential employers that were generally interested in hiring me, no one would offer me a job. Nobody believed someone would accept an offer, turn around, and move 4,000+ miles from Alaska. Or even if they did, it wouldn’t be quick. Plus, with local candidates readily available, why take the risk on the unknown?
Once I figured this out, the plan was clear: I would have to quit my job in Alaska, move south on my own (a second time), find a job, get an apartment to get settled, and then arrange for my wife to follow.
So that’s what I did. It was a little nerve-wracking. But the financial crisis of 2008 was largely over and jobs in white-collar Columbus were on the mend. It was as good a time as any time make the attempt.
I gave a month’s notice and Anchorage, wrapped things up, and made plans to leave at the end of July 2013.
Leaving the Last Frontier for the Last Time
On July 27, 2013 I headed out of Anchorage in a moderately-packed tiny car, planning to take at least a week on the road, winding my way down through Canada into Montana, through Yellowstone into Wyoming, then east to South Dakota and on to Minnesota and points southeast from there.
I would have loved to have some company.
But the solitary open road has been a “Camino” of mine several times, delineating the end of one life and the start of another. Days and days of 12, 14, and even 16 hours of driving alone can be a revelation. Especially when more than half of it winds through the rockies and the high plains.
Back in Ohio
Once back in Ohio, in Toledo, I took a brief break and then started the job search again, heading down to Columbus to stay in hotels and even in a former colleague’s home as a house sitter and cat sitter. It only took a couple weeks to land a contract-to-hire role and a couple more weeks to nail down an apartment. By September was was moved into an apartment. In October my wife was ready to head south herself, with our Alaskan cat Ophelia in tow.
We’ve been in the Columbus area ever since, buying a home less than a year after arriving and settling in.
Would you move back?
Alaska is a truly unique place. It is a land of extremes in every sense. Anchorage was a city where everyone made new friends all the time because it’s a town of transients. And we made a lot of friends in 12.5 years.
Columbus and Ohio are… not nearly as interesting. No one asks you about Ohio when you check into a hotel across the country or if you travel overseas. Making friends is harder. But life, in general, is easier. Better healthcare. More food options. Lower cost of living. More career opportunities. And of course all our family is closer now. In the set of trade-offs we made, it was the right call to move south.
Still, 10 years later, we couldn’t resist. So in January 2024, we went back to Alaska. Just for a visit. Yes, we actually talked semi-seriously for a few days about moving back to Anchorage, to the midnight sun, to the Last Frontier and the snow and ice and fireweed and earthquakes. But the trade-offs just don’t work for us anymore.
It’s a good thing we lived there when we did.