Escaping the City During the COVID Scamdemic, Part 3

Marriage Problems, Where to Go, and Exploring the Countryside

Jul 10, 2022

This is part 3 of a series about my experience moving from a large metro area to a small rural town with my family, amidst the political and cultural chaos of the covid scamdemic. See part 1 here. See part 2 here. See part 4 here.

During the endless two weeks to slow the spread, my wife and I began to diverge in our views of “what was going on.” I don’t believe she ever fully joined the mass formation, but it felt touch and go for a while. The mask was one of the first major points of contention, with her view falling along the lines that it may help and was harmless to play along for the sake of social harmony. This disharmony between her and I would, of course, become much worse during “the jab” saga. I couldn’t imagine that, knowing what “we” knew, she would even consider taking the death shot. In the end, she didn’t take it (at least as far as I know.) But she didn’t see a problem with others taking it, even in the absence of Informed Consent. Only lately has she been able to admit that it has killed some people, and it doesn’t work. (These were points of some contention throughout 2021, much to my amazement and frustration.)

I love my wife very much, but this has been a hard battle; at one point she would not commit to me not to have our children jabbed (and possibly sterilized.) My body literally shutters at the thought of any of my children being given that poison - I would give my life to avoid that outcome without hesitation. Now, with so much more truth about the jab out, I am confident she wouldn’t do that to them. I’m still hurt that I wasn’t believed though, and that my concerns were often dismissed as “alex jones” stuff.

The election of 2020 was another marital kerfuffle… normally, my wife and I discuss the candidates and their positions together, and most of the time we reach a consensus. Neither of us are particularly loyal to either party, but since 2012 both of us have largely voted Republican. That said, my wife hated Trump, hated. I do understand that, from the perspective of a woman, the man is a disgusting chauvinist vulgarian. But as an anarchist, I expect all politicians to be scumbags. Given that outlook, personality is irrelevant to me, policy is what matters.

The policies Joe Biden ran on had been destroying our country (admittedly under Trump) for the previous 8 months; lockdowns, masks, tests, and vaccines. Our business depends on positive consumer sentiment, and while we’d experienced minimal losses by the 2020 election, another year of covid would be devastating (and it was.) I couldn’t understand how my wife could vote for someone essentially promising to destroy my life. I couldn’t understand how anyone could want another year of covid insanity. In the end she voted for Trump, entirely for my sake, but the whole thing left scars on us both.

The decision to leave the city was nearly as acrimonious as the masks and the election. Ultimately the school’s refusal to commit to a mask policy for 2021-2022, and knowing we would make much less in 2021 under Biden and should probably downsize, were the straws that finally broke the camel’s back. We would move to the country.

FINDING A SMALL TOWN WITH A PUBLIX ISN’T EASY

Since our business’ lease in Atlanta would not expire until 2024, and with little prospects of sub-leasing it in December 2020, we decided to look anywhere within a 3 hour radius. That way I would be able to be in the office a couple days a month, at least until the lease ran out. This search included middle and north Georgia, and parts of Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee. We decided to buy a travel trailer (pull-behind RV) and we pulled that thing all around those four states behind her Yukon. It was pretty fun. Unfortunately, a couple million other couples bought a couple million other RVs at roughly the same time, so finding somewhere to camp wasn’t easy, but it was fun nonetheless.

We quickly realized that were hundreds of small towns in our search area, and that most of those were dying towns, sadly. (There are some great places ready to be re-inhabited though.) Together my wife and I developed a short list of criteria, so we could narrow our options down.

Population between 5,000 and 20,000
A good private school, no masks, and ideally not too expensive
Aesthetically pleasing
Has a Publix*

*Publix is a grocery store ubiquitous in Florida, where my wife and I are from, but there are far fewer of them in Georgia. It is known for being very clean and bright. It was my mother’s favorite grocery store, and I find it endearing that it is also my wife’s favorite grocery store, though I don’t totally ”get” the appeal myself. I like Kroger.

With our criteria in place, our list of possible towns quickly shrunk down to about 5, all in Georgia, and by January 2021 we had a winner. I’m glad we stayed in Georgia, despite all the election fraud here. Along our travels, we discovered Georgia has pretty much everything hidden somewhere in its red clay. Here are some highlights you may not know about here in the peach state.