I've stopped at Bob's at Dover-Foxcroft a number of times. But they aren't always open when I go by. Anything I've gotten there has been good.

Without the actual name, I got a page of different hits than that.

Didn't know about this place. Got a link?

It's not smart, IMO, to live in Hartford and go to school in Storrs. It'll take you at least 45min to an hour for the trip.

Storm isn't predicted to be that severe. Schools and non-essentials will close.

I'll still be expected to work.

Personally, I like Manchester. It has a wide variety of things to offer.

One of my uncles worked for years to get the funding for that, as he was a Marine veteran of that battle. One of the bricks has his name on it.

What campus are you taking classes at? Living in Hartford and going to school in Storrs is not something I would recommend. It would be at least 45 minutes each way by car. Manchester would be a little better. Vernon better than that. Living on or near campus would give you some social and recreational activities.

Well, a problem with that is that rural areas are increasingly unable to provide the medical services that older people need.

Sure. Everything is subject to change. But the direction of change now is really in the direction of large cities with a lot of services and higher education. All of rural America is feeling it.

Halifax would not have beat our New York in the long run. Halifax is one of the great natural harbors of the world. But New York has an overwhelming advantage. The Erie Canal. Because there is only a couple of places in the Appalachians that has good access to the Ohio Valley. And that gave New York a more than 50 year head start on any port that required railroads to get to the interior.

Problem is that government cannot just bring good paying jobs to an area. Businesses locate those jobs in the places they do for reasons. And increasingly the reasons important to them tell them to locate to places like Boston.

Maine has the lowest population density of any part of the US east of the Mississippi river. And the northwest corner of Maine has the lowest population density of the state. North of Moosehead Lake and west of Millinocket there are no paved roads. So only a couple of roads appear on the map. Because the year round population of that region is next to nothing.

Manchester is pretty diverse. And there's a lot of diversity in the area.

I see plenty of cars even after full dark with no lights on. They think they are because the dash lights are. But that doesn't help others see you. And many cars still don't have auto on lights or daytime runnig lights.

From time to time a unit in a 2 or 3 family house becomes available. Those are often really good choices.

West Hartford is kind of the go-to for young professionals who want to live in an area with a lot of amenities.

Where will you be working? It actually matters quite a bit. What are you interested in doing?

I'd say it's something like 40-40 or 45-45 NY and Boston teams with the rest random teams through the nation. Further west and south, more NY teams, further north and east, more Boston teams.

Everyone has to learn what works for them. You'll see people wearing shorts while shoveling snow, and the person next to them looks so bundled up you wonder how they can move.

I would live a lot closer to Enfield if that's where you are working. It will be much less expensive. West Hartford would be a bad idea travel wise.

Someone owns it. It may be a company, it may be the state, or the county. But someone owns it. It may be difficult to work out who. But the information exists somewhere.

Good luck. Let me know if I can help with other things.

> How about Portland?

Well, following the easy roads, RT 17 is pretty clear shot. And it is a highway, not a town route. But I have no info on how busy it is. The issue from that direction is that RT 2 gets pretty congested from about the Glastonbury-East Hartford line north of there. But if you get off RT 2 at East Hartford Main St first exit, the main entrance for the main building for P&W is just a block north of there.

So if you look at the map, and match that up to the roads numbers.

Avoid I-84. That's the worst of them. That leads to West Hartford, Farmington, Avon, that area. The Founders Bridge is the one from lower downtown Hartford to East Hartford. That means a commute in city streets. Not good. The next bridge south is the Charter Oak Bridge. This is state routes 5 and 15. This is better, if you are coming north on I-91, or from the Newington, Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, or points south area. But you can still run into a long delay at the interchange.

Better yet, follow the bridge that used Rt 3 in the southern part of Wethersfield to Glastonbury. Now you have a much better shot into East Hartford, except that once east of the CT River you are on RT2, which is often congested. But the upside is that RT2 has exits pretty much immediately adjacent to P&W entrances. But that opens up Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, and a towns nearby that as options to live in.

Now a lot of this depends on what your's, and your wife's, tolerance for commuting is. Mine is low. So keep that in mind when considering my advice. My current employment had me in an office in West Hartford while living in East Hartford. A distance of almost exactly 10 miles. Almost all of that distance on I-84. A commute that could essentially never be done in under 30 minutes. And 45 was more common. Switching to the East Hartford office for me saved me an hour + a day.

Basically, what I am saying is that the highways around Hartford suck. Make your own decisions. But just be aware of that fact. And the biggest chokepoints are the bridges across the Connecticut River. Which you can see if you look at the map.

The other alternative is to live north of Hartford. The bridge I-291 crosses is probably the easiest bridge to cross in the Hartford area around rush hour. But north of Hartford is also the airport, so you may want to consider if you can tollerate the air traffic noise. Unless you want to go fairly rural, out to say Granby.

West Hartford has a lot to recommend it. It's generally the go to housing location for young professionals who will be working in Hartford. It has more in the way of amenities than any other town nearby. But it is a really aggravating commute to East Hartford. So pick your poison. Farmington city streets have become really congested, anytime I've been up that way recently, for what it's worth.

And, as I say, if they ever do start the rebuilding of I-84 that they've been promising us for a decade or more now, then the people going from West Hartford to East Hartford and vice versa are going to see very bad go to very worse probably for very many years.

East of the river, my personal choice is Manchester. It has the broadest housing options and most amenities. But that's just my choice. And the reason I'm not there now is a family situation I won't bother you with the details of. I've heard people say that the Manchester schools aren't the best. But I can not confirm. East Hartford schools don't rank the best either. You may want to research. There are a lot of magnet schools in the area, and check out Cheney Tech as a high school, if your kids are that age.

Rocky Hill is a little further, but much less aggravating, to East Hartford than West Hartford is. And it's near Middletown, which is having something of a downtown revival.

Driving around Hartford is largely in the chokepoints. And the chokepoints are usually the bridges.