“Upstate to Huntsville is not THAT much of a culture shock. Upstate can be very rural. Huntsville has more rockets and better weather.”
exactly. Upstate NY is another world from the tri-state area. It looks more like rural Ohio in the west and Southern Maine or Vermont in the Adirondacks. Totally different type of people who tend to be more conservative.
My paternal grandfather's family left Erie County for southern Iowa in the mid-1850's. Grandma (an ever-so-proper Noordholland/Ostfriesland farmer's daughter) considered them to be "hillbillies."
Mr. niteowl77
Upstate New York and thereabouts is generally considered the largest continuously forested area east of the Mississippi. I’ve always been amazed by that.
My daughter goes to school along the PA/NY border, about half way out. Her “environment” is quite similar to my college experience in Central VT. If it wasn’t NY, I could almost live there. Almost.