A bit more about me…

Here, I would like to share a little bit more about me and my Pokemon experiences.

I live in Northwest New Jersey. I live in a rural suburban neighborhood of all houses. There are a couple commercial plots that have been there as long as I remember, but they are not retail or anything that would lend itself to Pokemon activities. A couple of the streets in my neighborhood were until recently dirt roads. I have 4 stops and a gym in my area, but none of them are really easy to get to. Two of the stops are at the end of a street I live on are on a main through street. One stop and the gym are on a through highway. The other stop is across the through highway. Problem is, there are no sidewalks in my area, so walking is relatively dangerous. So I have to drive places to play the game.

Fortunately, I have found a park where I am familiar that has two different sub-parks where I can walk around and find plenty of stops and gyms so I can play often. I tend to play on weekends and days off from work. However, it is far enough away that going to the park on weekdays is prohibitive, especially after work. It gets dark early in the winter, and even in the summer, there is not always enough time to go out. Besides, it is not on my way home from work and is a bit of a distance away. Any other alternative places, some with sidewalks, are just as far and are generally smaller areas and have less stops/gyms. Great if you live close or drive past on the commute. That and with commitments at home, night play is not always easy. I can get out once a week at night, so I usually do Wednesday Night Raids, but that is about all I can commit to. Wednesday Night Raids are at a local mall, which has its own challenges.

The main reason I started this is that I read a few places that said that there should be more help for rural players, but no solutions. I am not the most rural of players. People in the Prairies (not in cities) have it rougher than I do as far as being rural, but at least I have an better grip than many players since where I live is by no means urban. I have no sidewalks. I live in a neighborhood of houses and no retail or good places to Pokemon that is easily walked to. I have to drive around to get to a place where there are multiple pokestops and gyms nearby. At least this is a start.

More on these subjects (and a lot more) in future posts!