It's Time To Move From Texas Back To Mount Vernon Washington

You are looking at the Skagit River in flood mode as it flows past downtown Mount Vernon. I have seen the Skagit almost go over the top of the sandbags on a couple occasions. I believe the sandbagging no longer takes place in downtown Mount Vernon when the Skagit goes rogue, due to some sort of flood wall that can quickly be put in place.

The flooding Skagit isn't what I wanted to talk about. Mount Vernon is on my mind due to some surprising news I read this morning.

BusinessWeek Magazine has ranked Mount Vernon as the #1 city in America to rebound from the recession by the first quarter of the new year. The magazine says among the reasons for this #1 ranking are the town's diverse tourism, its retail and hospitality industries and its location 60 miles north of Seattle and 80 miles south of Vancouver.

Not that I don't think Mount Vernon is a great town, because it is, but still, how in the world would a magazine zero in on little Mount Vernon as the #1 town in America to rebound from the recession? Mount Vernon is the county seat of Skagit County. Skagit County has, as long as I can remember, had the lowest per capita income of the Puget Sound counties. The per capita income is way higher than the county I currently live in, that being Tarrant County in Texas.

For all I know in the 10 years I've been gone Skagit County has become the most prosperous of the Puget Sound counties.

I'm thinking this news is a sign that it is time to move back to Mount Vernon to somehow benefit from the Mount Vernon rebound from the recession. The year I moved, Mount Vernon was picked as the "Best Small City in America." Why? I don't remember.

Mount Vernon is a very good-looking town, particularly the downtown. I liked living where I could go 10 miles east and be in the mountains or 10 miles west and be at a saltwater beach. Mount Vernon is the hub of a big tourist zone, the likes of which I've never seen in Texas.

Those are tulips and Mount Baker you are looking at from the westside of Mount Vernon. The tulips and other flowers bring in a lot of tourists causing big traffic jams all over the valley.

But, the #1 town in America to recover from the bad economy? That perplexes me. Not as perplexed as I would be to wake up to find Fort Worth named the Most Livable City in America or the Cleanest Air in America or the Highest Per Capita # of College Graduates.

One town in Texas did make the BusinessWeek list of 25 towns poised to rebound, that being Brownsville, way down on the far south Texas Gulf Coast. It'd be closer to move to Brownsville, for me, than Mount Vernon. I like the Texas Gulf Coast. I'll have to think about it.