• Morgan and Dawson Mitchell moved to Charleston in March.
• They planned to stay for a while, but the cost of living made it difficult.
• They relocated to Mississippi to help build their financial future instead.

Morgan and Dawson Mitchell were sick of the cold when they decided to move to Charleston, South Carolina.

The Mitchells are originally from Mississippi but moved to a small town in Wyoming in 2022. By the end of 2023, the couple said they were ready for their next adventure.

After visiting Charleston in January of the same year, they decided it would be ideal for their next move.

“Charleston seemed like a great place to have good weather and move back to the South a little closer to family and friends,” Dawson, 27, said.

“I love beach towns,” Morgan, 28, added. “And I was in the wedding and events industry, and that’s really, really big in Charleston, so I was super interested in it.”

When Morgan was offered a job in the events industry in Charleston in March 2023, it seemed like the perfect chance to relocate. Dawson worked as a bartender and server when they arrived in Charleston, and he was hired as an HVAC sales representative three months into their move.

But just five months after they relocated, the Mitchells discovered Charleston didn’t live up to the hype for them.

Charleston challenges

The Mitchells told Business Insider that the cost of living in Charleston almost prevented them from moving there.

According to Zillow, the median rent in the city is $2,800, but the Mitchells didn’t want a place that cost more than $2,000 a month, so they struggled to find an apartment.

“That was just shocking to us being from rural areas,” Dawson said, adding that it was important to stay within their budget, as they knew they could afford a mortgage for less in other areas.

Eventually, they found an apartment to sublet on Facebook Marketplace with five months left on its lease for $1,850 each month.

“It was very much like, ‘Let’s just do it for five months,’” Morgan said. “‘If we don’t like it, if it doesn’t work out, we don’t have to stay.”

Once they moved to Charleston, the cost of living continued to be a pain point for the Mitchells regarding expenses like eating out or gas prices. They said gas was particularly frustrating because they found themselves stuck in the car more than they anticipated.

Their rental was just eight miles from the office where Morgan worked, but she said she spent at least 45 minutes in the car each way to and from her job.

“It’s very low country, so there’s not a whole lot of open land to build new roads and infrastructure,” Dawson said.

“For us, our quality time together is really important, and we were stuck in the car separate for so long,” Morgan said. “We have Banjo, our dog, so by the time we made it home, it was like, ‘OK, go take him out, cook dinner, time for bed.’”

“All of our free time dwindled,” she added.

Morgan said she spent most of her birthday visit to King Street, a major shopping destination in the city, in July trying to park.

“I almost gave up,” she said. “I was just trying to take myself to Sephora for a nice little treat, and I had to make rounds for 45 minutes trying to find a parking spot.”

Missing Southern charm

The Mitchells also hoped that moving to Charleston would help them reconnect with the Southern culture they had been missing while living in Wyoming.

But they said Charleston didn’t feel as Southern as they thought it would. They said they had few chances to connect with other Southerners during their time there.

Despite life’s difficulties in Charleston, the Mitchells tried to prepare to stay longer term.

“We did put an offer in on a house, and we were really excited to stay there for a couple of years, and then that fell through,” Morgan said.

They said they could have renewed their lease on their rental, but the management company that owned it increased their rent to $2,250 a month, which they weren’t willing to pay.

The Mitchells couldn’t find another apartment under $2,000 that fit their needs. They said the only options they found were in areas where they would not have felt comfortable walking Banjo at night.

Soon, it felt like they weren’t destined to stay in Charleston as they had thought.

“We love and kind of take pride in the fact that we’ve bopped around and moved all around and like going on these little adventures,” Morgan said. “But we did want to be closer to family; his grandparents are getting older.”

The Mitchells also plan to invest in real estate, but given the cost of living in Charleston, they didn’t feel like they could launch that career there.

“We started taking all these things as signs, and we’re like, ‘We have this opportunity to get out and go somewhere cheaper and build our savings,’” Morgan said.

Returning home

Morgan and Dawson ultimately moved back to Louisville, Mississippi, when their lease in Charleston expired on August 1.

When the Mitchells spoke to BI, they had just signed a new lease in Louisville on an apartment that costs just $1,350 a month — $900 less than they would have paid on their similar Charleston unit.

Morgan and Dawson also started new jobs when they moved. Morgan is now a social media manager at a medical facility, and Dawson is working remotely as a loan originator. Dawson said the HVAC company he worked for in Charleston offered him a slight raise when he put in his notice, but it wasn’t enough to entice them to stay.

“We just knew it wasn’t the right thing,” Dawson said.

Despite moving twice in such a short period, the Mitchells told BI they have no regrets about their stint in Charleston.

“I think it was just one of those things that we had to try it for ourselves to be able to come back here,” Morgan said.

Though they can still see themselves moving around throughout their lives, the Mitchells said they are excited about the financial opportunities returning to Mississippi offers them.

“We chose to come back to Mississippi because our money will go so much further,” Dawson said. “We can buy two properties for what half a property in Charleston would cost.”

“We’re always going to look back and be like, ‘What a fun summer we had,’ but we knew it wasn’t long-term,” Morgan said, reflecting on their time in Charleston. “So we might as well just come back here and start building our savings the best we can.”

CODY, Wyoming (ABC4) — After a year-long legal battle, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints broke ground on the Cody Wyoming Temple on Friday, Sept. 27.

The temple was announced in the Oct. 2021 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, headquartered in Salt Lake City. This will be the state’s third temple. Other temples include the Casper Wyoming Temple and Star Valley Wyoming Temple.

This groundbreaking comes after a citizen challenge was appealed and dismissed earlier this month in Wyoming District Court, putting an end to a year-plus-long legal battle. Last year, the group “Preserve Our Cody Neighborhoods” decided to sue the city over the permit being given to the Church to build the temple with a 101-foot spire.

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Wyoming Public Media reported that the group “felt the Planning and Zoning board had violated city codes. [The neighborhood group] said the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ plans to build the Temple… presents several issues.”

Earlier this year, the same group sued for a second time, claiming the city was “stonewalling” the process. The Cowboy State Daily reported the neighborhood group stated that the now-former city planner Todd Stowell manipulated Planning and Zoning Board members. Stowell resigned earlier this year amidst the controversy, he cited different reasons for leaving his position that didn’t pertain to the Cody Temple.

The outlet reported members of the Cody Planning and Zoning Board suspected the city planner and attorney had conflicts of interest with the church that influenced the advice they gave. The filing further accused Stowell showed bias toward the church to gain approval for a temple being considered by the board. Stowell is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Several filings were made in the year-plus legal battle between residents and the church.

At the end of August, the courts ruled in favor of the Church.

“In late August, the court ruled in favor of the city’s zoning process, and the citizen challenge was dismissed, preliminary construction work is now underway,” the church said in a statement earlier this month.

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One of my favourite things to do in Deadlock is to read up on each hero’s lore. Some are as simple as “Jacob Lash is an asshole,” while others give a detailed description of a hero’s journey and the tragedies they’ve overcome, like Bebop turning to a life of crime to pay for his creator’s medicine. And Deadlock’s latest addition is no different. 

Mirage is the newest hero Valve has added to Deadlock. He’s a bodyguard for the Djinn ambassador Nashala Dion, who is currently in New York City on a diplomatic mission: Finding a safe home for their kind and, for some reason, the best candidate for a new sovereign land is Wyoming. I’ve never set foot in the US, so I can’t speak on what Wyoming is like compared to the rest of the States, but it does seem like a random choice for a new utopia.

But other than having Wyoming in his sights, Mirage seems to be pretty useful on the battlefield. Tornado is his primary attack, transforming him into a whirlwind that can launch enemies into the air and deal damage. Mirage’s other abilities are Fire Scarabs and Djiinn’s Mark. One launches bugs that drain enemy life force, and the other is a passive ability that increases the multiplier on your chosen target. Finally, his ultimate lets him teleport to allies or enemies, giving him a speed boost for a short time after.

Others are also having just as much fun as I am learning the story behind Deadlock’s most specific real estate agent, as well as other heroes: “I hope they keep it random,” one player says. “It’s so much fun to sift through the lore when you suddenly get blindsided by ‘Is it cannibalism to eat werewolves?’ My only hope for Deadlock’s story is that it doesn’t stay in lore purgatory like Overwatch when they can’t have anything happen, so it’s just constantly alluding to future and past events that will never get expanded upon.” 

I’m not sure where Deadlock’s story is going, but I’d like it to keep an easy-going attitude as it progresses. I’m having great fun discovering more weird tidbits as I explore the map, read heroes’ lore, and browse the papers available on the newspaper stands.