We moved from California to Texas and lived in an RV for 5 months before we bought a home. We love it now, but it's not for everyone.

• Alyson and Josh McDonald moved their family from Eastvale, California, to Magnolia, Texas, last year.
• The conservative family said they were tired of California's COVID policies and one-sided politics.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Alyson McDonald, a 43-year-old realtor and Josh McDonald, a 42-year-old general manager of a country club, about their decision to move from Eastvale, California to Magnolia, Texas, outside of Houston, in 2022.

Alyson: We're a very conservative family.

We've been married for 20 years. Our kids are Karsen — she turned 18 this summer — and Hudson, our son, is 14.

We've moved around a lot. We spent our first 30 years in Idaho and then 16 months in Chandler, Arizona. Then Josh went back to school and we ended up in California in 2011 because of the golf industry.

We ended up buying a house in Eastvale because that was the most affordable place we could find which even back then was ridiculously expensive.

The first seven years or so there were good. We got plugged in with a great community. Our kids played soccer, softball, and baseball, so we were able to make a lot of friends.

Things started to change around the pandemic

Alyson: Things were really changing. It was a slow progression of starting to feel unsafe.

We wouldn't go to the Albertsons at night across the street from us because we were seeing drug deals go down. And then in our neighborhood — and we were in a nice area — our next-door neighbors got broken into in broad daylight.

That same week another house got broken into and their car got stolen. We were like we've really got to get out of here.

But what really set it in motion was our daughter. It was her 15th birthday and she wanted a Trump hat.

She posted a picture on Instagram on her birthday, a selfie of her in the hat with an American flag wrapped around her.

It got close to 500 comments in just about two hours. She was getting threats. It was bad.

They doxxed our address. Two days later our house got egged. We got water balloons that were filled with paint and glitter thrown at our house. She was terrified.

That was during COVID. With the schools, it was constantly like "we're going back" to "we're not going back." This went on for months.

When they finally went back she was terrified because the kids would not leave her alone. They ended up getting the school resource officer involved and it finally stopped.

Our kids were saying, "we don't want to stay here. People here are mean to us."

At that point, my husband started applying for jobs. We were looking anywhere other than California.

We never did a scouting trip to Texas

Josh: I was applying in Arizona, Wyoming, Kansas City, Texas, Utah.

That went on from October 2021 all the way through April 2022. I would get home and my kids would ask me if I had heard anything or if they knew where we were going to go.

In May 2022, the club I work at now hired me. I gave my notice and started down here.

Alyson: Josh took the job sight unseen. He didn't visit the club. We were getting the hell out of California.

Once he got the job, we packed everything up in pods and bought an RV. We lived in the RV for five months while we were looking for houses near Houston.

We had to wait until the end of September 2022 before we could close, but we're on half an acre now. We got a bigger house. We've got huge trees. We just have space now.

It wasn't about money for us

Josh: California is expensive. Gas was driving up to $6.

Alyson: But we both had really good-paying jobs. It wasn't a struggle for us.

There are definitely a lot of Californians here in Texas and even a lot of people from other states too. We've got three neighbors from New York.

For most people, the move is about affordability or politics. COVID was a big thing too with the school shutdowns.

Our daughter had a great senior year here in Texas. She decided to play softball again. We just wanted her to have an amazing year and make friends again and be involved.

To have our kids thriving again, that was really important for us.

The people are friendlier here

Alyson: Nobody wanted to talk with anyone in California. We barely knew our neighbors.

But here, people are out walking around and the kids are out playing in the cul-de-sac and on their bikes.

Josh: The first gas station we stopped at when we were moving, the lady at the cash register wanted to have a conversation with us, asking us how our day was going. That's something you don't get in California. Everything is very transactional.

It's also a slower pace. California is like a rat race. You have to go, go, go, go to try and keep up. In Texas, it's a much more comfortable style of living. Nobody is in a big hurry.

Texas isn't for everyone

Josh: I think a lot of people like having a more urban lifestyle with all their shopping only five minutes away. They like the hustle and bustle.

That is not Texas. Texas is very spread out. It's a big state. It's definitely more rural.

Alyson: I went back to California at the end of July for work. That was my first time back a year and a half later, and it just confirmed everything about why we left.