Hank,

It all depends.  If you're still in Spokaloo, as I was in the 80's, there 
are lots of repeaters you can work with just a hand-held.  There were a 
couple that were linked as well.

From my QTH on the north side, I did have a ten watt box at the time running 
thru a 2-meter beam.  One of the things you could do with that is bounce it 
off one of the mountains and work into Yakima and occasionally the 
Tricities.  I also checked into a simplex net and could use the beam to work 
into Idaho and sometimes Western Montana.

But, if you don't have a decent two-meter antenna, you probably won't be 
able to work much more than the local repeaters anyway.  So, in that case, I 
think I'd opt for a hand-held and you could always buy a small power supply 
and a 2-50 watt VHF amp if you ever need more power from your home QTH.  The 
only drawback to this is that typically, the front-end in an HT won't be as 
selective as the front end of a good mobile rig.

Steve, K8SP