Help me find my dream locale

[Rick Denney]

How about New Zealand?

New Zealand is a wonderful place. The scenery has everything, but compressed into a liesurely two-day drive from one end to the other. The people are friendly, prices are low, the cities not too crowded, the language approximately understandable, and the standard of living on a par with most of the U.S. The weather is whatever you want depending on which side of the islands (and which island), and the only natural danger to avoid are a few nasty volcanos.

The government is Socialist but also avoids being too paternal.

The only problem is that to live there, you have to 1. bring your own money, and 2. demonstrate that you won't clutter the place up (if you want to raise sheep or domestic farm deer, or run a camping park, etc., they would probably look favorably on you, as long as you don't expect to actually make money doing so). It is VERY difficult to emigrate to New Zealand. They want visitors, not immigrants.

It's primarily the visitors who fund the quality of life New Zealanders enjoy, so they have to keep the numbers of the former high and the numbers of the latter low.

Rick "noting that Australia isn't much easier" Denney

[Chuck(G)]

Despite the name, Weed, California is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

My wife and I have bicycled the area north of Redding pretty extensively over the years.

I remember years ago, stopping in at the store in Dinsmore and watching two loggers get into a fight. One pulled out a pistol; and the store clerk (who was a little old lady about 5 foot-nothing) ran up and scolded him saying "Now Fred, put that away! You know we don't like that kind of thing around here." I doubt if she came up to his belt buckle. He sheepishly compiled.

Definitely not LA.

[Tom Mason]

Jonesboro, Paragould Arkansas area

Searcy, Cabot, Beebe Arkansas area

Jonesboro will be a hair over 50,000, but between there and Paragould you can get that area you are asking.

Cabot, Beebe and Searcy are 20,000 area towns between Jonesboro and Little Rock that are in the Ozark foothills that are a little more rural, but have the conveniences that one looks for.

Tom Mason

[Chuck(G)]

How about the Victoria, BC area? Mild weather, but gets cold enough to snow every now and then. Very green.

Can be kind of pricey.

[iiipopes]

Jonesboro, ...Arkansas area
....

Tom Mason

very nice town / great place to raise a family / TORNADO ALLEY

Yeah, but they have great flea markets and fresh produce stands in season.

[tubatom91]

aurora is near the 3rd best flea market in the nation...

[Mark]

How about the Victoria, BC area? Mild weather, but gets cold enough to snow every now and then. Very green.

And just a short trip to Seattle for health care.

[chipster55]

I'll be another one to tout the Ozarks and southern MO. Check out http://www.lebanonmo.org/ It's about an hour east of Springfield. If you like fishing (lots of trout) & camping, Bennett Springs State Park is 11 miles north. And it's on the old Route 66.

[MartyNeilan]

Somewhere within a 45-minute commute of Knoxville or Chattanooga might qualify.

FWIW, the job market in that area is not very good and the pay poor. After spending almost a year looking for IT work in those areas (despite 10 years prior experience) I immediately landed a contract in Nashville and receive unsolicited offers for other contracts at least monthly here. I keep wanting to move back to that area to go back to school at least parttime, but my wife refuses to take the $7,000+ pay cut, as she isn't making very much to begin with.
FWIW, the job market around Memphis really isn't bad at all, but then you have to live around Memphis

[Chuck(G)]

While the Blue Ridge is kind of pretty (My wife with her sibs owns a summer house in Montreat, NC), the East can't compare with the West in terms of dynamics.

In general, things west of the Rockes are taller, deeper wider, colder, hotter, and further apart than ares east of the Rockies. After all, Grofe didn't compose a "Nantahala Gorge Suite".

Pacific coast weather is of the "monsoon" sort--wet winters, dry summers. As a general rule, it doesn't rain between the 4th of July and October 1. If you're located right on the coast, the temperatures don't very much between summer and winter. Further inland, the variations can be dramatic. Montana, for example, experiences extremes in weather.

Things are farther apart--people get lost and die in many areas. Harney County in Oregon, for example, is one-quarter the area of Tennessee yet has only 7,000 residents. The father of a close friend went down in a small plane in the Cascades about a decade ago; the wreckage hasn't been located to this day.

The highest and lowest points in the lower 48 are both in California (Mt. Whitney and Death Valley)--and only 76 miles apart.

The environment makes for extremes in politics too--you can find liberal living cheek by jowl with rock-ribbed conservative. Just ask someone from Susanville what they think of Sacramento.

If you've never ventured West, you owe it to yourself.

[tubatom91]

Aurora doesn't nessicarily have a low standard of living its just the farther you move from the fox river/downtown area the better it gets. And it hasn't snowed over a foot here in like 5-6 years. This year was the most I've seen in a long time. A funny thing this year was the first time in i think 30 years a local high school called a snow day, there was only one storm all winter.

[Chuck(G)]

Well, okay, you just stick with your humid summers, skeeters and crowds....

[Mike Finn]

Harrisonburg, VA seems to have worse weather than its neighbors (lot more snow, less sunshine) despite not being any higher - is this true?

Winters in the Valley are not harsh by any standard, but you will get dumped on by a few big storms each year. The good thing is that it usually melts fairly quickly!
I lived in Harrisonburg while I attended JMU, and having grown up in small towns (Salisbury VT, Elysburg PA) I really enjoyed the countryside. Bridgewater is probably a nicer town to live in though, what with the "University Sprawl" in the 'burg. I have to warn you though, there is not much of a local music scene. Staunton (pronounced STAN-tun) is just 25 miles south on 81, and is a little better. Charlottesville (suprised no one mentioned this) is worthy of consideration, as well. Another thing about Harrisonburg, as Rockingham County is the Turkey capitol of the US, there tends to be a bit of an odor from time to time. Like, from April to November. If you've got allergies, or just don't like smelling amonia 24/7, I would look elsewhere.

MF

[Rick Denney]

Charlottesville (suprised no one mentioned this) is worthy of consideration, as well.

Charlottesville has been boom town for the last several years, and it's getting hard to find a place to live there affordably. And the traffic on US-29 north of the town is atrocious and not likely to improve soon.

But UVA is a bigger campus than JMU and that brings in a few more possibilities. But JMU's music school is a lot more visible.

The advantage to Winchester and Hagerstown is that both are within striking distance of DC and Baltimore. Harrisonburg and Charlottesville are farther, and therefore have to stand on their own more completely.

Harrisonburg doesn't get worse weather than Winchester, though it might be so in any given year.

Rick "not disputing the presence of occasionally severe humidity" Denney

[Chuck(G)]

Temperatures don't "what" very much between summer and winter.

Vary very much. Tank you veddy veddy much for catching that.

Things are farther apart--people get lost and die in many areas.

Just a fact of life. Mushroom pickers, snowboarders, hunters, climbers, even tourists who figure they're going to explore a "blue highway".

TubeNet, eh...??

The folks down in the rural areas are far more red than the most rabid Methodist Texan. I can assure you. Accuse a Victorville resident of being liberal and you've got a fight on your hands, even though his residence is California.

Heck, even here in Oregon, we have two cities separated by a river. One is definitely very blue and the other is very red. It makes for interesting discussions when your neighbors don't share the same political convictions. My state has one Republican senator and one Democratic one. The state legislature is split pretty much down the middle.

I'd call that balanced.

[Mark]

Just a fact of life. Mushroom pickers, snowboarders, hunters, climbers, even tourists who figure they're going to explore a "blue highway".

Well, I think that a lot of the mushroom pickers that go missing do so because of other mushroom pickers.

For those of you not familiar with mushroom picking in the Pacific Northwest, it can be a violent, dangerous job.

The picking of wild mushrooms in the pine forests of the Pacific Northwest has become a dangerous hobby. The large profits to be gained by harvesters and buyers alike through export of the precious commodity to Asia and Japan, and to a lesser extent, Europe has lead to a lawless atmosphere of territorial protection, theft from fellow pickers and [at least] two fatal shootings.

[Rick Denney]

The people who are put off by your manners or don't "get it", are probably the same uppity, holier-than-thou f*cks that ought to be in one of those missing planes in the Cascades, the Mississippi, or wherever is closest to them.

Joke 'em if they can't take a f*ck!

Doc

I'm put off by your manners.

Rick "who would be put off by Bloke's manners except Bloke has my tuba under his hammer" Denney

[Rick Denney]

Harrisonburg doesn't get worse weather than Winchester, though it might be so in any given year.

Rob "not trying to be argumentative, just wondering what the deal is" McD

My data isn't data. It's just what I feel driving around. We have friends in all of the above and visit them from time to time. All are within about two hours--not really enough distance to support a significant change in climate unless you include a beach or bigger mountains than we have on this side of the country.

By the way, all I see is something about "city-data".

Rick "thinking these links go nicely with the Tripod link in this thread that also didn't work" Denney

[LoyalTubist]

They want you to steal the pictures and put them on your own website so you can hotlink what rightfully is on your website.

[Rick Denney]

Well, that WAS the point Rick. We can all be crass and ugly, but sarcasm and pointed humor are different (usually anyway).

What, me engage in dry humor? Say it ain't so!

Rick "who'll be nice to Doc if and when Doc has Rick's prized Holton under a hammer" Denney