Best places to live in the US? If you could move, where would you go?

[cjag]

SW Colorado.
Durango is my dream.

 

[Bob W]

SW Colorado.
Durango is my dream.

I found Durango congested, over-populated, and over-developed. It's especially crowded in the summer.
Some of the towns around there would be great though. Dolores. Dove Creek. Ignacio. :thumbup:

Here's a photo near Durango. I took the motorcycle up into Echo Basin just after the storms and just before dark, on account of I might be a dumb-butt.

 

[Velitrius]

Oregon. great knife carry state and no humidity. just some crazy in Portland but a great place nontheless

Daveinsweethome, are you actually in Sweet Home?

Sweet Home and Bend Oregon are two cities I've considered. We spend a week each summer with relatives in Sweet Home right on the Santiam. My boys and I each buy a knife at Dan-Dee Sales downtown.

Both cities have great weather, abundance of outdoor activities, far enough from any serious rat-race traffic. Sweet Home is within a short drive of the beach.

Oregon has world class coffee and microbrews, friendly laws, friendly folk and plenty of diverse outdoor stuff.

I've been lots of places, but never found a state that appealed to me like Oregon.

 

[gazz98]

As a resident of a suburb of Detroit MI, I have no place to go but up. My wife and I are both born and raised in MI, no kids, but she isn't keen on relocating (yet). All of her family is still in the area. Hopefully when her parents retire next year, they will move south as they have talked about. That will help increase our chances of getting out of state.

I like a moderate climate. Not too hot, not too cold. I like to be in the suburbs of a good size city. A "good size city" to me is a few hundred thousand folks. A city of that size should have plenty of restaurants, theatres, museums, etc. Pro sports would be nice. I like the idea of driving 25 mins in one direction and you are downtown and drive 25 mins in the other direction and you are in the country. I also like to be around a good size university, there are always things to do at a university: sports, plays, music, art shows, girls in short shorts, etc. We don't hunt but we enjoy hiking and camping. Knife and gun laws (my wife and I both have MI CPLs) are important to us. Obviously, cost of living, taxes, financials in general all come into play too.

A few places we are considering: Lexington KY, Knoxville TN, Nashville TN. I'd like to check out Boise ID this summer.

 

[daveinsweethome]

Daveinsweethome, are you actually in Sweet Home?

Sweet Home and Bend Oregon are two cities I've considered. We spend a week each summer with relatives in Sweet Home right on the Santiam. My boys and I each buy a knife at Dan-Dee Sales downtown.

Both cities have great weather, abundance of outdoor activities, far enough from any serious rat-race traffic. Sweet Home is within a short drive of the beach.

Oregon has world class coffee and microbrews, friendly laws, friendly folk and plenty of diverse outdoor stuff.

I've been lots of places, but never found a state that appealed to me like Oregon.

yep, bought my property in 1993 and moved here in 2005. add the fact of no sales tax and no humidity to the other pluses. I chose the small town of sweet home to mirror my mid west childhood in Indiana. basically retired so I volunteer and have tons of friends. a great area to make close friends if you choose. the foothills of the Cascades are the biggest plus for me. makes the desert and sea both available. also biggest private knife only show is 40 miles away in Eugene in april.

 

[akivory]

I could not wait to leave my hometown Prescott Arizona. It was a wonderful place to grow up. I had a extreme case of wanderlust and a passion for wilderness. When I was 17 I hitchhiked through 40 states and across Canada ending up in Alaska. I decided I wanted be an artist and live in Alaska. Within ten years I moved here and started living my dream.
Thirty six years later I am still here. Life has been goods with endless opportunity.
Visiting Prescott has been hard seeing all the growth. Last summer I drove down with family for my mother's 90th birthday. I spent a week there and enjoyed myself . Although I probably will not I could see myself retiring there.

 

[Sprayman]

I also like Trinidad Colorado and Santa Fe New Mexico.[/QUOTE]

I live in Santa Fe and pass through Trinidad quite often. Both are beautiful mountain towns. Although, I'm assuming you refer to Maryland as the "People's Republik" because it's rather, um, "left of center." If that's the case, Santa Fe would drive you to drink. We're waaaaaaayyyyyy liberal here.

 

[Velitrius]

As a resident of a suburb of Detroit MI, I have no place to go but up. My wife and I are both born and raised in MI, no kids, but she isn't keen on relocating (yet). All of her family is still in the area. Hopefully when her parents retire next year, they will move south as they have talked about. That will help increase our chances of getting out of state.

I like a moderate climate. Not too hot, not too cold. I like to be in the suburbs of a good size city. A "good size city" to me is a few hundred thousand folks. A city of that size should have plenty of restaurants, theatres, museums, etc. Pro sports would be nice. I like the idea of driving 25 mins in one direction and you are downtown and drive 25 mins in the other direction and you are in the country. I also like to be around a good size university, there are always things to do at a university: sports, plays, music, art shows, girls in short shorts, etc. We don't hunt but we enjoy hiking and camping. Knife and gun laws (my wife and I both have MI CPLs) are important to us. Obviously, cost of living, taxes, financials in general all come into play too.

A few places we are considering: Lexington KY, Knoxville TN, Nashville TN. I'd like to check out Boise ID this summer.

Drive south 'til you hit Interstate 90 and jump in the west-bound lane...

It'll take you through Rapid City and Sturgis in South Dakota...

You'll enjoy Bozeman and Missoula as you pass through Montana...

You'll do Coeur D'Alene Idaho (way far north of Boise) and if you feel up to it, cross over into the Spokane Valley of Washington.

Run out to the end of I-90 and you'll hit Seattle. Give us a heads up and I'll bet some of us Washington BFC'ers will buy you a cold one.

 

[eisman]

^^^

You hit Seattle and let me know; I'll show you around.

Boise is not, in my opinion, a moderate climate. I have friends there. It gets warmer than Western WA and a lot colder. They get more snow in an hour than we do in a year.

As for KY & TN, and I've spent a fair amount of time in both, for me it's too much snow and to little to do. I'm not into horses or drinking whisky and those are the only major pastimes that pull tourists. Other than that it's a long ways between cities with lots of rural backroads in between. It would be different if there was a fair amount of State or Federal land to have fun in, but there's not. Like most of the country east of the Mississippi most of the land is owned by people who don't want anybody on it. Western States have huge amounts of open areas compared to those "back east". i can hunt, fish, hike, etc on public land less than an hour from Seattle and most days be assured that I won't be followed by crowds of people trying to do the same things. (For example: the Olympic National Park is larger than all the public land in KY combined.)

 

[Velitrius]

Right you are, eisman. Couple that with the fact that it is contiguous with the Olympic National Forest, and you really got territory.

The Olympic peninsula alone has rainforest on the west side, dry climate on the east side, lakes, mountains, giant forests, beaches, rivers, hot springs, thousands of miles of trails and traverses... hell, it even has Vampires and Werewoofs up in Forks for those so inclined.

That Highway 101 loop around the peninsula could give you a neat week of vacation.

 

[mqqn]

If finances allow, when I do retire I would like to move south of Nashville - near the Murphreesboro/Tullahoma area.

The climate is moderate, you get cold in the winter, average daytime high is in the 50s, and the low right around freezing. It can get hot and muggy in the summer months.

The area is centrally located - you can make it back to central Illinois in an easy day's drive. Atlanta, Jacksonville Florida, Charleston, New Orleans - all easy day drives.

Nashville is a large city, shipping hub, lots of big city things to do if one chose.

Easy drive to Chattahoochee forest, to the Appalachians, fishing hunting. The Bourbon trail is a day trip or weekender.

The people are very friendly - you have crossed over the "north-south" line and the attitude is decidedly southern.

best

mqqn

 

[Gottmituns78]

I grew up in Southern California 30 miles north of Los Angeles. I relocated to the Louisville Kentucky area in my mid 20s after I started my family and I couldn't be happier here. I've moved around and lived in California, Florida, New York and Montana. The state has the best mix of rural country to city living that I've ever experienced. Barring any on for seen political circumstances that may arise that could possibly move me to Texas this is where I plan to spend the majority of my life until I retire in which I would love to have property in northern Montana

 

[T.K.C.]

If I didn't grow up with ocean, I would still still be living in South Dakota. But, I have salt water in my veins, and I adore where I live.

 

[Planterz]

Since I like mountains, the desert, but also dig the ocean, Southern California would probably be the ideal place for me to live if it weren't for the fact that it's in California.

 

[22-rimfire]

I am pretty happy living in East Tennessee. I have lived or worked in a lot of places and have come to the conclusion that TN is home and I am here stay. I like visiting the west, but don't want to live there.