Hi there, sorry for what you guys have been through. off topic but can you recommend a local food bank in you area I can donate to so I can help out. I prefer to get money to the local food bank people vs the Red Cross or larger organizations.
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Where should I move to?
- Thread starter smeet
- Start date
I'm partial to Saint Paul. Yeah there's winter but with global warming and all it will be nice in then too. Good music scene, lots of natural beauty, clean cities with top notch entertainment, sports, the Mayo, etc. You just might like it.
That is correct about learning a language for permanent residency. Different kantons (states) have different languages. I live in Kanton Zürich, which is German. Kanton Ticino is Italian.
Regarding transportation, I do not own a car. When I need one, I rent. Public transportation is the best in the world.
I also periodically visit Appenzell and Montreux. See my website, djessemay.com.
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Cool website!
Regarding transportation, I do not own a car. When I need one, I rent. Public transportation is the best in the world.
I also periodically visit Appenzell and Montreux. See my website, djessemay.com.
[/QUOTE]
Cool website!
Be glad you didn't move to North Carolina. Although that's a beautiful area, coming from LA the Humidity there would be a real slap in the face. By comparison LA has no humidity whatsoever. I lived in a number of areas of LA over the years in the 70's and I spend 10-years in southwest Virginia south of Roanoke up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The humidity during the summer is a real problem and Asheville is south and west of where I lived in VA, so humidity is worse. Humidity would get so bad there that we would joke if you're thirsty, just go outside, open your mouth and walk about 10-feet and you'll be satiated. As long as you go from air-conditioned building to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned building, you'll be OK. Spring is pretty nice and Autumn is great.
I'd suggest you take a look at Washington state and also Oregon. But you have to be prepared for rain in the western parts of those states. I lived in Oregon just east of Portland and learned early on that if I waited for it to stop raining, I'd never do anything or go anywhere. So like all the locals, I just dressed for it and went about my business. Washington is not quite like that because the rain is not as intense, but it's unusual to go more than a week or two without rain. That's why it's known as the Evergreen state. We have spectacular mountains here in Northwestern Washington and we do get some snow even in the lowlands. Salmon and Steelhead fishing is all over western Washington and when the runs are on that fishing can be spectacular. Leavenworth, WA is in the mountains east of Seattle (Central Washington) and is a great little Bavarian-style town surrounded by mountains. It's at less than 2,000-ft elevation but the mountains around it are majestic and the town is picturesque. I'd like to live there myself, but it's too far away from my wife's doctors and her health has been bad for the last couple of years. There is health care there of course but not the doctors my wife has been seeing for the last 10-years.
Down in Oregon, you need to get away from Portland a bit, but the Portland metropolitan area has a thriving music scene. There's a small town by the name of Welches, OR which is on OR Hwy-26 on the way to Mt. Hood. It's a small town with decent amenities and lots of outdoor activities. There is some great ski resorts on Mt. Hood and also on the way to Mt. Hood - 4 to be exact: Ski Bowl, Ski Bowl East, Timberline, and Mt. Hood Meadows. Additionally there is great Salmon and Steelhead fishing in nearby rivers as well as trout fishing in and around the various lakes. It's not far from there get to the Deschutes River, or just stay on Hwy-26 down to Hwy-97 and Bend, OR.
Bend Oregon is a really nice spot to check out too. It's on the East side of the Cascades, so most of that constant rain from west of the Cascade Mountains doesn't reach it. You'll still get some but probably less than 1/4th of what you get on the west side of the Cascades. You are right at the foot of the mountains there and Mt. Bachelor has excellent skiing and snow boarding. Fishing is great as the upper Deschutes runs through town and there is a 100-mile loop of 6 or 7 lakes called Century Drive in the mountains there too. It's a decent sized city with a population of 103,000 people. Average rainfall is 10.62" and snowfall is 21.6". It will get up over 100° during some of the summer.
One place my wife and I lived for 7 or 8-years was Vermont and that remains one of our favorite places ever. Just a beautiful place to live. It snows a LOT during the Winter, but roads are kept clear. We got 21" of snow one day and the next day the roads were open again. Primarily 2-lane roads there and its not uncommon to have to go over dirt roads to get to a paved road that will get you where you need to go. There are two Freeways in the whole state, VT Hwy-4 running east and west (very few highways run east and west in VT) and I-89 running north and south. Everything else is 2-lane highway or dirt roads. One of my least favorite things to do there was dodging deer in the dark on those 2-lane roads and those Northern Whitetail deer are BIG.
Temps in late December through February will often hit -20°F at night and rarely make it higher than -11°F during the day. It almost never gets above freezing for about 4-months there. After Winter comes mud season - everything thaws out and the dirt roads are all mud. Then the second weekend of May the whole state turns green. You have not seen colorful trees though unless you've been in Vermont when the turning of the leaves peaks in October. It will start at the top of the hills (mountains for easterners) and you can see the colors changing farther down the hills each day until it hits the valleys. Then the colors just get brighter and brighter until one day they are just brilliant! That's the peak of the season and the day after that they are not so brilliant anymore and start to lose color pretty quickly.
Next thing you know all the leaves have fallen and it is what I call "stick season". Evergreens are few and far between in VT and when the leaf-season is over and the trees are bare, it's actually kind of an ugly brown and remains like that until the first snow, usually around Halloween. It starts snowing in earnest by mid-November and by the end of November, snow is almost a constant - everything is beautiful again! Now if only they had larger trout!!
People there are very reserved at first blush in VT and tend to call anyone from out of state "flat-landers". But we made some great friends there and still keep in touch with some of them (left VT in 2005). Once they get to know you they'd give you the shirt off their back if you needed it. We really do miss it along with the friends we made there. I did have to finally correct our landlord one time who kept calling us "flat-landers". I told him he'd have to stop referring to us by that term because the valley where we lived in California (Lake Shastina in the Siskiyou mountains) was at an elevation of 3,600-ft, which was higher than almost all the mountains in Vermont. He just laughed and then called us "the Californians" for 7 of our 8-years there.
There's some decent music scenes in Manchester, Rutland, Middlebury (college town) and of course Burlington, which is at the north end of Vermont and home to the University of Vermont. Burlington has only a population of 44,000 people in tthe city limits but the metropolitan area brings that up to 245,000 folks. Hwy-7 goes north and south throughout Vermont and goes straight through Burlington. However we never used Hwy-7 through Burlington if we could avoid it because it could take you an hour to get through town and there's a nice freeway bypass that goes around the edge of that metro area in about 20-minutes. There's a good music scene in Burlington and Canada is just a hop, skip, and jump away. Our son lived in Montreal for a number of years and we'd drive up or he'd take the train down to us for holidays. It's actually hard to find an ugly spot in Vermont.
One spot you might consider in California would be Mt. Shasta City in Northern California. It's located at the foot of Mt. Shasta with an elevation of ~3,600-ft., with Mt. Shasta rising another 11,000 feet above that (elevation of 14, 179-ft.). We lived in Lake Shastina about 20 miles north of that for a couple of years. It's a "crunchy" city or sort of a granola-town right at the base of Mt. Shasta. Good shopping; some great restaurants; strikingly beautiful area; and great fly-fishing in the area. I opened a fly-fishing school there in 1997 and also guided fly-fishing wading trips on the Upper Sac and the McCloud Rivers, but had to move to VT in August of 1998.
The Siskiyou Blues Society runs a Wednesday night jam at the Gold Room in Mt. Shasta city. That's what actually got me gigging again after about a 20-year hiatus back in 1997. Took my Jazz bass with me there and started jamming with a bunch of different folks. After a while I had a couple of offers to play with groups. Settled on one, borrowed an amp from my son and started gigging again. Mt. Shasta is not a big town but it has a number of restaurants and clubs. Plus south of there in the town of Dunsmuir are more spots to gig and north up to the town of Weed (10-miles north) and then up in Yreka (about 40-minutes north on I-5 from Mt. Shasta) there's more too. Just not a lot of them in one place and we ended up going up and down Interstate 5 quite a bit to gig at different clubs.
Yreka had the big stores in it such as a big Walmart, Target, Ross, Fred Meyer, Tractor Supply, Macy's and others. When we lived in Lake Shastina we would go up to Yreka about once a month for major shopping and pickup everything else in Mt. Shasta City. I don't recommend Yreka because it is pretty barren by comparison. As you head north on I-5 and go past the town of Weed, you start moving higher up the mountain. Actually what you are doing is ascending a high plateau. As soon as you get on top of that plateau, everything looks pretty barren compared to the forests you've been driving through. Just not a pretty place although my younger brother lived there for a few years and liked it - not my cup of tea.
Sorry this is so long, but there are a few options for you.
Yes on rocket scientist! My cousin is one at Redstone. She occasionally flies to Ca to watch some test rockets being fired. Plus she makes about a billion a year.
JazznFunk
Supporting Member
Hearts With Hands, Manna Food Bank and/or BeLoved Asheville are some of the most visible local entities. I included a link below to a comprehensive list of aid groups helping here as well. Thanks so much for your generosity and good vibes.
https://www.bpr.org/bpr-news/2024-0...western-north-carolina-after-hurricane-helene
@smeet keep this one a secret, just between us -- but my town of Greenville, SC is heaven. It's an hour and change down the mountain from Asheville. Check us out. Music scene is not quite as fertile as Asheville and the overall vibe is not as progressive as we'd like, but it's about as good as you'll find in the deep south. The city government runs a nice tight ship and gets things done.
JazznFunk
Supporting Member
Greenville is a cool spot and has become a haven for Asheville expats. Lots of good musicians down there too. Played down there a LOT in my decades living up here in AVL.
Like I said, the natural landscape in northern Illinois is pretty uninspiring.
As far as the weather goes, I think it's actually a positive feature because I like variety, but I don't want to live in any extreme conditions.
We get cold and snow in the winter, but rarely is it too cold or is there too much snow. Also, Winter never lasts more than three months.
Summer gets hot, but never too hot. Think of all the places where people retire to because they hate cold winters. Nearly all of those places are brutally, even dangerously blazing hot in the summer. People don't go outside for more than a few minutes at a time, and everyone shelters inside with the air conditioning blasting away.
We don't get that, here. Our summers are generally warm with occasional heat waves, but its really not that bad. Compared to farther south and East in the country, the humidity is relatively low, so the heat we do have isn't so oppressive.
But what I think is most important is the fact that our Spring and Autumn months are wonderfully pleasant. We tend to get frequent rainstorms in the spring, although rarely is it excessive.
Our Autumn months are idyllic. We're right now in the middle of October and we'll typically be seeing daily highs in the 60s (plus or minus about 10⁰) and lows in the 40s. Most days are partly sunny, but we'll get a rain shower about once a week.
Weighing in on the general Pacific Northwest and Portland area (and in comparison to Asheville). I've spent 55 of my 68 years in the Pacific Northwest, mostly the Portland-Seattle I5 corridor, so it is what I know best.
Lived 40 miles downriver from Portland from 1968-76, and always liked the town. And lived there a few years since then, scattered in there. A great river town, a distinct character.
Moved to Seattle in 1977. It was an incredible place up until about 1990 when the dot com boom and high tech started to change the character. Basically, it pretty much lost the character it had. Maybe if someone hadn't known what it was, it might not seem so bad, but pretty much everyone I know that has lived there over several decades laments that it is gone.
Some music friends moved to Portland, and it pretty much has seemed for the past 20+ years as having some of that same feeling that Seattle used to have. When I visit now, it still feels good, less slick and monied than Seattle, more creative over all.
In my first move away from Seattle, in the mid 90s, I moved to Nashville, and really liked it. Very friendly people, one of the great things about the South (I'd remembered from living in Arkansas as a kid.) I know Nashville has grown since then, like any good place, the internet effect. Like MJ5150 said: "Nowadays with the internet, when someone finds a Boise, message boards and forums blow up with all the details, then folks head that way and ruin it. Even the town we recently moved from was like that at one point, nice and affordable. Now it is neither."
Boise...done..
Asheville ...I'd visited in the mid nineties, driving from Nashville. Before the mass influx. I really liked the way it felt, in some ways it reminded me of the grass roots kind of regional flavor that Seattle had, like unique, good things were happening there.
The internet again, the past years. Changes things.
Moved to Bend in 2009. It was great.
It has been growing for decades, but especially in the past years, dramatically since, COVID, the developers and city council have had a Visit Bend and Move to Bend campaign (with matching websites) and promoted the growth.
Same story, those who have been here a while know it's not the same, newcomers, comparing it with L.A. think that it's great.
I could live with the changes, some are good, and having been through it and knowing that in the internet age, it is likely to happen anywhere good.
For the past four-five years, we have been getting a consistent pattern of fires and smoke. Bend is in a basin, with consistent fires in the Cascades, every year, and smoke that follows the terrain from west to east, the passes and valleys, and settles in the basin to retire and die. And it goes on for months. We literally had people die in town from the smoke and heat four years ago, and lost some towns just to the west. Areas just south of town were on evacuation alert for about a month this summer, and a fire hit the edges of Bend about four years ago.
Western Oregon and Washington are looking better all the time. Again.
Olympia WA is still relatively affordable, and pretty nice, and areas of the Kitsap Peninsula. Most of Puget Sound is pretty pricey, but if you're selling in L.A., you could probably manage it.
Portland still seems to have a pretty vital music scene, from what I can tell.
Still has a thriving unique culture in a lot of ways.
It still feels like the Pacific Northwest.
Corvallis and Salem, also pretty good in that way, more affordable, but not much in the way of a music scene. (That I know of.)
If I was to check out any area I haven't been to, it would be upstate New York, from all that I read.
The pattern of smoke in Bend.
I've been watching this for the past four years - a suckingly similar pattern: we lose at least a month a half each summer to smoke.
It's pretty dystopian when the sun is just a brown to blood-red faint disc in the brown haze, a visibility of 2-3 blocks when the smoke is around 300+ aqi.
Screen grabs just now...(attached below) that stubborn pattern. At least 6 weeks each summer the past four years...
The rain in western Washington and western Oregon....it gets old but you can live with it.
Makes everything lush and green.
It's pretty easy to take with Goretex, not as limiting as too hot, too cold, ice or smoke.
The temperature range is about the best projected in the continental U.S. with climate change.
A Portland band I really like - (former members of Wooden Shjips from San Francisco)...
Lived 40 miles downriver from Portland from 1968-76, and always liked the town. And lived there a few years since then, scattered in there. A great river town, a distinct character.
Moved to Seattle in 1977. It was an incredible place up until about 1990 when the dot com boom and high tech started to change the character. Basically, it pretty much lost the character it had. Maybe if someone hadn't known what it was, it might not seem so bad, but pretty much everyone I know that has lived there over several decades laments that it is gone.
Some music friends moved to Portland, and it pretty much has seemed for the past 20+ years as having some of that same feeling that Seattle used to have. When I visit now, it still feels good, less slick and monied than Seattle, more creative over all.
In my first move away from Seattle, in the mid 90s, I moved to Nashville, and really liked it. Very friendly people, one of the great things about the South (I'd remembered from living in Arkansas as a kid.) I know Nashville has grown since then, like any good place, the internet effect. Like MJ5150 said: "Nowadays with the internet, when someone finds a Boise, message boards and forums blow up with all the details, then folks head that way and ruin it. Even the town we recently moved from was like that at one point, nice and affordable. Now it is neither."
Boise...done..
Asheville ...I'd visited in the mid nineties, driving from Nashville. Before the mass influx. I really liked the way it felt, in some ways it reminded me of the grass roots kind of regional flavor that Seattle had, like unique, good things were happening there.
The internet again, the past years. Changes things.
Moved to Bend in 2009. It was great.
It has been growing for decades, but especially in the past years, dramatically since, COVID, the developers and city council have had a Visit Bend and Move to Bend campaign (with matching websites) and promoted the growth.
Same story, those who have been here a while know it's not the same, newcomers, comparing it with L.A. think that it's great.
I could live with the changes, some are good, and having been through it and knowing that in the internet age, it is likely to happen anywhere good.
For the past four-five years, we have been getting a consistent pattern of fires and smoke. Bend is in a basin, with consistent fires in the Cascades, every year, and smoke that follows the terrain from west to east, the passes and valleys, and settles in the basin to retire and die. And it goes on for months. We literally had people die in town from the smoke and heat four years ago, and lost some towns just to the west. Areas just south of town were on evacuation alert for about a month this summer, and a fire hit the edges of Bend about four years ago.
Western Oregon and Washington are looking better all the time. Again.
Olympia WA is still relatively affordable, and pretty nice, and areas of the Kitsap Peninsula. Most of Puget Sound is pretty pricey, but if you're selling in L.A., you could probably manage it.
Portland still seems to have a pretty vital music scene, from what I can tell.
Still has a thriving unique culture in a lot of ways.
It still feels like the Pacific Northwest.
Corvallis and Salem, also pretty good in that way, more affordable, but not much in the way of a music scene. (That I know of.)
If I was to check out any area I haven't been to, it would be upstate New York, from all that I read.
The pattern of smoke in Bend.
I've been watching this for the past four years - a suckingly similar pattern: we lose at least a month a half each summer to smoke.
It's pretty dystopian when the sun is just a brown to blood-red faint disc in the brown haze, a visibility of 2-3 blocks when the smoke is around 300+ aqi.
Screen grabs just now...(attached below) that stubborn pattern. At least 6 weeks each summer the past four years...
The rain in western Washington and western Oregon....it gets old but you can live with it.
Makes everything lush and green.
It's pretty easy to take with Goretex, not as limiting as too hot, too cold, ice or smoke.
The temperature range is about the best projected in the continental U.S. with climate change.
A Portland band I really like - (former members of Wooden Shjips from San Francisco)...
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The music scene in Portland is GREAT! Very diversified - something for everyone - with lots of clubs! Everything from jazz (having two top music high ed schools with fantasic music dep'ts - Mt Hood Comm Coll and Portland U), lots of world beat and reggae, a very healthy originals scene. Not too sure about the cover band scene, but very healthy R&B, blues scene. You'd have no trouble finding a gig!
Also on two rivers - the Columbia and the Willamette runs through town - lots of watersports; canoeing, windsurfing. Lots of hiking and outdoor activities close by - skiing -- the Columbia River gorge is half hour away with lots of day hikes on both sides of the river. Major climbing peaks are an hour or two away. The Oregon coast is an hour away with Cannon Beach and Seaside major tourist towns (which I avoid - another half hour south is Tillamook and Three Capes Loop which is SPECTACULAR!).
Health serevices there are GREAT with OHSU in town which is a major facility right in town, as well other med health care hosptal like Providence, Kaiser Permentante, and others.
GREAT restaurants. Nice neighborhoods - nice people. Climate is it gets hot in the summer - can get up to 100º for a few days summer but never for long, but not too cold = around 30º, some snow days.
If I was to move back to a city (I wish!) Portland is where I would head.
I was born and raised in Seattle which is pretty gritty anymore, although I still love it. Pretty crowded anymore --- don't recommend it. I moved to the very isolated south Oregon coast in '96. Wife LOVES it here!
If Portland seems too big you may want to check out Eugene , OR. Way smaller. Hour from the ocean, half hour to the mountains. University town, good hospitals, and a pretty good music scene - a couple of really good major entertainment venues. Good food! And Portland is only two hours away.
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Financial, mostly. Indiana doesn't tax Social Security or military retirement - which is basically my total income, now that I'm retired. Plus, I live in St. Joseph County, just outside Mishawaka and South Bend. If you're a disabled Veteran, living in the county (which I am)? I don't pay any property tax, either...
I've lived all over the US - and in several countries, too - so, the weather here is nothing I haven't dealt with before. Winters are actually not that bad. Because of Lake Michigan, the great majority of "bad" weather - all year 'round - gets diverted to the north or the south of me. We do get what's known locally as "Lake Effect" snow in the winter; but it's very localized; always very fluffy, and very, very easy to shovel. It's a small price to pay, to avoid the blizzards that track to the North or the South. The one tornado (a little one) that we had this year? The lake sent that storm to the North of me, into Michigan... So, why here, exactly?
I have friends that moved here several years before I did; they bugged me and bugged me to come here. After visiting them several times, I decided that it would be a good idea - so I did. I sold the house in Las Vegas for almost 4 times what I paid for my current house (which I paid cash for; so - no mortgage); most of the Vegas house money's still in the bank. I have a well and a septic tank, so my only utility bills are electricity and gas (a lot cheaper than Vegas, too); cable/ISP service; and trash pickup. Vehicle insurance/registration is also Waayy cheaper than Nevada. Except for groceries; incidentals; and whatever musical doo-dad I decide to buy? I pretty much live on just my Social Security. I bank about 75% of my military retirement/VA disability... All in all? I'm living very comfortably...
So... overall? About the only thing I really don't like about this place, is that I can't ride my Harley every day of the year, like I could in Vegas. But, lying in bed with a book at night - and hearing nothing but an occasional dog, barking way off in the distance; and lovesick frogs - instead of constant police/ambulance sirens; gunfire - serious, gang shootout gunfire; squealing tires; and drunken illegals, fighting over God-know what, every frickin' night? I can live with not being able to ride every day of the year...
Solid thinking. I grew up "in the country" and moved back 4 or 5 years ago. Even pre retirement I'll never ever ever ever live in a large city again. I visit them for entertainment then get the heck out. I live near my hometown again (not really a town but a region lol) and wouldn't have it any other way. It's cheap, people are kind, crime is low. Gun outnumber people but the only time you're going to hear them is hunting season. I hate to say it but anybody that gets shot at around here probably deserved it. I could probably leave my doors unlocked 24x7x365 with know issues.
Someplace near Huntsville AL might be what you are looking for. It is growing by leaps and bounds, has a thriving local music scene and is within an easy drive to Nashvegas and Muscle Shoals. It is nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountain range and the Tennessee river runs just south of there. There are plenty little hamlets within bedroom community distance and just a bit further if you want to avoid the city altogether, but still be close enough to the convenience and facilities of the (now) largest city in the state. It’s far enough north to have four actual seasons but is only a 6 hour dive to the gulf of Mexico.
The best part is it is the epicenter of space propulsion technology so your neighbors will likely be local farmers or transplanted rocket scientists.
The best part is it is the epicenter of space propulsion technology so your neighbors will likely be local farmers or transplanted rocket scientists.
Thanks for all of your suggestions all!
We have been pondering weather/climate, cost of living, natural disaster potential, type of housing and land, music scene and a few other things. Right now it's looking like the Pacific Northwest might be the best place for us. Somewhere between Portland and Seattle. Vancouver WA seems like a nice option.
We have been pondering weather/climate, cost of living, natural disaster potential, type of housing and land, music scene and a few other things. Right now it's looking like the Pacific Northwest might be the best place for us. Somewhere between Portland and Seattle. Vancouver WA seems like a nice option.
Naw, you don't want to move up that way. It's already packed with Californians like y'all looking to get away.
-Mike
-Mike
You could say the same about all nice places.
People are people. As long as they don’t get too close, I’m good.
And I can’t blame them if they’re looking for the same thing I am.
My brother-in-law lives there and we visit regularly. If we ever move back to the states, that is where we probably go. Don't tell anyone; we don't want it to be noticed.
I'm in Atlanta, and this general area would definitely not meet his requirements. The scorching hot and humid weather for 6 months out of the year would be a deal breaker on its own. And don't get me started on the music scene. Unless you want to be in a classic rock cover band playing at the local wing joint (or you're an aspiring hip hop artist), it's dead.
