location,location,location

[BigGary]

The wife and I have lived in NewEngland all of our lives and feel that we may be ready to look for a shorter winter season in another part of the country.
While we love the southwest we would like to have four seasons and have trees and grass that is green in the summer for our horses.
So far Colorado in the Pikes Peak area seems to fill our needs however we would like to visit other areas and be as sure as you can be that the area selected will fit our needs.
As stated we have horses and are outdoor type people so any city would not be a consideration.
We now have 12 ac. in central Ma. and feel that we would need at least that much land anywhere we would settle.
Any suggestions of areas to explore would be most welcom.

 

[Red_rider]

Just my opinion, but I love Central Virginia. We have four seasons, but you wouldn't know it lately (temps in 60's). I am by no means a traveled person, but I think you might want to consider the Charlottesville, VA area. Mountains, plenty of green, snow (but not a lot of it), and some of the most beautiful farmland I've seen.

http://www.charlottesvilletourism.org/

 

[BigGary]

Red,
What is the summer like as far as high heat and humidity?
And what would 25 Ac. of land cost approx.?

 

[scout180]

East Tennessee - Johnson City, Jonesborough area is much cheaper than Charlottesville. About the same topography, maybe a little more mountain. You'll still get winter, but great all 4 seasons. My sister retired there from being in LaPorte, IN - edge of Lake Michigan.

 

[KubotaSteve]

The northern part of WV is pretty nice, especially Preston County. The best part is the price of land. My dad bought a 4 acre plot up that way for around $7,000. There are lots of farms up that way for sale too. The downside is that there are not that many jobs as the coal mines have reduced dramatically, but if you are retired it would work well for you. Plus you are only a couple of hours away from a major city such as Washington DC or Baltimore, MD for airports. It also is very close to PA, MD and Ohio. The eastern panhandle is nice but beginning to really grow up from all the city folk moving here. I love going to visit my parents summer place in Preston County and riding the ATV's on the old logging and coal mine roads.

 

[FL_Cracker]

We really love Blue Ridge, GA. It's just in the mountains and only 2 hours from Atlanta. Still a small town feel yet some larger town features. Lots of rolling hills and some higher mountains. Our place is between 1825 ft. and 2025 ft. elevation. Lake Blue Ridge is a great lake and everyone is really nice.

You get your 4 seasons but the winter is a lot of 32 deg. nights an 55 deg. days. Snow only 2-5 times per year and the snow only stays a few days.

Hope this helps... /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[BigGary]

Cracker,
This sounds exactly what I have in mind weather wise anyway.
Thanks!!

 

[Phils]

Gary,

Back in the mid-seventies when I was discharged from the Navy, my wife and I had the same question of "where are we going to live?". Our decision was "... let's drive truck around the country and look at it all before deciding...". And we did just that.

We chose to live near Paradise, CA. But it's not green here in the summer ("California golden" we like to call it).

Our SECOND choice sounds like it could be a FIRST choice for you: North or South Carolina, west of Raleigh, east of Ashville, north of Columbia and south of Virginia. Not too hot or humid in the summer (AZ), not too cold nor too much snow in the winter (MT), not too many insects (FL), and green all year. Not close enough to the Atlantic to get hit hard by hurricanes. In the decade we drove that truck we went through the area many times and if California was to fall off into the ocean tomorrow (and I was lucky enough to not fall with it) that's the area I'd be relocating to.

Phil

 

[roho]

WooooW All I seen was North of Interstate Hiway 10! 4 seasons, Look around Rio Grande Valley and LOOK over in New Mexico! Hiden paradises in Cental New Mexico! Take Roswell(never been there)but I hear U got border south of U and snow skiing north of U!

 

[btolle]

Wow! With 48 states to choose from you are going to have a tough time deciding. I don't mean to slight Alaska or Hawaii but that didn't seem to be on your agenda.

I suspect you are going to need to narrow down your choices by asking yourself and your spouse some questions, such as:

How far do we want to be from our families?

What type of terrain do we prefer, rolling hills, mountains, forests, flatlands, farming country, cattle country????

Can we stand cold weather better than hot weather or vice-versa?

Do we want to be near a large (500,000+) city? A 100,000+ city? CAVEAT: Unless you are used to living in a truly rural area don't get too far from a city. 15 miles to the Wal Mart doesn't sound far unless you make the trip 5 or 6 times a week like Charlotte does (there's not much else to see in a town of 8,000).

Questions such as that will help you to narrow down your choices.

Make a list of your "perfect place to live", size, minimum and maximum temperatures, maximum distance from families, etc. and you will be able to give us a better description.

We lived in Galveston, Texas (60,000 people, an island just off the coast, 60 miles SE of Houston, Texas) and decided we wanted to move for several reasons I won't go into. Since we didn't want to move too far out of the area we gave ourselves 2 years to look all over SE Texas and Southern Louisiana. It took us about that long to decide to move to Jasper, Texas, population 8,000+ in the middle of the East Texas Piney Woods. Did I say we wanted to be around trees?

There are a lot of areas that fit your general description. I can think of areas from Oregon and Washington, to Colorado, to Arkansas, Tennessee, and lots of others.

Seems all of us are partial to the areas we live in so we will all try to get you to move where we are. I think that it is great that so many people are so happy with their area!

If you're retiring you could so what some friends of ours did. Buy a motorhome or travel trailer, put your "stuff" in storage, and wander the entire country for a couple of years until you find the perfect place for you. BTW, they ended up in Bull Shoals, Arkansas.

Bill Tolle