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Yellow snow, I agree with your synopsis. You grow where your parents plant you. Then you go off to school where you get accepted. Then you live where you get the best job. I was happy in all those places and never really considered geography a choice, it was where circumstances placed me. But in retirement, geography became a choice. And after years in a big city, I was more than ready for a place sans traffic, sans congestion, sans choices of 20 grocery stores within a few miles when really you only need one. I wanted my big choice of the day to be which of 50 books to read, not which of fifty restaurants to turn into for lunch. I wanted to look at water (albeit frozen water for part if the year), not swaths of concrete. And must add the point that technology makes a remote spot work for me. Always at the top of my list for retirement was "must have good bookstore." Now I just take my kindle with me wherever I go. And yes you do give up easy access to live top quality performance venues, but yet - if you had that for many years, if you enjoy recorded performances, if you can make a special indulgence out of an occasional trip to hear glorious live music. As with any big decisions we adjust all our needs and desires and if lucky, find a mix that makes us happy.
Retirement is the only chance you will most likely ever have to live where YOU want to live. And you don't want to mess it up! Your parents got to pick where you lived when you were a child. Then it was work/SO/kids who determined where you lived. Now it's your turn to pick! Unless you choose to let the gkids pick for you! But your choice!
This is so true. I haven't been able to retire but I've been on my own for the past 18 years so have been able to choose where I wanted to live. I always knew I'd end up right where I'm at but it's my "pick" so it's all good. I do have family here but I see them so rarely it's almost like I don't. My grandkids are the ones who are scattered!
I just came in from being outside with my Brittany...........I'm still working on his being 'steady-to-shot" and retrieving. Things were going along pretty well until a mama wild turkey and her 10 little ones came flying over my fence (having been spooked on an adjacent piece of property)....... the sight of them coming within 40 yards of us was more than my Britt could stand and "away he went" like a Greyhound.........so I put him in his dog-run and came in the house, turned on the computer and came across your post.
I'm can't help but wonder why you say "Montana has no appeal for you" and yet you find Wyoming appealing? I am extremely familiar with Wyoming having traveled all of the state during the Uranium Years, as well as Soda Ash, Coal Fired Power Plants, and Hydro. The same degree of familiarity naturally applies to Montana, since I have been living here for over 35 years ....(12 years of which were the last years of my working career)..... and have traveled all over the entire state......
(....NOTE IMHO, on average, the winters in Northern Illinois and in the Denver/Boulder area of CO are slightly more severe and somewhat longer than what I've experienced here in Montana.
Being the canine expert you are, you might find it interesting to know that my Bittany has traveled with me (since the death of my wife) in his travel crate in the rear of my SUV in excess of 80,000 miles. He's been to northern FL; S/E GA; N/W AL; East TX; AZ; WI, MN; and KS.-----not the greatest bird dog but good enough for this 'ole codger...................and I'm not reluctant to state:..."He is my companion and best friend FIRST, and my bird hunting dog, SECOND!
I should mention that maybe once or twice a year I had to travel to cities such as Atlanta, Greenville, SC; Newark, NJ; KC, KA; NYC; Toronto & Minn,MN.................None of which ever enticed me to explore those areas.....................not my style,,,,,,,,,,I've never been a "city-type-guy".........My whole life I've been an "outdoors" type person, who loves the mountains, all wildlife, wilderness areas, western rivers and living in the "boonies", (and yet less than an hours drive to Missoula, MT (pop 66,000), and a Missoula Metro population of 113,000.
Good luck with your quest...................................
Hi Montana Griz- apologies, I did not mean to slight your beautiful state at all. Montana without a doubt has some of the most glorious scenery and wildlife anywhere on this earth. I have seen various parts of Montana including Kalispell, Missoula, and seen scenery in the middle of nowhere on isolated logging and forest service roads that most people never see. In another lifetime I would have been a forest ranger or wildlife biologist, but regrettably life did not take me that way.
I am just not sure I would fit in in Montana; my politics are a bit left of center both socially and economically, and after 8 years of trying to fit in where I currently live, I just want to feel comfortable and be an active part of a community. I also garden and love being outdoors, so I fear the long cold snowy winters would be limiting. I would be happy to take any counsel or suggestions you might have though. I have a colleague in the Billings area who tells me I would like it there and my brother says I would like Kalispell, but again, I can't get over the thought of those long winters.
Your Brittany is a lucky dog; it sounds like he has the best of everything- he gets to work, travel, and spend quality time with his human Once I retire, my plan is to take extended road trips exploring state and national parks with the dogs, camping along the way, and letting the natural world hit my re-set button and wash the corporate world off me.
It sounds like you have led an interesting full life
Lots of broad brush statements about places. Florida and the Carolinas are places I have lots of experience with and other than weather (even that has some variations within each), there is not a lot that can't vary tremendously within each. In either state/region, if you are more than 25 miles from the beach and not in a big city or one of its suburbs the COL can be very low. I get how COL, crime or local attitudes can exclude specific places but entire states/regions? Not so much. And back on track with the original question, I think that is a reason for so much discussion. We have this great resource (this forum, the state/city specific ones and others like it) where we can post our impressions from researching and/or visiting an area so others can play devil's advocate and point out potential pitfalls we have not thought about or suggest better areas to those who got a bad impression of an area than many residents are very happy in.
I think most of us would like to be as self assured as the OP and make what appears to have been a perfect choice without all the discussion. It doesn't always work out that way though.
Before my wife and I married 18+ years ago in northern California where we lived and worked, I warned her that when I retired it would be ABC - Anywhere But California. We had both been military brats, had lived in a number of places, moving was familiar to us and held no fears. During most of the 70s my wife had lived in the Arkansas Ozarks and missed the region terribly. I had fallen in move with the Ozarks during my father's change of station moves following the old Rte. 66 in the 50s and 60s and my own during my military time in the 60s and 70s.
Selecting a retirement venue was a no-brainer and in 2009 we moved to the SW Missouri Ozarks where we are now. My wife's small family (her two daughters, 3 grandchildren and 1 great grand) is all in NorCal and over the last six years I flew her back occasionally and paid for a daughter and two grandchildren to come here for a time.
My family is more scattered, literally from coast-to-coast, which makes me somewhat centrally located. My three daughters and five of my grandchildren are still in NorCal. My two sons and four grandchildren live in two other states to the east and I have two granddaughters in two different states as well. One is with her mother and the other is married to a Marine. I am very content here and intend to stay to the end. This is my home.
Sadly, my wife feels the need to be where her family is so Sunday she's returning to NorCal with the intent to live out her days there.
My point is that there was no puzzlement in my wife and I deciding where to go for retirement. That being said, I don't think we're alone in being impacted by changes in our lives. After all, isn't it what happens when you've made other plans? I envy those whose life plans work out precisely as they envisioned them and in many respects, mine did as well. However, at no time did I become smug about it. Changes often come unforeseen and unanticipated and we can only do the best we can when it comes to planning. For those contemplating retirement moves, I hope you've planned well and it works out just as you envision but do leave yourselves bit of wiggle room just in case.
My wife and I debated where we should settle for 15 years. During that time we moved to a bunch of different duty stations, and owned different homes. It was great to live in so many different areas.
Where to retire is a big decision.
Most of my relatives have not ventured more than 50 miles from where they were born. Looking at my high school classmates the same can be said for most of them. They are not accustomed to moving, and by not moving they have no idea of what life is like 4 states away, or on the opposite coast. Leaving the area they grew-up in is frightening to them.
When I come to these forums, I can understand why there are so many questions and so many debates.
I decided where I wanted to retire about 15 years ago, a smallish mountain town in the Northwest with relatives close by. Fast forward 15 years and the town has doubled or more in size, tourism has increased, festivals and other events are very crowded, housing prices have soared, traffic has increased significantly as the infrastructure has not kept up and there are strict state land use laws on expanding the town, taxes are higher, and the western drought has caused the summers to be hotter and caused more forest fires that reduce the air quality (and as I get older my respiratory problems increase). The slightly liberal but Libertarian views that initially appealed to me are being gradually replaced by more ultra liberal views from the west coast, hipster newcomers. I read the town news and have noticed that certain types of crime are increasing and there is a growing homeless problem. Of course these things are happening all over the west in most desirable locations. And things are no worse than in my current large southwestern city. Unless my relatives decide to move, I will probably go with my original plan although I am thinking about other alternative locations but again, many have the same issues. Having a well paying STEM job was never an option in that town so moving before retirement was not viable.
Maybe Hemlock will share his final list with us as I would like to see his choices - assume these will be in the PNW.
I decided where I wanted to retire about 15 years ago, a smallish mountain town in the Northwest with relatives close by. Fast forward 15 years and the town has doubled or more in size, tourism has increased, festivals and other events are very crowded, housing prices have soared, traffic has increased significantly as the infrastructure has not kept up and there are strict state land use laws on expanding the town, taxes are higher, and the western drought has caused the summers to be hotter and caused more forest fires that reduce the air quality (and as I get older my respiratory problems increase). The slightly liberal but Libertarian views that initially appealed to me are being gradually replaced by more ultra liberal views from the west coast, hipster newcomers. Of course these things are happening all over the west in most desirable locations. Unless my relatives decide to move, I will probably go with my original plan although I am thinking about other alternative locations but again, many have the same issues. Having a well paying STEM job was never an option in that town so moving before retirement was not viable.
Maybe Hemlock will share his final list with us as I would like to see his choices - assume these will be in the PNW.
I was homeported at Bremerton for a while, and we bought a downtown property, then I transferred to a boat homeported at Subase Bangor. I do not care for urban living but it was okay, I spent most of my time at-sea anyway. We really enjoyed the Olympic Penn and thought about retiring there, we looked at a lot of properties there. I had crewmates who had purchased homes in the rural areas around the Puget Sound, 5 and 10 years before. Their stories were all of climbing prices and increasing taxes and urban sprawl.
Everything I saw seemed to indicate to me that we might be okay for a few years, but in time my pension was not going to be enough to survive in that area.
ET1/SS
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.........so I put him in his dog-run and came in the house, turned on the computer and came across your post. 
IMHO, on average, the winters in Northern Illinois and in the Denver/Boulder area of CO are slightly more severe and somewhat longer than what I've experienced here in Montana.
