If you moved, and wanted...

[jsdemar]

Can't carry in NM, unless you're a resident. NM is extremely unfortunate for the 2A folks out there. We are not very welcome there.

I read that my county in NM (Dona Ana) has the highest percent concealed carry permits in the country.

 

[jsdemar]

What are typical winter temps please? Just showed my wife some homes in Las Cruces for sale, and she requested that I start looking into a winter break trip to come check it out. Never been to NM, need to check out out, and that eventual retirement home isn't going to find itself!

In Southern NM, the average January temps go below freezing at night and 40's to 50's during the day. I heat my house with a wood pellet stove. Total cost of pellets was $200 for the winter.

July high temps are around 95 with low humidity. Yearly rainfall is around 8" and comes mostly during a couple of monsoon storms in July-Sept.

My house is at 4500 ft elevation compared to around 3500 ft in downtown Las Cruces and lower at the Rio Grande. So, it's typically 3 degrees cooler at my place.

NM has a wide range of climates. Cold and snowy winters in the North part if you like skiing.

 

[bjphoenix]

Can't carry in NM, unless you're a resident. NM is extremely unfortunate for the 2A folks out there. We are not very welcome there.

But NM has reciprocity with approximately 30 states.

 

[Cape Byron]

An important consideration:

 

[Hobie1dog]

When choosing this place, there was a book called "Places Rated Almanac" which rates 333 cities across the United States, so there are chapters in the book on education, climate, jobs. etc.

 

[fyrwrxz]

Jeff-When I worked for the Dept of Commerce, we compiled data from every imaginable source and released it for public record. Your tax dollars at work. This may help your search fwiw. Selfish, I know, but hope you stay in our orbit. You already know the other stuff. Let,s hook up before you bail. Peace, Hope, Love and Rockets.

 

[BEC]

My wife and I are NMSU graduates who both grew up in New Mexico (in diagonally opposite corners of the state). I was in Las Cruces for 4 1/2 years and my wife came over from the NMSU branch in Carlsbad as a junior and was there about a week when we met.

We’ve been in western Washington since Boeing hired me out of college in January 1979. Every time we go back to visit family (my Dad still lives in Santa Fe, and we both have siblings and my wife also has cousins in NM) we think about moving back now that we are retired. Actually Las Cruces would be one place I think we’d both consider if we went back.

So even though my real experience with the area is out of date — though we have visited as recently as last year — Las Cruces is worth a look.

(it is probably irrelevant that Las Cruces is where G. Harry Stine lived back at the beginnings of model rocketry — where he received those first boxes of hand loaded motors and Rock-A-Chute models from Orville Carlisle…..)

 

[gdjsky01]

Jeff-When I worked for the Dept of Commerce, we compiled data from every imaginable source and released it for public record. Your tax dollars at work. This may help your search fwiw. Selfish, I know, but hope you stay in our orbit. You already know the other stuff. Let,s hook up before you bail. Peace, Hope, Love and Rockets.

Bailing can not happen for some months or more. I've gotten some great ideas here, and sadden by a few. I am not bailing because A) I can't and B) not sure where I'd go or how much I can afford, or where I'd be at home.

So not to worry. If I live, I'll be launching rockets in a month or so. Just because SHE WOULD WANT ME TO. That is the way she was. Always encouraging my hobbies.

 

[rfjustin]

In Southern NM, the average January temps go below freezing at night and 40's to 50's during the day. I heat my house with a wood pellet stove. Total cost of pellets was $200 for the winter.

July high temps are around 95 with low humidity. Yearly rainfall is around 8" and comes mostly during a couple of monsoon storms in July-Sept.

My house is at 4500 ft elevation compared to around 3500 ft in downtown Las Cruces and lower at the Rio Grande. So, it's typically 3 degrees cooler at my place.

NM has a wide range of climates. Cold and snowy winters in the North part if you like skiing.

Thank you sir.

 

[rfjustin]

Can't carry in NM, unless you're a resident. NM is extremely unfortunate for the 2A folks out there. We are not very welcome there.

No worries, @jsdemar can hook me up with that BB gun of his after we get into town...

 

[bjphoenix]

You would do well in South Carolina. The winters are awesome. We launch 12 months a year. You could probably get 50 acres and a decent home for 600K here.

There are nice towns and good people all over the country. Some parts of the country will have more light pollution and less access to rocket launch areas. In my big metroplex I live right in the middle and have to drive over 60 miles out to our launch site but that site will someday have a freeway running through it and we will have to find another site.

I had thought about relocating farther out. We downsized right before Covid, if we had known Covid and work from home was coming we would have done that. And also our daughter moved to another state so there is a question whether we follow her there. There are a lot of considerations that would narrow down where you go- climate, local scenery, local insects, do you want a house or house and land, rocket launches, light pollution, etc. I'm with the people that recommend visiting different areas to see what you like before moving. If you have the ability you could become a "van lifer" for a short period of time to allow you to drive around and visit multiple areas.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Here is the Amazon link for the book "Places Rated Almanac"

Places Rated Almanac: The Classic Guide for Finding Your Best Places to Live in America: Savageau, David: 9780979319907: Amazon.com: Books

Places Rated Almanac: The Classic Guide for Finding Your Best Places to Live in America [Savageau, David] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Places Rated Almanac: The Classic Guide for Finding Your Best Places to Live in America

www.amazon.com

In this unique reference, every one of America’s 379 metropolitan areas is rated by factors that are important to anyone considering a move. Divided into nine thoroughly researched main topics, this guide derives its information as much from private sources as government sources, providing a well-rounded description of all that each metro area has to offer: ambience, housing, jobs, crime, transportation, education, health care, recreation, and climate. With a personalized quiz to help determine the most important factors of an area, this ratings sourcebook provides a wealth of information for those looking to move and the armchair traveler alike.

 

[Antares JS]

The Eastern Shore ticks all those boxes in the OP. The local club is once-per-month-like-clockwork MDRA, housing, at least on the Virginia side, is not terribly expensive, and there's plenty of rural land that gets dark.

 

[fyrwrxz]

Here's my neighbor's astrophotography website. He has published in many astro magazines.
http://jeffjastro.com/dso/
We have a dark-sky ordinance here.
Here's the lunar eclipse sequence I took from my driveway.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/saZbyze6eMW3thWh6

Three rocket launches each month, local and within an hour. 12K waiver. Also an hour to Spaceport America and the Spaceport Cup college competition.

Here are some photos I took near my house and on hikes nearby:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SATXGcxW39N3tEfP7

The "big snow storm of 2015".
https://photos.app.goo.gl/q228AzMYiav4iUnz8

Flowering things in my yard. No lawn to mow!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9GhkbDnoT8VtAQjX7

Come visit any time.
https://www.lascrucescvb.org/

Dang! You almost convinced ME to move! Sounds perfect.

 

[BDB]

It may not be an issue for someone moving for retirement, but if you are moving with the possibility of living there for decades, it’s prudent to think about the changing climate.

In this book, David Pogue (former NYT science and tech writer), makes some convincing arguments that the best places to live long-term in the US are in the upper Midwest.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Prepare-Climate-Change-Practical/dp/1982134518/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=f9bf1904-3818-4ac1-8e5b-98f4ad998921

 

[PhilC]

It sounds to me that you want to cross the Atlantic and move to Wales!

 

[bjphoenix]

In this unique reference, every one of America’s 379 metropolitan areas is rated by factors that are important to anyone considering a move

That's interesting. I stumbled across something maybe a little less serious but could still be informative. This guy makes videos on things like "10 best towns in ...".

https://www.youtube.com/@WorldAccordingToBriggs/videos

 

[gdjsky01]

It saddens me in this time of already dying inside to read the vitriol some have posted. Despite my beliefs I think we could have been rocketry friends.

 

[jqavins]

One thing you didn't mention is climate. I'm not a fan of being a slave to air conditioning... that narrows down the options quite a bit.

Jeff, it seems that you and I have sort-of, almost switched places. I lived a year and a half in SoCal, in Helendale, between Victorville and Barstow. Now I live about 60 miles south of Rochester, in the Southern Tier. Climate was one of the reasons I left; when I literally burned my hand on a stair railing on a sunny, 105° lunch hour in Palmdale, I thought to myself "Why do people live here?!" And I had to drive up into the mountains around Big Bear if I wanted to remember that there are trees in the world; real trees, not overgrown ferns and yuccas. (I had a friend up in Silicon Valley, originally from Long Island, who said he would go to car washes to pretend it was raining.)

The larger point is that there's more to life, more to consider than rocketry and astronomy. I'm not trying to put down those things' importance. Just remember not only the actual climate, but also the cultural and political climates. Are things like concerts, theater, sports, and other stuff important to you at all? The ability to find new and interesting foods other than barbeque and Mexican? You have all that now, so think about what you might miss, as it will help inform how far out into the boonies you want to be, and which cities you want to be your nearest. What sorts of laws and government programs would you like to live under or want to avoid. (Both halves of that question apply to both/all political leanings.)

I don't have any suggestions of a location for you. Reading your first post, I did think of New Mezona and Colorado, but I know virtually nothing about them. For what it's worth, where I am I have dark skies and a good rocket club, but you've "been here done that" about the weather.

 

[gdjsky01]

The larger point is that there's more to life, more to consider than rocketry and astronomy. I'm not trying to put down those things' importance. Just remember not only the actual climate, but also the cultural and political climates. Are things like concerts, theater, sports, and other stuff important to you at all? The ability to find new and interesting foods other than barbeque and Mexican? You have all that now, so think about what you might miss, as it will help inform how far out into the boonies you want to be, and which cities you want to be your nearest. What sorts of laws and government programs would you like to live under or want to avoid. (Both halves of that question apply to both/all political leanings.)

I don't have any suggestions of a location for you. Reading your first post, I did think of New Mezona and Colorado, but I know virtually nothing about them. For what it's worth, where I am I have dark skies and a good rocket club, but you've "been here done that" about the weather.

Yeah. It's just part of the dream that died April 19th was a 2 bedroom Astronomy themed B&B. Hence the dark(er) area. I really am not sure where I'll move or if I'll move. As I have found out, there is something to be said for a 20 minute walk to the ocean. Eating out? Theater? Culture? Concerts? All things I am not sure I'll ever find joy in again. At least not for a while. Tucson is hot. But has culture within driving distance of dark skies. Prescott Valley, Flagstaff, Fernley NV, Las Cruces NM (a recent addition to a long list), maybe even outside of Albuquerque?

BTW: My parents had a permanent campsite site near Dansville. I am well familiar with the area. And MARS is a pretty well known club. Still I don't think (who knows?) I'd trade so many clear days and nights for so many rainy and snowy ones. And I am not used to a 'building season.' Right now I am doing nothing. There is so much to be done here before I could even think of moving. I've been doing (well I was doing before April) some launching out in Lancaster. So I am a bit familiar with it. August and September might a building season there. But I am not sure I am a 'desert rat'. Not sure of much of anything. Thanks for the note.

Other's?

 

[Steve Shannon]

I’m very sorry.
Of course you would be welcome in Montana, regardless of politics (I have no idea what yours are and it wouldn’t keep us from being friends anyway). But we still have snow some places, just so you know.
But the sky is dark at night.
There are even fewer people in Wyoming. They might still have snow as well.
I would encourage you to go on a road trip visiting different rocket launches and museums. Don’t make any irreversible decisions until you have had some time.
And peace be with you.

 

[jqavins]

But we still have snow some places, just so you know.

Where I am is no Montana or Wyoming, but I did have a little frost on the grass this morning.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Sounds like a toad trip is necessary.

 

[gdjsky01]

Sounds like a toad trip is necessary.

It will be at some point. Just not in the next 6 to 12 months. (well I mean moving... there is no reason I can not do a road trip or two).

I have zero idea where I'll be mentally or financially in a year.

I think it is so great to hear from people around the country. Yes, it is sad to think there are places I am not welcome. I guess that is the world we live in.

I have a bunch of conflicting 'requirements'. I guess when I started this thread I was looking for ideas. I was in a funk (and still am). But ideas like Montana and Las Cruces would not have entered my head. So it is a good thread in ways. I am happy many people LIKE where they are. Moving around freely is what this country was built on. Regardless of beliefs. Or so I want to believe.

It is also sad to hear people will not see these messages because of other threads they detest and throw the baby out with the bath water.

Again, each to their own. For the most part, the people on TRF are great. Regardless of who they are in other respects. Kim was tolerant. She married me, she must have been. I should try and emulate that.

 

[jqavins]

Sounds like a toad trip is necessary.

 

[Hobie1dog]

View attachment 580846

I need a proof reader. My advancing years are getting scary.

 

[Donnager]

I don't know. My wife likes toads.

She was almost giddy when a bunch of them hatched from a puddle behind the house...... A couple hundred about the size of crickets.

We do look for them at night and they are pretty surprisingly exactly where they need to be to eat.

I'm cool with them.

 

[James Duffy]

Austin, and the surrounding area, have some other "outrageous things" to avoid, also.

What might those things be, Dave? The exceptional music? The world-class cuisine? The vibrant arts and culture scene? The robust tech industry? The booming job market? South x Southwest and the COTA Formula One track, which bring the world to town each year? The extensive higher education opportunities?

To what "outrageous things" might you be referring, Dave?

 

[rfjustin]

What might those things be, Dave? The exceptional music? The world-class cuisine? The vibrant arts and culture scene? The robust tech industry? The booming job market? South x Southwest and the COTA Formula One track, which bring the world to town each year? The extensive higher education opportunities?

To what "outrageous things" might you be referring, Dave?

 

[cls]

Sounds like a toad trip is necessary.

I know you meant Road trip. But I hear Toad trips take a real lickin'.