If you could choose a town to live in...

That's all kinds of awesome.

There is a little town at the end of the road that which I am hopelessly drawn to. I love the mountains and all, and they will always be my twinkle, but for a place to live, I do not know, for home, as you know, is where the heart is. The town I speak of is far removed from the mountain grandeur, about 300 miles north of the Twin Cities in fact. I cotton to it I guess because I know it well. Because I've been there a time or two during life's non-refundable advancement of years. I am drawn there in part for what is not there. No big city problems, no crowds, no sirens and no all night casinos I thus escape. Nay, it is a little outpost of a town, 3500 plus in population. Just enough to warrant a serviceable health clinic and a good tavern or two. A million acre canoe area wilderness resides to the north, and a million acre National Forest tarries to the south. That's enough elbow room for this soul. Enough lakes and trails and fish to keep me busy the rest of my days. But what I really like about this town is the people. They say the further away from the big city you go, the nicer the people are. Well this piney hamlet is about as far away as you can get. Every one there seems to have an abiding soul. You feel welcome there, even in your underwear. And they have a sense of humor too. They once had a commercial on the radio that they sold their town to Canada, and it made me mad. Can they really do that, I croaked! Well no they can't. It was April Fools Days you see, and that's their kind of humor. Yup, I've always liked it there. I do think I could maybe even live there, there at the end of road, with the fine people of Ely, Minnesota.

-GJ

Yeah, it's how they make their lively hood there, I reckon. I can't blame them none. It's a different story in winter tho.

Good to see you, hikerjer! Got any bicycle adventures planned for this year?

In this era am not familiar with most of the places you listed cweston though have traveled through a few over the decades. So cannot add a comparative opinion. I've spent all my adult life living in the vast urban world of the San Francisco Bay Area. And much of my life hiking within California, especially the Sierra Nevada, our deserts, and redwood coasts, so am rather spoiled being used to some of the best on our planet.

As someone now at retirement age though still working in hi tech, have been considering where I might move to where I can enjoy natural areas? The San Francisco Bay Area where I live is one of the most expensive places to retire in unless one already owns the mortgage on a residence. Homes, even small old fix-er-ups in dangerous parts of our vast urban area are priced at multi-hundred thousand dollar values, a few times prices for like homes in other areas. Diddo for most all other California coastal region areas except the far far north and that even includes undeveloped vacant land. As a person of modest financial means, the only way I might afford to retire in these areas would be if either I marry a gal who already owned such properties (a pleasant notion) or suddenly get lucky financially (yeah sure haha, have never ever even bought a lottery ticket).

Thought about moving close to some hiking and skiing hotbed like Bishop or Tahoe but like rebecca realize at this point I have become too much a gregarious urban person so that would likely get old after a few years even if I was sharing it with a wife. And have visited some of our other inland western states but wonder if I could be happy living long term in any of those areas? I guesss I have this inner desire to not be too far from the Pacific Ocean that speaks to my soul. [Hey you Sweetpea reading this at your little home in Carmel ] But I do have considerable attraction to many of our Western natural environments so would enjoy spending a year or three about many of them. Moab, Flagstaff, Bend, Salt Lake City, Boise, Winter Park, etc. There are far more wonderful natural places here in our USA a person can ever hope to experience in a lifetime, much less an older person as I now am. Thus my retirement fate is more likely to be about one of our smaller quieter less expensive urban areas within striking distance of good hiking areas.

Yeah, I was thinking about that Ely, too. Guess based on a conversation with a pair of nurses at the KOA, though, that housing is actually pretty tight there. They'd just arrived for a 3-month gig and were looking at probably renting an RV.

But I do like that area.

I grew up in Cody so RedLodge and Cooke City and the Beartooths were our go to weekend trips. Those would be fun to me, but my husband never wants near winter again