LOL - Apparently wild hogs in the yard is an amenity in Texas.

how far from the Gulf of mexco time wise is the Houston area?

MEDC...

Mr. W said to tell ya that with all those houses for sale in Texas, maybe you'll get lucky and find one close to that one tree they have there! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Mrs. W

Its about 45 minutes down to Galveston.

Aloha,

Well you could swim out here. Cost of living is high but there is work. Someone needs to keep our 'superferry' floating! LOL!!! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Weather is nice, constant summer with a few tropical storms now and now. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" /> .... a hurricane, earthquake, volcano or 2 now and again.... other than that it's paradise, except if you live here then it's work. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

L.

lmao

houston is in the PINEY WOODS, silly girl! We live in a FOREST! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

But can you shoot wild hogs off the back porch??? I THINK NOT!!! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

**snort** <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> that is an added benefit! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

MEDC,

I live in Maine and I wouldn't live anywhere else. I live north of Portland in the Belgrade Lakes area and the school systems in this area I feel are outstanding.
It's a great place to live, in an hour I can be at the ocean, lake or mountains.
If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them.

Still

Yo MEDC

If you move away, then you won't be able to watch the Iggles every Sun, and even worse you will no longer be able to hop in your car and get an Italian Pork at TonyLuke's.

BTW, I thought you were in the city, but if your on the Mason-Dixon line, then I am not very far away...probably same county.

LoBoy

I'm in Montreal... well a suburb of Montreal and I couldn't live anywhere without 4 seasons. The heat in the south during the summer months would kill me!

Anyways, obviously, I love where I live, I'm in a northern suburb of Montreal and am less than 30 minutes from the Laurentian mountains where there is top notch skiing.

If I were to live in the states, my first choice would be Portland Maine. Maine is my favorite state and if I could, I would love to live there. Like stillhurting just mentionned, you have the ocean, mountains and lakes.

Lostboy, I left the city years ago after retiring from the PD. I lived in Montgomery County for a while...I now live in extreme southern Chester County. Part of my yard actually sits in MD.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I will do some more research tomorrow based on the suggestions. For now, I am having a hard time adjusting to the clock change....off to bed.

Thanks you all.

When you said the MD line, I figured we were in the same county. I'm about 15-20 mins north of there.

Listen, I have some undeveloped land that will have to be sold as part of the divorce process, and it is in one of the places suggested on this thread. Email me if you would like some more details.

Thanks,

LoBoy

I live in St. Louis, and you definitely get all four seasons here, sometimes all in the same week! I tell you what, the St. Louis area is a great place to live and raise a family.

If you are looking for a more northern locale with a ton of recreational opportunities, try the Tri-Cities area in Washington. There are tons of water sports with the convergence of the Columbia, Snake and Yakima Rivers, you are about an hour and a half from the Cascades, two and a half hours from the Columbia River Gorge, three and a half hours from Seattle and Portland, four hours from the ocean, and just minutes away from HUNDREDS of AWESOME wineries. It is east of the cascades so it doesn't rain, it gets hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and it isn't expensive like the coast. If I moved away to a far away location, it would be up there.

I live in the West Michigan/Spring Lake/ Grand Haven area that Mr. W talked about. I come from the part of the state that Mr. W lives. It is awesome over here. The schools are good, LOTS of trees, hills, skiing, and our own little fresh water ocean...Lake Michigan. The sunsets are incredible and we have all season...sometimes in one day. It's sleeting right now! It's pretty quiet, safe and VERY conservative (don't know if that's plus or minus for you!)

Okay....I must chime in on this one even though I am beat.

There was this great house, but you just missed out on it because WH snapped it up to turn it into the Turdy Bunch house.

HA. Just kidding.

I LOOOOVE Michigan. Yes, I've lived here my whole life and am biased, but come on folks. We don't get tornadoes. We don't get floods. We don't get hurricanes. And the handful of blizzards were get are fun. No one gets hurt except for the goofballs who run their generators inside the house. DUH.

We have four seasons...all beautiful. I am a half hour from Lake Michigan, where the public beaches are huge, accessible, and spectacular.

There are plenty of inland lakes for boating, and cruising up the lake from port to port is great fun. Holland, Grand Haven, Muskegon, White Lake, Pentwater, Ludington, Manistee, Frankfort....ahhhh! Every one of those towns are great little harbor towns where you can tie up for a day or a few hours and all have great marinas.

And of course there's all kinds of skiing and tons of bike trails.

Schools can be superb or awful....probably like anywhere. You can easily get test data off the web to clue you in.

The "Dutchies/Calvinites" are still very prominent over here, but no longer are the predominant force. Once today's election results are in, I can tell you if you can now buy booze in Hudsonville! See how progressive West Michigan is?!? The city of GR proper is actually blue.

You can get a great house for very little....Matt Lauer did a piece on the Today show about a month ago comparing housing prices in GR to NY and it was amazing. A $250,000 house here is practically a mansion, and it would get you something like a closet in NYC.

Definitely the west side of the state is where to go. The economy here is not quite as bad as the rest of the state. If you are looking for really rural, the UP is wonderful (I grew up there, and my older sister still lives there, and I LOVE pasties, Mel).

Depending on what you want...GR for something more urban. Plenty of suburbs to choose from if you are into the cookie cutter thing, and lots of small towns and rural areas, too.

Jennifer now owes me a tax credit for plugging her state.

Now I really have to go to bed, but thanks for reminding me of what I have to be grateful for... <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

OH!!! And MICHIGAN is the only state where you can show where you live by pointing to your hand...what more could you ask for?!?!

That's right, Lil Sis, I forgot about the BIG election on alcohol in Hudsonville today!

...and thanks for the head's up on the sleet headed my way...
<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

medc:


Well you don't want to move here; 8K in taxes a year would mean that you are living in a house the size of a cracker box. Actually, cracker box would be generous, come to think of it.

But as for places that are nice to live, I have some suggestions. My parents and sisters live outside of Atlanta. My parents love it there, low taxes, low house prices, friendly people. Too bad they talk funny. As far as education goes, they have a program in Georgia whereby good students get to attend University free of charge. That's why my sister moved there (that, and to be closer to the free babysitting).

The big drawback to the Atlanta area is traffic. It's quite bad.

My daughter goes to school in Virginia - I must drive right by where you live, since I go right over the Mason-Dixon line in Pa/Md on my way. Virginia is beautiful, I could see us possibly retiring there due to the lower cost of living. We will not be able to retire where we are now, that's for sure, but I do love it here.

Good luck.

PK