Might want to consider northern New Mexico in the Raton area. You're in the mountains and southern Colorado is a stones throw away.
My ex-wife and I lived in Charlotte, NC for a little over a year, before I moved us here. I'm from LA she isn't, the first few summers about killed her. But Charlotte had some decent seasons, but still a bit too cool for my winter likings, and too many ice storms. Weird weather too, we had 8 inch of snow fall early spring 2003 one night and by noon it was gone. NW Arkansas would be nice to "live" part time, but way too cold and too much snow for taste in the winter. My dads job moved us around every 3 or so years growing up, we ended up in Iowa and good gawd, -30 degree winters and snow was ridiculous. I'll take our summers and winters over anywhere.
I do not care to live in Southern California. Pretty country, but dismal cities with high crime and bad government. Not Colorado either. I would love to live there in the summer, but not the winter. Both have a too-high cost of living. Utah, maybe. Easy-going place with good government. Cold winters but damn nice the rest of the year. I love camping and backroading in the desert and mountain country. It would be nice to be closer to it. Or maybe a college town like Ashville, NC. But I'd prefer to stay in the SEC footprint, so maybe somewhere in the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas or the mountains in Tennessee or Kentucky. A place with four real seasons and some decent football. Northern New Mexico also appeals to me a lot. But it would be hard to leave LSU football, many friends and family, Louisiana cuisine, and our short, mild winters. I probably should buy a cabin in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, or New Mexico and spend my spring and summers there and return to Louisiana for football season and the mild winter.[/QUOTE] You could look in Vermont or New Hampshire. Great seasons, winter excluded, and the cabins cost less than a lot of other places. Plus you are a short drive to the Maine Coast and cheap lobster. There are great microbreweries as well all over New England.
You should consider Vermont or New Hampshire. The cost for cabins is not bad, good trout streams, microbreweries, laid back and close to the Maine seacoast for some cheap summertime lobster. The mountains aren't super tall but there are some good ski areas in the spring as well. (Notice in respect to your wishes Red, I conveniently left out winter)
I love the White Mountains and the Green Mountains. Gorgeous country, but the place is infested with Yankees who won't accept you unless your grandmother was born there. Cost of living is kind of high too. And they have strict rural zoning. You can't just build any old cabin any place you like, even if you own it. The Rocky Mountain states have a lot less chickenshit to deal with.
If you were Cajun you might fit right in the Green Mountains. A lot of people in Vermont have the same names as a lot of Louisiana people. There are quite a few Boudreauxs and Thibodeauxs up there
That is not surprising. When the English expelled the Acadians, many moved to south Louisiana, another French colony. Others simply fled into the adjacent English colonies of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.
You think a man who has spent decades successfully evading marriage would like to be a polygamist? I don't think so. Homey don't play dat. On the other hand I lived in Utah for four years once and I can tell you two thing about the Mormons that you can take to the bank. One--Mormons, for the most part, are good people. The work really hard at being good people. Two--Mormans have some fucking bizarre religious beliefs.
