If you could live anywhere you wanted for the next 40 years (the last half

[Flaxbee]

21. Well, parts of California really are lush and beautiful, especially if you're

up a little bit north - Davis is very green and very pretty. But much of California is $$$.

We have friends who have land in Belize -- and some of those areas are retirement havens with good medical care. My husband is 15 years older than I am, so it is definitely an issue.

Asheville, NC is gorgeous, green, and pretty liberal. We lived about an hour from A'ville and it was definitely RED and weird-ass religious shit went on ... if we'd been closer to (or in) Asheville, we very well might have stayed. But by the time we could hoist ourselves out of the hole we'd fallen into there, I wanted nothing more to do with that area. A'ville does have winter and some snow, but NOTHING like what you're used to where you are... sometimes it has a whopper of a storm, but overall it is definitely milder.

I'm going crazy for warmth and a more relaxed, easygoing, outdoorsy environment that I'm even considering coastal SC or Florida. Georgia doesn't sit well with me ... not quite sure why. Husband is from SC, and the Colberts (as in Stephen) are from SC, so there is definitely a streak of wild liberalism in the state (that has been getting smothered by fundie religious types).

I've read that St. Augustine, Fl. is a nice artsy community. But I've read enough Carl Hiassen books about the destruction of Florida's natural beauty by an overflow of 'snowbirds' that I'd almost feel guilty moving there and putting one more strain on the water and natural resources...