Arizona seems to be a pretty decent place. Lots of outdoors if you want it, and a major metro area if you want/need that.

We just left SW Arizona after six months there. It does have some nice features...

Hi big_al



http://farm1.static.flickr.com/144/326925176_8a815899b8_o.jpg

Swan Valley Idaho, Nice!!

I was going through something like this a few years back. Contracting for a number of years (mid west), and orignally coming from Canada, I took a job in the Caribbean. Now I have a career with a company I like, I have a life I enjoy, and love the island. It took a few years of contracting to figure this one out, but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

What better time to try a new place/city/state/country? You never know what could happen, and might find your new home. I did.

Good luck in your search.

There's a lot of good jobs around Houston. The oil business is struggling to find people. There is wilderness around Houston (check my blog) but it's not super.

pforeman was right about Minnesota and South Dakota. They are awesome areas and both had been looking for more workers, especially SD. The wilderness available to you there is stunning and very, very big.

What skill sets do you have? If I remember correctly you worked in a title company, didn't you? Petroleum "Landsmen" use similar skills. They are the ones that track down and buy the mineral rights to land that oil/gas companies want to drill. You spend a lot of time travelling around visiting courthouse records libraries and talking to people out at their ranches. Right now it's a pretty good job if you don't mind living in hotel rooms for two weeks at a shot.

-Blast

There is a ton of stuff going on in Orlando. I have my Master's in Instructional Design and there are gobs of companies in the area. I just don't want to live in Florida; no offense to any current residents of the Sunshine State. Caveat: any booming area will level off and then possibly decline. It is a natural cycle.

Where I am in OKC is too bad. Again, not for me. It has just recently been listed as the most recession/depression resistant city in the country. Again, not for me.

I am actually moving back to a depressed area, my hometown. However, after 26 yrs in the military and 2 years of waiting for my wife to finish college, it is time to go home.

In general, I agree with the upper Midwest, particularly the Twin Cities area. Then again, I like snow!

I know you have cut everything to the bone; keep it that way. Whatever does not fit in your car or BOB you do not need. Start fresh. Live a spartan or simple life. Enjoy that freedom.

Even where I am going in Upstate NY they are looking for these guys. I think they found some promising sites for natural gas. Actually, the area is the "Soaring Capital of the World" near Elmira. I may look into it myself.

More detail:

I have practiced law. I have been a civil law arbitrator many times; a mediator a couple of times. I have taught at law schools, private universities, and as an instructor on various legal and ethics topics. I have organized many professional and recreational events and have often been a speaker.

I am an avid and very quick reader. I am a skilled PC user. I am able to organize lots of information and documents into useful form. I can write well. I take decent photographs.

I have no second language, military, or construction skills worth mentioning. I have enjoyed working as unarmed private security a few times.

I am ready to pack some gear and work overseas, at least for a while.

Ideally, I would like to find two places to live and work: one from which I could flee winter, and a second to which I could flee in winter. In any event my first choice would be a tiny home in the country that I could - but do not have to - develop into a largely-off-the-grid, largely self-sufficient place, so long as I am no further than a couple hours from a university town.

I have been a recreational fisherman all my life, mostly freshwater. I hunted in my teens for various upland birds, and want to expand into mammal hunting. [In my area those activities has devolved into put and harvest, polluted waters, etc.]

So-called primitive skills intrigue me, I have been taking classes, I helped found a club of fellow enthusiasts, and I look forward to getting a more complete skill set. I would like to live somewhere that it is reasonable to go fishing, hunting, plant foraging, etc. with reasonable confidence it is safe to eat and use all of the critters and plants that it is appropriate to harvest.

I thinik Jean-Paul Sartre, the French philosopher, was right when he said : ''Hell... it's the others.''

If I wasn't in a pretty nice spot already (Yukon, Canada has something like 0.2 people per sq. mi.) I'd move to a low density area like Alaska with 1.1 per sq. mi.
Five times more crowded is Wyoming. Montana, N. or S. Dakota. are next.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population_density

I currently live near Dayton, OH.

However, my daughter attends IU in Bloomington, IN.

I love it. Small town atmosphere. Plenty of things to do. The University has a vibrant cultural side to it - Sports, Theater, great Opera program. Hoosier National Forest nearby. Indy is only 45 minutes away. Law School too!

I plan to retire there...