While Chicago is not my forever home, I'd like to keep a property here for frequent visits. And while I'd never give up my citizenship, I foresee myself being involved somehow in a small brewpub/cantina (brewtina?) somewhere in MX, with a stateside home in PHX/Tucson.

3 years in, I prefer the winters on the Colorado front range to Central Kansas'. The snow usually all melts the following afternoon in Southern Colorado. There hasn't been a single instance of black ice since I've been here.

The biggest thing to adjust to has been hail season (Late July-August)

Yep, I have been there several times. My girlfriend is from there.

I was checking out some YouTube videos on Ajijic, Mexico on lake Chapala. It has a huge retirement and ex-pat community. The weather is damn near perfect plus the infrastructure has been pretty well built up. Really nice affordable housing and medical care. It’s just south of Guadalajara so if you want to come back to the states to visit you can take a cheap Southwest flight.

Australia
Yes, but...

Minimum wage here is $18/hour, and everyone pays into medicare. But, yeah... a footlong at subway is $14 :D

Same here and that's a big 10-4 ....

Would love to move to Hawaii. I love the idea of living near the beach since I love to surf.

Durango Brewing Company has some great beers as well.

I hope you did the narrow gauge train ride while you were there.

http://oi64.tinypic.com/aeob5k.jpg

Military service is different. Your surrounded by Americans. You brought the culture with you to this foreign land.

People visit a foreign place and think this would be so cool to live here. Visiting a country is way different than living there. After about a year of traveling I started missing the USA.

Wasn't expecting that at all. I was having a blast traveling the world, yet I was missing the easy way to communicate, understanding slang, TV/Movies, people with my shared life experience up to this point. I don't think any of those feelings kick in until you are out of the country for at least a year.

I did not, it was not running due to the fire and I didn't have time. I flew in there and had to drive down to Farmington, NM where I spent most of my time. :shake: I just got my Durango time in on the book ends of the trip. Cool place though, I see why Otter likes it.

Fire? Shit, didn't know that was going on. Should put that on your bucket list though, it's long ride that drags on at times but going through those cliffs is pretty damn amazing.

Just don't look down!
http://oi63.tinypic.com/5alytu.jpg

I lived for a year in Toronto Canada and it was pretty much like living in the US only freezing cold at times. They have an AWESOME underground connector system to move from building to building during the winter, similar to Hong Kong.

Lots to do and a really underrated city IMHO during the summer.

I would love to live in Italy, Greece, Cayman Islands (almost did before I moved to AZ), and I may have a chance to live in the Philippines soon.

In the US I love Scottsdale even the blazing hot summer and a city like San Diego is really nice and I could live there. Loved Mountain View CA but it has just gotten crazy expensive and crazy left so no desire anymore.

Hate Florida and not a fan of Texas. Maybe coastal Georgia like Jekyll Island or Hilton Head SC.

Even though I am no country and western fan, I found Nashville to be a shockingly neat and larger city than I imagined.

Raleigh Durham and Charlotte also livable.

Alright well I am going to start planning a trip. Ideally I would like to hit Roatan, Costa Rica and Panama. I might be making things harder than they actually are by not staying put long enough. They are all on my I would really like to check out for potential retirement program. If anybody has any advice I am all ears.

When I was on my freighter trip, one of the Sri Lankans was telling me about working on freighters. He said that Australia has some sort of rule about minimum pay for sailors, and it's way higher than the standard. Something like triple the pay. So among freighter crews, they always want the Australia routes but no one gets them but the most senior guys.