I looked at many options, even other countries.

I currently have a job that allows me to be located anywhere on the west coast, from the actual coast in about the distance of three states. All I need is an airport close enough to drive to.

The airport part limited me a bit.

I drove almost the entire area over a several year period to identify likely candidates.

There were so many places that looked great and I could happily live there for a long time. But it came down to "exactly" where you lived, not just the area. And I mean the exact house.

A big part of it was taxes, I didn't want to be paying state income taxes on retirement funds. Some states take a big chunk, so while the place may be great, and the cost of living OK, I couldn't see losing another 5-10% more of my money on taxes.

Everything kept pointing back to the Spokane area. So I drove all over looking at each area and seeing what I liked best. Idaho was nice, but not the taxes.

I wanted to get away from rain and grey days, day after day, but I didn't want to live in a baking hot desert. Central WA can get hot, like the tri cities, plus its expensive there.

The closer you get to Spokane the cooler it gets, I'm a little west of Spokane. We get less than half the rain of the west side of the mountains and very low humidity.

As you go north from here it gets a little wetter and cooler. But the costs go down and so do the crowds. As in there are very few people, being out in sticks is the norm.

In the winter it gets cold, -8F is the coldest I've seen, but every year 0 is common, going north it gets colder, with more snow too.

I didn't want a winter in Alaska experience.

My current location checked more boxes than anyplace else, at least for my needs.

Its a bit risky moving to a remote location, there aren't many jobs in a lot of the great places, which is one reason why they're still great places.

It would be tough to duplicate my income where I live, in fact almost impossible, but I'm old, so getting any job is unlikely.

What I'm saying is that I didn't make a blind decision on an area, a lot of work went into it.

NE Washington. I lived in Pend Oreille for exactly one year 03-04.

The county is similar to here, lots of the same trees with some larch and pine in the lower areas.

I liked that part of the state other than the fact that people are racist for the most part, they were even racist against me and I am white.

NE Washington. I lived in Pend Oreille for exactly one year 03-04.

The county is similar to here, lots of the same trees with some larch and pine in the lower areas.

I liked that part of the state other than the fact that people are racist for the most part, they were even racist against me and I am white.