Back Home. Where will our next home be?

With our mission complete to check out the top four choices for relocating next year, we drove home from Santa Fe without wasting any time, leaving early Sunday morning and pulling into our driveway on Monday evening.

Home, sweet home

I've mowed the lawn, picked up the junk mail, and roasted coffee for the week.  Did we reach any conclusions after five weeks of boots-on-the-ground research?  Kinda, sorta.  I confirmed for myself that I'm ready to move from Wisconsin after living here for the last 30-plus years.  Honestly, I could live in any of the four cities that we visited, but Julia and I are in agreement on the top two.

Not making the final list are Grand Junction and Santa Fe. We couldn't find as much bang for the buck as we expected in Grand Junction as it relates to housing.  Also, Julia felt that it was too isolated from a major airport and too small in general.  Santa Fe was just too expensive for us, although we loved many things about it as a destination.  As they say, it's a great place to visit, but we wouldn't want to live there.  We will be back.

In the final analysis of pros and cons, Fort Collins comes out on top, but Tucson hasn't been completely eliminated.  Fort Collins has a great beer scene, outdoor-loving people, dog friendly spaces, good housing market for us to downsize, mountains and trails, some folks we already know, decent pickleball opportunities, lots of sunshine, mild winters, and a major airport within an hour.  

We really liked Tucson also, and we can afford a lot more house in Tucson for the same money.  But the heat factor just can't be eliminated. I think I could get used to the summers and that they would be preferable at this point in my life to any winter.  But Julia doesn't feel that way, and it's going to have to be a mutual decision.  I know that I can be happy in Fort Collins, and if Julia is willing to downsize, it will work out just fine.  At this point, I think she is mulling over the downsizing part, so our decision isn't yet set in stone.  

In the short term, we have a couple of quick trips planned next month.  We are joining up with my mother for her first cruise.  Later, we will  drive to Kentucky for Thanksgiving with Julia's brother Scott for a big family Thanksgiving at Julia's sister's place in Lexington. 

In the meantime, I rescued this summer's refrigerated sourdough culture and will start baking bread again in the morning.  Today, we had our first wood stove fire of the year.