To EastEileen.

Try http://www.coastresorts.com/forums/index.cfm or www.rv.net.

Millie: Look up the web site www.findyourspot.com. This site has a very detailed & specific set of questions about your likes/dislikes, weather, culture, education, medical, religion, jobs, real estate, taxes, you name it. Answer the questions as honestly & accurately as you possibly can. The results will be a listing of towns in the United States where you would be the most likely to want to retire in. It's not a perfect system but I found it helped me a lot.

Durango, Colorado and South Texas. My husband and I each went to high school in Brownsville, and we now live in Durango. Our families still live in Texas.

We'll stay in Durango from April to October each year, and somewhere in South Texas the remainder of the year. I love the mountains, and enjoy the warm winters in South Texas. I want to have a 4WD pickup with a camper to do some good travelling using these 2 locations as bases.

The first year my husband and I were married, we met an older couple in a national park. They had retired and were living out of an RV. They traveled around the USA, helping out in places that had experienced disasters. When they started getting burned out, they went to a national park for a couple of weeks to regroup, then headed off to the next place where they could do some good. My husband and I looked at each other, and decided that's what we wanted to do sometime. So, I guess we'll include that idea as well. I'd rather take a pickup than an RV so that I didn't use up so much energy getting from place to place. We're great at traveling light.

Three potentials:
1. Olympic Peninsula, WA State. Either Port Townsend or Sequim. Great climate (esp. in Sequim), nice people, reasonable house prices (Sequim is cheaper than PT), lots to do, beautiful scenery, also no state income tax (so far).
2. Whistler, Canada. Only if budget allows (i.e., win the lottery)
3. Europe. Not so far-fetched because we live in Europe now, will be living here for several more years at least. In Europe, either Cumbria (northern England), the Loire Valley (Provence is just TOO hot and my husband has already picked out "our" apartment in the town of Angers) or Normandy (lots of Brits to keep us Canadian/Americans company).

I've also thought of this but when I wonder of choosing a place to restart my life - I also wonder what will I do with the life I've been enjoying these many years.

We have our family, children, and now grandchildren (another due next month) and friends that we've made and kept these many years. I can't leave this and start over in a more reasonably priced setting. We may look for 55+ housing where they care for the yards etc and continue to see our family and friends right here.

I would love to travel more and we probably will do just that when we sell the old homestead.

As for living out of a PO Box, you have a friend or relative let ylu use their address as your home base. I hve a friend who does the 3 month assignment nurse thing. her home is in the West and she uses Dada's address, she is 50ish! I envie her but my turn is coming. Direct deposit of the $ into a bank account and using a debit card is how you would access your $, pay CC bills etc. Ahh the life.

Wanted to mention the down side, every state you work in that has a state income tax, you must file at the end of the year,that can be a drag!!

1.Edgar Town Martha's Vineyard, Mass. fro me the perfect spot for retirement .

2. Arizona where my husband thinks he's going .

3. Cannes where we actually have an apartment.