For me, since I’ve been 100% remote for 8 years now, I can live pretty much anywhere I want, as long as there’s decent Internet. As my kids all grew up and moved out to live their own lives, I asked myself where I really wanted to live. One was Ecuador, specifically because of the tropical climate combined with high altitude rain forests. The other was the PNW. My partner and I came up to Eugene, OR and did a massive three day tour of Oregon and southern Washington looking for a place to live and finally settled on Eugene, at least to start. Now we live in northern Salem, OR and we absolutely love it here. The climate (bring on the rain!), the overall feeling of the people, the forests and beaches, just all of it really. To be fair, there are definitely still a number of hateful angry people who live in rural areas, which can be problematic, but overall it’s lovely.
What made you move?
I moved out here in 2013. The person I was with at the time wanted to get out of the Midwest, and it was between Portland and NYC. I felt that Portland was more my speed, and 10 years and a few relationships later, I’m still stoked with my choice! Making meaningful, long term friendships has been a challenge for this introvert, but I’m happy to be here while I figure that out!
Portland is awesome, I moved here from the midwest too and and was also considering NYC but the cost was just too high. Hope you’re participating in pedalpalooza!