My parents have always been really cool. They were always lax about what I could and couldn't do and I was never one of those kids who couldn't wait to get out at 18. They've always been very supportive and everything and more friends than parents. It's not that I couldn't move away and be fine, I'd just want to see them more than three or four times a year for the rest of my life. For two or three years that would be fine, though.

I'm going to be studying in Uganda and Rwanda next Fall if I get accepted to my program. It's very competitive so it could go either way, but I'll be finding out by next Friday.

After that, I'll have one semester left, but I'd like to find a destination this summer so I'll be ready to leave as soon as I finish college in Spring 2010.

DDR, since you're interested in 3rd world countries, let me pitch NOLA to you.

Modest population size. If you know the right places, the best food in the US. Lots of alcohol and art galore. You can find a music scene, and I don't think metal has ever really caught on. Something is always happening whether it's hurricanes or scandals. And unlike the marketing slogans of the rest of cities/states, Louisiana is actually different.

So buy a gun, stock up on water and make the move.

Yeah, between Seattle and Minneapolis, north of Denver, Boise is the most interesting city (Bozeman too small, and excepting ski resorts). Good food, relatively progressive culture, music scene, yoga classes, and the Big Western Sky.

Why stop at Boise? Let me sell you on:

Coober Pedy.





Most of the houses are underground or semi-buried, so it's nice and cool all year round. Like living in a wine cellar, only without any good wine. There are no crocodiles that far inland, and it never rains so the weather is GREAT. It's got that big western sky. They still have "white pubs" and "black pubs", so you know they have diverse culture. The population is less than 600, 000, and more importantly, there are no hipsters.

let me sell you on:

Wujal Wujal





PROS:

- There are signs outside town that say "don't stop, even for fuel. And DO NOT take any photos", so you won't be bothered by pesky hipsters.

- For some reason all the houses have bicycles and television sets on the roof, and ceiling fans in the front yard, so you know that they have a firm grasp of obscure art, and thus a thriving scene of some sort.

- Limitless outdoor activities.

CONS:

- alcohol is banned

- lots of crocodiles

Let me sell you on:

PALM ISLAND



PROS:

- Geographically stunning

- Police station was burnt to the ground, so there's no trouble from the "law".

- Limitless outdoor activities. Snorkeling, crocodile hunting, mountain bike riding, dewgong hunting, fishing, grass-skiing, turtle hunting, lots of pearls and mud crabs.

- A life expectancy of 40 for females, and slightly less for males, so you'll be running the place in no time.

- Has roads and some working cars

- Population less than 600, 000.

- Is world-famous for being the "the most violent place on earth outside a combat zone", according to Guiness World Records, so there's never a dull moment.

- Has the highest youth suicide rate per capita in the world, so if there are any hipsters popping up, they won't last long.

CONS:

- Full-strength alcohol is banned. Light beer only.

- Gets a little stabby towards the settlement end of the island.

- Dangerously close to Townsville (my glorious home town), which is pretty much the Richmond, VA, of the Southern Hemisphere.

- Prone to cyclone damage.

Do you want to play music for kicks, like a hobby, or for kicks, like you gotta do it for the rest of your life regardless of how it might fuck up your life?

If you're a hobbyist, move anywhere. If you're impassioned, you'll want to be in a city with some musical resources.

Not near a city.

If you want to be in someone else's band, you gotta be somewhere you can find a good band. If you want to flesh out your own music, you have to learn to play or program everything, or find people to make music with.

estone's suggestion of Boulder is good as well. Great college town that meets all your requirements, at the foot of the Rockies, and only 30 miles from Denver. Very "outdoors" vibe obviously with all that the mountains offer.

Fort Collins shouldn't be undersold either. IMO, it's even more laid back than Boulder due to it just being further away from civilization. But it's also much further away from a major city. I always really liked it when I was out there.

The only issue with either of those is that most of the "low responsibility" jobs you'd be looking for are usually taken up by the students in each town.

Madison fits your bill well, for what it's worth.

Population is something like 400-500k if you include the little bitty suburbs. Traffic is non-existant, bike paths cross the town and go waaay out to the hills (converted rail lines, now crushed limestone). There's decent mountain biking, and shitty-to-moderate skiing close to town, decent skiing 3 or 4 hours north. Cross country skiing trails are all over the place, if you're open to that. Two huge lakes sandwiching downtown, massive university and all that entails, plenty of rivers and other lakes close-by. Down to earth people, and the beer selection is fucking wonderful. Decent number of concerts in town, respectable number of places to play out, 2 hours from Chicago, 4 hours from Minneapolis.

Don't Madison and Boulder probably trip the douche-o-meter here?

montGARmery lol

Madison has hipsters, but those little fuckers are unavoidable in any town with arts and music. Living in Wisconsin means they can't even pretend to be too uppity, and the ones who aspire to loftier hipster heights generally move on down to chi town.

if you want a pretty smal fairly boring place with nice outdoor recreation, Boise isn't bad I guess.

I'd suggest Portland but don't want obs here. plus Boise is very dry so if you are looking for a desert environment, Portland or Seatle won't be for you.

I may actually add Madison to the places to stop this summer. What would you recommend to do on a two or three day stay there, though?

Portland seems alright...it seems like somewhere my girlfriend would love...but I just fucking hate rain.

understand on the rain. there are a couple nice towns here east of the cascades in the rain shadow (Bend, Hood River) but they are really small tourist resort types of places.

you hate it? i have to work in it.

yeh, i def would not suggest bend unless you want to go into a cultural vacuum inhabited by nothing but white people.

well thats the entire northwest. even portland is 85-90% white. boise is probably 95%

DAY LIFE:

- Walk down State Street from the capitol to the university and back. Bars, food, shops, people, good sense of the town. Should help you figure out if it's for you or not.

- Devil's Lake. It's a nice park not far north of town, good hiking, nice scenery. If you like this sort of thing, there are 7 or 8 other really good ones about that same distance (blue mounds, indian lake, etc).

- Bike the capital city trail (rentals are available if you don't bring bikes.) Great scenery, good to get outside and do shit. Also you could bike around one of the lakes, which is about an hour and a half.

- Taliesen, if you're into Frank Lloyd Wright. It's a beautiful place, and they need your tourism dollars big-time. The one in AZ got all the dough.

- Check out restaurants downtown or near-east side, either on State Street or around the capital. Near East side in the Willy St neighborhood has some good ones too, like Roman Candle Pizza which is great, has outdoor seating, and they serve Lake Louie Scotch Ale on tap (see below).




NIGHT LIFE:

- See any show at the High Noon Saloon (you'll see what music-digging locals are like, for better or worse, and it's a great mid-size venue.) Make snarky comments from the back row and roll your eyes a lot.

- Get beers at Mickey's Tavern (if you can stand the folks in there, and I think you can, it doesn't get too much worse, plus it's an old house turned bar, which is sorta neat.)

- Depending on where you stay, there should be lots of good bars in walking distance, and there may still be some obners in town to help.

- Drink something from Bell's (michigan), Great Dane (madison), Capital (madison), New Glarus (preferably Spotted Cow, also local), Central Waters (local, may have to hit a liquor store, but it's worth it), Lake Louie (local, the scotch ale is fucking wonderful). Not to put too much emphasis on it, but the quality of beer available does help the place.

- Catch a small movie at the first Sundance theater in the country, but it's pricey. It's also got a full bar, and nice seats, and usually no annoying people, so I eventually decided it was worth the extra money.

I've heard Eugene, OR is a pretty cool town. But it probably fails for rain.

Is a two or three day stop in any town really long enough to get a real feel for it though?

Madison sounds cool, and I think I found a way to work it in. Our current schedule has us gone for one and a half months so I'm trying not to add any time to it.

Does El Paso, TX have anything to offer? I've never heard much about it but it would be a convenient stop between Austin and Santa Fe.

No, but if I spend roughly three full days (get up early, go to bed late) in each place I should have a good enoujgh feel to narrow down one or two cities I seriously want to consider moving to. Which, sightseeing aside, is basically the purpose of our whole trip.

i spent a week and a half in Corvallis, OR many summers ago. it was awesome.

Yeah that's actually probably fair. Coupla days and you should know what it's like, minus knowing people there perhaps.

Also, if anywhere you guys are recommending resembles Chapel Hill, NC or Charlottesville, VA, please let me know. Those two places are what I imagine Hell on Earth to be like.