I left the small town I grew up in, in 1969, then moved back to the same state when I got out of the Marines and went to college. When I finished my masters I left the state for a short time then came back prior to going to Colorado and on to Alaska. Spent the biggest share of my adult life in Alaska but never had any desire to go back to NM. The little town my mom lived in never really grew up and there's still only one high school. I've got no use for the political corruption in New Mexico so when it was time to retire and move somewhere warmer and less expensive I knew I wasn't going there I've been embarrassed for years for no more times than I made it back to to visit my mother. She passed this year in Arizona in an assisted living home, so I still had to go back to NM to take care of her things and get her house sold. I suspect I'll die here in Idaho as i see no reason to live. I like the freedoms already mentioned above, and the conservatives. My son still lives in Alaska, and that is the hardest part of change and retirement.
