This has been the worst summer

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With all the rain the the molds followed by high heat with humidity my asthma kicking my butt. COPD IS NOT FUN !
All day wood working has been on mind. Along with the spray booth. I hate this thinking, we are doing so good, the shop is prosperous and growing.
I'm have fun working in a hobby that most people can only wish they had abilities in.
So if I pull up stakes , turn the shop over to Jarrod and head to a climate that is more conducive for my health what area of the is best.
Just a thought.
 
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Dry clean air would be the ticket. Where is the mystery. Used to be Flagstaff, AZ had the cleanest air. No longer true. Dry is going to be a desert climate. Lots to choose from there. It is the clean air that is the kicker.

Just some stuff to Google. Be interesting what you find. I do commiserate with the humidity and mold thing. I developed all sorts of allergies while in Dubuque, IA for seminary. Was totally congested when I got back to the mountains of Arizona. Except for fires, that is clean air. But it still took nearly 4 months for my body to shake off the congestion.

Good luck, Dave. Prayers for relief.
 
Thinking dry country for your asthma based on loml experience and my own.

The main caveats are:

We do have some unpleasant plants out here in spots so it would be good to check if you're allergic to them. Usually they only bloom for a few weeks but when they do boy howdy! The worst are ragweed and rabbit brush, but done of the introduced plants like olives are really bad as well. Some spots are worst than others, where we're at now we get a bit of grass, oak and pine pollen in the spring but then it settles down to not to bad the test of the year. We're in a valley though so it's dark for four months in the winter which gets pretty old.

Avoid valleys. They fill up with smog or inversion layers in the winter and dust, smog, and crud in the summer. Places like Phoenix, LA, or Salt Lake are not asthma freindly (some of the hillsides around them are OK, but the valleys are horrible).

Hawaii was pretty good, on the dry side of the island. Especially up the hill a bit with the windows open all the time and the breeze blowing through The wet side had enough mold and mildew to set either of us off after a few days. The dry side wasn't so good in closed up buildings either (it's dry in rainfall but still has plenty of humidity). The price of everything kind of ran us out of there though.
 
I've been to 5 of the 10 on Carol's link and I would seeing you have COPD advise totally against Amarillo. Yes, it has clean air as long as the winds aren't blowing, then the dust and so on will get you bad. And, the weird ice storms in the winter will freeze you into a ice block. If I moved I would certainly consider Sante Fe. Nice town and loaded with art of all kinds. Honolulu is expensive due to Hawaii being owned mostly by foreigners. Nothing on the islands in reasonable in my opinion. I think Anchorage would be a bit extreme but it is a fairly nice place. Fargo is, well Fargo. What can one say about Fargo? A decision to move for your needs is not what I would think to be an easy thing do decide on. Good Luck!!!
 
I agree with Dave on Amarillo... as a kid we lived a few miles north in a town called Borger... there's a carbide plant there that put lots of smoke in the air and dust was a problem... of all the places on Carol's list, I would opt for Santa Fe, except for the cost... I think it's becoming a little pricey... but I'm a fan of the desert and mountain deserts... Loved the year we spent in Tucson, but avoided Phoenix like the plague... so much smog there I called it Houston in the desert. LA is the same. South of Tucson is a little town called Tubac that is mostly an artist community... fun place to visit and you can go almost from house to house to find galleries and gift shops... it is very close to the border, so that might be a negative, but in our year and half in Tucson, we visited a number of times. That was in the days before I got into wood turning, would like to be back there now.

Hawaii is really nice, but not sure how dry since it's a tropical climate... with the wind blowing might be okay... Honolulu is a big city with lots of vehicle traffic I'm sure... haven't been back there since the mid '70's when I worked for an airlines and could fly there pretty cheaply. The big island would likely be the least congested, but has more active volcanoes...

I think Oregon is a beautiful state and when I visited the kids in Portland, told my wife that I could live there... I liked Portland and the surrounding area, but as Ryan pointed out, lots of greenery that could cause problems...

Nowadays, it's getting harder and harder to find places that can be conducive to our health... good luck in your search.
 
Hawaii is really nice, but not sure how dry since it's a tropical climate... with the wind blowing might be okay... Honolulu is a big city with lots of vehicle traffic I'm sure... haven't been back there since the mid '70's when I worked for an airlines and could fly there pretty cheaply. The big island would likely be the least congested, but has more active volcanoes...

They have a dry side and a wet side of the islands, the dry side is pretty good - if the house is kept open/aired out. The wet side not so much, mold everywhere. I'd ~mostly~ avoid the Big Island for the most part the volcano has periods where the sulphur compounds combine with the fog to produce "vog" (volcanic fog I guess). Its nasty stuff, not there all the time but icky when it is. The intensity varies widely depending on exact location on the island though, some of the north end and especially north end of the dry side isn't so bad. We'd get a whiff on Maui occasionally but not enough to matter. The main problem we'd have on Maui was when they'd burn the sugar cane, but the last sugar plant there is shutting down so I'm thinking that's a non problem anymore. If you really like rural, Kauai is really nice.. but is indeed pretty rural.

I think Oregon is a beautiful state and when I visited the kids in Portland, told my wife that I could live there... I liked Portland and the surrounding area, but as Ryan pointed out, lots of greenery that could cause problems...

Actually its sort of a trade off :) The wet side (west) plants tend to be not as bad for allergies in general but you get more mold and moss. The dry side (east) plants tend to have brief glorious lives with a TON of pollen. There are a couple of exceptions of course - in parts of the Willamette (kind of wet side) they raise grass seed and that's a big NOPE on our list. We're kind of splitting the difference here, we're in scrub oak country so wet enough that some trees can still grow, but dry enough that most of the moss/mould problems are only a minor nuisance in the winter months.

Further out on the dry side its REALLY dry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattlesnake_Mountain,_Benton_County,_Washington "Rattlesnake Mountain is often described as the tallest treeless mountain in the world" - probably not actually true, but there are no trees growing there because its to dry.

As far as really nice climate in Oregon the hills above Medford (not down in Medford itself - its another smog sink) either north towards Roseburg or south towards Asheland is really quite nice. Asheland is a bit higher up so a smidge cooler/clearer air and also has a pretty decent art scene. The prices go up substantially when you get close to there though.

Generally in most of the west the rule of thumb is "look for a drain downslope" where the bad air can escape, if you don't see it you're in it and move on.

The dry side is effectively the same as a lot of the desert west, the exact vegetation varies slightly but its almost indistinguishable from high desert in Arizona and low river valley desert in BC if you squint just a little. The low desert areas in the southern states are a different ball of wax of course.
 
The downside to Hawaii is the expense of living there. Besides the environmental aspects. I was based at Camp HM Smith in the mountains of Oahu after coming back from Nam. It was nice enough but even in the early 70's it was high dollar. Especially to a Marine Sergeant. I liked Portland, Oregon. Didn't get to spend any real time there, but most of the time is was raining or had just stopped it seemed. But, still rather nice clean air it seemed. As far as Amarillo, to me it would be a lousy place to live. Besides the carbide plant there, Raytheon has a big place there as well. Or did. Guess they still do. Forgot which one but they made one of our missiles there. Wouldn't want to be near that if somebody goofed big time. But the dust and all is what makes me wonder why someone thought it was a clean air location. Weird. Guess they might have just done computer modeling instead of going there and spending some time. I loved Tuscon!!!
 
I loved Tuscon!!!

Me too... would have considered it when I retired, except real estate is outrageous... in '94-95 when we were there you could get a really nice $100K house for about $400K.... a great many locals (actually probably were snow-birds) kept their cars registered in New Mexico or their home states... it cost me $250 for an EPA test to register a '95 Honda Accord, plus another $100 registration/License fee. I pay $49 for a '96 Toyota Avalon in Tennessee and no EPA tests., no state inspections. Same for my truck, a '03 Ford F150.... but I did like the city.
 
Never was there but for 2-4 days at a time. Most of the time I remember staying in Sheraton's Pueblo Inn. Think that's what it was. Pretty much the same with most places. Just there for a short time. Was home based at Camp Smith and then later in South Carolina. About the last 20 years of my time as a Marine I was on loan to one of the alphabet agencies, so did a lot of traveling. Here, there, here again and then over there. Except for a lot of local history, never did find anything in South Carolina to go back for. Just my opinion.
 
...I would opt for Santa Fe, except for the cost...

Yeah, prices in Santa Fe (everything from housing to food to gasoline) are pretty high. To me, it's a nice place to visit for the afternoon, but I couldn't live there. Between the snooty locals, the artsy-fartsy posers, the tourists with entitlement issues, and political issues that I'll stay quiet about due to the forum CoC, I've just never really clicked with the vibe there. The NE Heights of Albuquerque offers good clean air for all but a few days a year. We do get our fair share of airborne pollen in the spring and summer, but for the most part, it's pretty livable. (Except for the relatively high property crime rate and idiot drivers. The drivers in LA are much more cooperative and calm.)
 
Vaughn, you ought to see that type you described when someone slaps cuffs on them citing federal charges (charges they knew would catch up with them). They usually did weird things in their clothing. :rofl:
 
Yeah, prices in Santa Fe (everything from housing to food to gasoline) are pretty high. To me, it's a nice place to visit for the afternoon, but I couldn't live there. Between the snooty locals, the artsy-fartsy posers, the tourists with entitlement issues, and political issues that I'll stay quiet about due to the forum CoC, I've just never really clicked with the vibe there. The NE Heights of Albuquerque offers good clean air for all but a few days a year. We do get our fair share of airborne pollen in the spring and summer, but for the most part, it's pretty livable. (Except for the relatively high property crime rate and idiot drivers. The drivers in LA are much more cooperative and calm.)

We've only been to Santa Fe once on vacation, but we picked up on the vibes you talk about pretty quick.... I've been through ABQ a few times mostly on the freeway, and spent about 20 hours at the airport once when I was flying standby from Tulsa back to San Francisco... I got bumped off the first flight in and finally got on the last flight out.... still and all what I've seen of ABQ, i did like.

My sister lives in Rio Rancho and I think likes it now.. but wasn't happy when she first moved there from Midland, Tx.
 
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