Just returned home last night from visiting Columbia, Missouri. As a native southern Californian and now central-highlands AZ dweller, I was blown away by the density of plants and insects! I was also flattered by the hospitality of everyone I met there. The midwest seems to shout to me, "We've been here a while." I'm aware that Columbia may be an outlier when it comes to openness to foreigners, though, due to being a college town. The reason I went was to reconnect with a girlfriend I was living with here in Prescott. While the trip sadly concluded our relationship, it also gave me a lot of inspiration to be less of a homebody and put my feelers out to the community. Unrelated: does anyone here know of a method/site to research cities to live in? I've mostly been reading anecdotal reddit comments about specific towns I'm interested, but I imagine there are better ways to go about this.
Dude if I went by Reddit comments I'd never live anywhere. The stuff that horrifies them horrifies the fuck out of them and the stuff they like is generally the opinion I want to punch in the face. Prescott is awesome. I did part of a summer in and around Jerome/Cottonwood/Sedona. Love it up there. I wouldn't move anywhere I hadn't at least vacationed.