I'm planing on moving BACK to the Midwest!
OK, I'll be the only dissenting remark here.
I moved to Flagstaff just under 2 years ago.
I would argue that, mile for mile, the trails in the midwest are more fun then in Arizona. No kidding! I miss good old Kickapoo back in east-central Illinois, and when I rode there last summer I had a total blast. However, Kickapoo was a mere 10 mile loop, and it was a 45 minute drive from where I lived. The next closest trails were 1.5 hours in the opposite direction.
Here in Flagstaff there are probably close to 200 miles of trail which I access from trailheads I ride to just 1-2 miles away. In the winter that same 45 minutes of driving time takes me to Sedona, with somewhere around 150 miles of the best trails anywhere. Quantity and not having to get into a car most of the year simply overwhelm the quality in Illinois. I don't think the situation is quite as good in "The Valley" lots of good riding, that's for sure, but its all spread out and you have to drive to most places.
On the other hand, road riding in AZ sucks. Very few roads to choose from with lots of traffic. Now I don't miss the flatness back in Illinois, but I do miss the thousands of mile of paved grid roads with practically no traffic.
Living conditions in Flagstaff, suck. Cost of living is very high, I recently saw a doublewide TRAILER advertised for $150K. WTF? Pay rate is low, my wife works at the public library makes about 25%-30% less then she would in a similar position in the midwest. She has a Master's degree and only makes $27K for crying out loud!
The weather ain't bad though, 8 month riding season is good, compared to, eh, 6 in IL? At least on the MTB, trails get muddy and all, I never had too much trouble riding on the road in the winter, except on the very coldest days, and on those days the muddy trails are usually frozen solid. Good stuff to ride on.
Now I don't live in "The Valley" so all I can do is throw stones, but I can honestly say that Phoenix is the last place I'd want to live anywhere in the US. Sure cost of living isn't too bad (though as other have mentioned it's going up) but between the insane urban sprawl, the smog, the automophillia madness and the crazy urban sprawl, I 'm just totally disgusted every time I go down there. And did I mention the smog? The smog just freaks me out. You people breath that stuff? Almost nowhere is there any business or home or anything with character. Plus the vegetation totally dead looking all the time. The subtleties of the desert vegetation are neat and I definitely appreciate the uniqueness, but then it gets to you after a while. Even here in Flagstaff with all the pine trees... well, last time we drove back to the midwest my wife and I both stopped and one point and said "wow, it's sooo greeeeen!"
The weather, down there in "The Valley", I think I could get used to it. What, 4 months of intense heat for 8 months of great weather? Not a bad trade off. But it seems to me that it's definitely set up a sort of artificial atmosphere down there. So many people go from air conditioned home to air conditioned car to air conditioned office to air conditioned grocery store (where they leave the doors open for some reason) it just seems so artificial and creepy to me. Obviously, everyone on this forum gets outside and experiences life, but it seems like a lot of people are huddled in a human made world. The bright green golf courses where their should be wild desert really says it all.
Sorry if I offended anyone, like I said, I'm just throwing stones. Tucson on the other hand, doesn't look to.
The main reason we want to move back is more personal then anything. I am an ecologist and a nature lover and I really miss the beautiful prairies and oak woodlands. The desert and arid mountains are neat, but most of these places here have been just beaten to hell by people and well, just don't do it for me. For example, sure there have been lots of nice flower blooming down in "The Valley" after all the rain we've been having, and it's been neat to see them, but up here in Flag, I'm just waiting for signs of spring. I finally realized the other day that, we get the migrant birds coming back but that's it, We don't get the big green up in the spring with all the spring effemerals and budding trees and what not. That's somewhat dissipating for me.
All in all, we're looking in areas such as Southern Illinois, Wisconsin, Souther Michigan, Missouri, places with plenty of trails to ride and natural areas for me to work on too. I'm glad I've spent time here in AZ, but I'll be very happy to get back "home".
