Life> Odds and Ends

Want to live like a cowboy? Try Wyoming

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-03-15 08:52

Whether you want to live like a rock star or a cowboy, or become an urban gardener or just opt for the simple life, there is a town in America to suit everyone's taste.

Wannabe cowboys should head to Casper, Wyoming. Urbanites with a green thumb and a desire to start an organic garden should settle down in Red Hook, in the mid-Hudson Valley in New York.

Fairfax, California is the place to pursue the suburban ideal and Nashville is the city for aspiring music stars, according to the magazine Men's Journal.

But if you want to keep a boat near New York City, look no further than Red Bank, New Jersey, and head to Reno for outdoor pursuits far from the madding crowd.

"We ran with the notion that when somebody makes a big move it is for a specific reason, so we threw out about 28 specific reasons why one might pick up and head elsewhere," said Will Cockrell, the editor of the magazine.

"It could be everything from someone who lives out there and wants to get closer to culture and jobs, to someone who has lived in a city for a long time and is looking to get a bit of space around them."

The magazine also considered factors such as access to activity, culture, the culinary scene and the good life.

"In each of these you may be sacrificing one of those to be having more of another. But each of the 28 (cities) has some element of that," said Cockrell.

One of the not so obvious choices, he added, was Reno.

"We found that Reno, Nevada has pretty much everything that Boulder, Colorado has," Cockrell explained. "It is a non-obvious choice in that most people would not think of it as an adventure or active town."

Another surprising finding was St. Augustine in Florida, which came out tops for living in the very old south, which people might not associate with Florida.

Even further off the beaten path was the Black Hills of South Dakota, which Cockrell said was a lot less expensive than Montana for people hankering for more space and land to build their dream house.

"If what you are looking for is space and the aesthetics of some dramatic mountains then that would be a good spot," he added.

And for anyone looking to buy someone else's dream home, Las Vegas would be hard to beat. Housing prices have nosedived 50 percent and recently built homes can be a bargain at $100 per square foot, according to the magazine.