Another place that's got a high quality of life for low cost of living is St. Augustine, Florida. It's an architecturally significant city with several colleges, great art scene, wide beaches.
You don't need to look any further than the warnings in the post you're replying to for a response. If you're dating, prefer lots of social interaction, or attend a lot of big-city events, then you're going to have a bad time living in southern Missouri.
San Francisco is not a good place for straight women to date. No one talks about it, because it's not politically correct, but in my observations they come here, and are lonely.
There's just too many single women, and not enough men. I have a very attractive ex-girlfriend, and we had so many conversations about social life, or lack there of. It got to the point, where I took her out and watched what took place. Guys--way below her league wouldn't talk to her unless she aggressively talked to them first.
I know I get hammered because I'm not being politically correct, and yes--there's always the exceptions, but at least in San Francisco it's difficult for sigle women looking for a steady relationship.
I'll point out the politically incorrect thoughts, and save you time:
I shouldn't have stereotyped. I shouldn't have assumed some females are looking for a steady relationship. I shouldn't have mentioned looks/personality when I said "way below her league". I probally left out something that hurt someone deeply--sorry.
Some of us choose to remain close to specialized healthcare, that we trust.
You said you had a few acres. Are you planning a garden for the spring?
Any idea if there's some sort of meetup-alternative for tech-minded people moving into the area? Just based on this thread, Co-Mo Connect and other rural fiber initiatives seem to be attracting a fair number of developers/entrepreneurs. It'd be great to all get in touch with each other.
Our network (Co-Mo Connect) publishes network rollout status and maps at http://usage.co-mo.coop:8080/signupstatus.php
Before here, we looked at WK&T (Kentucky/Tennessee) http://wktelecom.coop/ That looked promising as well.
It was some work to even find these two networks, then finding homes within the service area and trying to find out if they were eligible was the next challenge. Lots of Zillow searches. If the home is pre-wired, they'll probably advertise it as such in the listing. I think the sweet spot (in terms of value) is finding a property that is eligible but hasn't had an install yet. In our case that meant eye-balling the neighborhood maps at a house-by-house level.
To find similar networks in other parts of the US I would start with Zillow searches (for "fiber") or Google searches for state + fiber + rollout, state + co-op + fiber, or state + co-op + Calix. Calix is a popular FTTH equipment vendor. You could also check their (or other vendors) press releases, which they usually issue when they partner with a new co-op. See http://www.ftthcouncil.org/OurMembers
I wish there were a friendlier UX for this. Our search lasted about 2 months. If anyone is interested in my area, email me and I should be able to help by finding properties before they hit MLS, qualifying addresses with the contacts I've made at the service provider/installers, and of course just driving around. It would be fantastic to build a hacker community here.
They just started the rollout and iirc it should be done at least in the towns by next summer.
Rsfiber.com is the site to check out
Our home is/was a bit of a fixer-upper, and it's harder to get help with labor here (it exists, but it's expensive). But one thing I've noticed is that learning plumbing/construction/mechanics has been way easier than learning software. You definitely sweat more though.
Turn-key housing here exists too, it just comes at more of a premium. Also, your social life is obviously impacted. You're probably well-advised to already have a family or s/o (or just are comfortable being alone).
All told, I think this is a great option if you're feeling trapped in your career but have stockpiled some cash. It probably doesn't require near as much money as you might think to make the jump.
For us it's exactly what we needed to focus on our startups without going the traditional VC route. We'd love to see more people going this route. Let me know if I can help.