I like that the landscape runs the gamut from snowy mountains and ski resorts to lush forests to dry desert mountains and scrub to actual desert lowlands and everything in between.

Hey all, Greetings from rainy panama....óriginally from jamaica....lotsa reggae music but violent down there.....had family in panama so i migrated....beautiful here...plenty jungle, lush greenery.....modern living.....but third world to most who live here.....financially....panama suits retirees or expatriates of the developed world with some money under their belts to come and invest or retire....lots of call center jobs for english speakers.....plenty other northerners migrating here.....the taxis are cheap, food and clothing are cheap....and crime is well under control with armed police patrolling the streets.....there has never been an earthquake here so the city has lended itself to high rise apartments for living and commerce....plenty of them....plenty of competition with prices so you can get what you want for the price that you want...anyone want further info.....post a reply...till then...malcolm

Then you might attract guests who are looking for exactly that.A compromise could be only buying 1 TV for the living room and keeping it covered with a tapestry in a corner while you're staying there.

REI is one thread in the tapestry that is America.Yes Arizona is quickly emerging on the hardware side of Moore's law.Texas a little more on the software side.Raleigh Durham, Murfreesboro and multitude of other emerging markets.I'm very confident that outmigration from CA will continue for certain segments of the population.There will be more income stratification here in the Golden State.

To get a birdseye view I like esri tapestry.

About 5,000 years ago, the Sahara Desert was lush, fertile farmland.

One horse kept too long on the same small acreage can quickly turn lush pasture into denuded bare ground. 

Looks green and lush all year.

There was a lush spring fed pasture in the lower corner that attracted elk every year, -and a year round creek flowing through the pasture.  

One year during a severe drought we got a lot of skinny little lambs no-one wanted for 25c a head & fostered them out to 'city folk' to raise in their lush back yards.