Decision

Portugal

As mentioned in my previous blog entries Portugal met virtually all of our requirements. Sure the visa process and moving would be expensive and exhausting, but it would be totally worth it, right? Right?

Maybe. Or maybe not.

The intent was to rent for a year until we felt confident we wanted to live in Portugal, and only after that find a permanent place to live, bring over our household goods and (more importantly) the horses.

That would mean Elayne had to go nearly a year with almost no horseback riding. Not good.

And as made clear in my previous blog entry trail riding and boarding in Portugal were going to be challenging. No matter how we tried to arrange things either I would be unhappy living in a rural area where Elayne could ride often or she would be unhappy living in an urban area with severely restricted trail riding opportunities.

And so yes, Portugal would be totally worth the cost and bother of the move if we did not want to also continue with the same amount of trail riding as we enjoy here in Oregon. But we do and so the cost benefit analysis totally broke down and just like that we realized that Portugal was not going to work for us at this time.

Plan B (for real this time)

So I then frantically flew into action researching Plan B options and revisiting the original requirements and prioritizing them with Elayne to see if there was a place we could live that satisfied all of our critical requirements (including lots of trail riding) and most of our nice to have features.

We wrote down our requirements on index cards and arranged them into three lists (general requirements, my requirements and Elayne's requirements) with the understanding that if a place failed to provide any requirement from the top two rows of any list then either of us could reject that location with no questions asked. The other items would be factored into any decision with priority given to places that satisfied more of them than other locations.

For international locations the horse issue is a problem almost everywhere, and other top tier requirements ruled out the nearby countries where horse transport is easier.

This left domestic locations, which meant revisiting maps plus geographic, political and economic data sites to find someplace that met all of our primary needs and as many secondary needs as possible.

Sacramento 

This possibility caught us off guard, and yet the city and surrounding area meets every single requirement on all three of our lists. The primary downside is that summers can be as hot as in Prineville and for more days of the year -- "it's a dry heat" only gets you so far when it tops 100(F). But you can escape the summer heat up in the nearby mountains or over on the coast.

Let's review the lists.

Elayne

  • Boarding: there are more than a dozen boarding facilities around Sacramento offering a paddock and shelter per horse, and many providing daily pasture turnout. All of this at very affordable rates.
  • Trail Riding: trails abound in the foothills and mountains to the west with hundreds of miles available within a short haul, and quite a few trails accessible from some of the boarding stables.
  • Language: obviously.
  • Not too Humid: there is heat, but the region has a Mediterranean climate and is dry.
  • Endurance Riding: a little ride called Tevis ends in Auburn, about half an hour's drive away, and the  region has multiple rides. This won't be a problem.

Leonard

  • Liberal: yeah, the city is very much so as is the state.
  • Not Cold: the area has mild winters even by my standards.
  • Airport Hub: Sacramento has a large regional airport, and SFO is just over two hours away by train and BART (or less if you wanted to drive).
  • Urban Amenities:  the city has plenty, and is well known for its "farm to fork" culture and so finding high quality produce and other foods will be easy.
  • Sailing: I thought I was going to give this up by looking so far inland, but there are two sailing clubs in downtown Sacramento itself, and the San Francisco Bay (one of the biggest sailing hubs in the world) is only two hours away by Amtrak/BART

Common

  • Public Transit: Sacramento has a light rail system we should be able to use to get into the city center and back home again. It also has a bus system for other destinations and an Amtrak station with multiple trains to and from San Francisco each day.

 General -- I will save these for another entry.

What is Next?

We will continue to research the city and region and have a trip planned for early March when we will visit boarding stables, trail heads, and neighborhoods where we might want to live (and can afford it).

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