Hi, I'm Dallin.
The whole story of my background and how I came to find and join this forum is a long one, so I'll just touch on the highlights (but feel free to ask for more detail if you have questions):
The 2008 Presidential Election cycle snapped me out of my 2-party mindset and for the first time I voted my conscience (I voted for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, who was endorsed by Ron Paul). It was a liberating and enlightening experience for me and since then I have come to discover and embrace the principals of libertarianism.
I currently live in the Phoenix Metro Area in Arizona with my wife and 4 year old son. My wife and I would eventually like to move elsewhere to a place we feel we can "put down roots", raise our family, and even retire.
We have many reasons for wanting to move away from the Phoenix area, but mainly we want to move to a cooler climate (something a little more tolerable than summer days averaging 110F). We also want to move to a place with a smaller population and greater sense of community. Also, we are active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) and we want to be in a place where at least one of our congregations is established and be relatively close (within a 2 hour drive) to one of our temples.
Topping our list of potential locations is:
[list]
[li]The Arizona mountain country[/li]
[li]Northern Utah (Logan area)[/li]
[li]Eastern Idaho (Rexburg area)[/li]
[/list]
And now, since my discovery of the Free State Project 2 days ago, we are seriously considering New Hampshire! It seems to fit all of our major criteria and has some advantages the other places don't.
Today, a Facebook post linking to LRN.FM eventually led me to FreeKeene.com and I like the healthy, peaceful political activism and sense of community in the Keene area!
We are fascinated by the idea of moving to a place where so many libertarians and libertarian-leaning people are gathering and helping to show the world that freedom really is the way to go. Also, my wife served a church mission in the New England area (Washington D.C. and Virginia) and has a great love for the region. I could go on and on about why we are now looking at NH as a place to relocate.
Of course, we feel drawn to the other places on our list for other reasons - proximity to family and friends being an important one, as both of our families are mostly in California and the Rocky Mountain states.
But the more I learn about NH, the more I like it. We're even talking about the possibility of making a trip out to NH to see it for ourselves!
I hope that by participating in this forum I can get to know some liberty-loving people from the Keene area and get a feel for the place. We're not planning to relocate for another couple of years, but circumstances and goals always change and we want to be prepared.
Well, there does appear to be an LDS church in Keene, but I'd guess you already found that out.
Welcome!
PorcFest does look like a lot of fun and a great way to take in NH and meet liberty-loving folks.
This summer won't work, as we will be attending a family reunion in Idaho. But 2012 might work!