Hey Mamagoose - I know you said you want to be in a relatively warm climate, but I must say, here in our little city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the bike scene is really fine. Were it not for work (which is going the way of the dinosaur soon), I could get by without a car easily. We have a lovely off-road path along the river that goes from Easton to Allentown (Bethlehem in the middle), more off-road paths under expansion throughout the northeast part of the state (see D & L Heritage Corridor path), a wide range of mountain bike options from easy-peasy to highly technical, and the roads are for the most part completely bike-able. The terrain here is hilly -- it IS pennsylvania, after all -- but after an initial period of getting your muscles used to it, you won't even notice. We notice that when we go elsewhere to bike, we are always in comparatively good shape because we do hills on our little day to day rides all the time. We have a very active bike-ped advocacy group at work in all three small interconnected cities. Our bus system is equipped with bike racks on all buses. Although we get snow and ice, I bike year-round, and have done so for many years. We are a college-intense community, with about seven colleges in our three-city area, so there's plenty of intellectual and cultural activity of the sort that usually goes with higher learning institutions. We have a a variety of grocery stores and year-round farmers' markets. And we're an easy bus ride away for day trips to NYC and Philadelphia. Give the Lehigh Valley some thought; it's a fine cycling place to live.
