Jim,
With some research, I’ve found a few mapping tools that are useful in selecting possible retreat locales:
- Free GIS tool [1] (overlay and merge different map layers onto one map)
- Census mapping [2]
- National Atlas [3]. Crime, precipitation, etc. Very nice but you can’t merge data.
- An interesting Google Earth plug-in [4]
I’d also like to mention an ongoing forum discussion [5].
Regards, – C.D.V.