What have you done to get over the realization that your best friends are scattered in areas you don't want to live?

Wife and I are looking to move, and are trying to use logical deduction to figure out where to go that does not involve a map and a dart.
We have some really good friends I've had since HS whom she gets along with very well. I think we could be happy living near many of them, but none of them are anywhere we would want to live. We've made other friends of course but no friendship I've made since has felt as strong as these. Some I thought were, but splintered for various reasons known and unknown. I keep coming back to the thought that if I could gather one or two long-term friends in once city I'd be immensely happier.
Have others experienced anything similar? Were you eventually able to make friends? Has anyone decided to move to where they didn't want to just to be around good friends, and if-so how did that go?


Source.