I never regret moving back to the state of my birth, but even though I have 3-4 close friends now, I never developed the same feeling I had with my friends in AZ. My kids were 5 and 7 when i moved here and in school; we lived in a town where I had nothing in common with the others, so I tried making friends through my synagogue and work. That mostly worked. I did a ton of volunteer work at the synagogue and a little at my kid's school, at least as much I could do as a working mom.
The close friends I have now developed over a 20 year period. We met our cycling friends (a couple) that we are the closest with because we took a risk, joined AMC, and signed up for one of her rides. It turned out that we had seen them for years at the health club, and lived within 5 miles of each other. It was just luck that our kids were grown and out of the house and they had no kids.
I have a ton of acquaintances, some of which have been friends for a while. And while I love my cycling group, they have been together for years and no one has reached out past the doing the regular group thing with me. I am happy to say that I met Hirakukibou through TE and we are both riding buddies and friends!