We're complete with our journey...for now. We had a goal of 48 states in 2 years and we completed 47 states in 17 months. We found that each state has enough unique attributes and attractions to easily absorb at least a month, if not six. We do not want to dedicate that much of our time to travel in this season, so we will call this journey done. Our biggest disappointment? That we didn't figure out incorporating Utah! We will not rest until we return to the west and see that terrific state and it's unique beauty. But, we have not tarnished our desire for travel, as a matter of fact, this journey has whet our appetites for further journeys in states we have already visited and yes - return to Utah!
As of this writing, we still need to post pictures and a few paragraphs of our visit to West Virginia. On the heels of that trip, we began exploring eastern Tennessee as a prospective home site. We love all mountains and have been drawn to the beauty of the Smokies and the Appalachians. The state favors well economically with a reasonable cost of living and favorable tax laws for stretching our dollars further than some other areas. In case you are curious, other contenders for our home state included New Hampshire, Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming, Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Although Texas holds a warm spot in our hearts, there are precious few mountains and they are in rather desolate areas of the state. Several of the states fell in priority as having laws that are unfriendly to home schools. States that assess income taxes, including retirement pensions also fell to a lower ranking. When I say ranking, I mean just that - we made a spread sheet! Imagine two engineers doing anything without a spread sheet!
We're continuing to pray and browse this beautiful state and all the property listings. We'll not enter much of our deliberations here, as we don't see that as fitting our intended purpose of the blog. As truly newsworthy events transpire, we will post here.
Thanks for reading our travel blog. We plan to review it at a future date and publish it for our own memoirs. It's been a terrific adventure and we likely will do a '17 months reflection' post. We're a little road weary and happy to move into a new season full of things we cannot see from here!
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Oh no ! I wish you'd reconsider....or start another blog. We've been full-timers for 6 yrs & we're always considering the next phase...hanging up the keys. We passed thru Boone TN a long time ago & fell in love with it(I wonder what it's like now?). And I've heard good things about Hickory too....& Franklin...& Murfreesboro...Your search for a new home might be educational. I'm sure you'll turn it into a learning experience. Good luck & God bless...
ReplyDeleteWe just sold our home in east TN (Tellico Village, Loudon, TN) after 8 1/2 yrs. We loved the area and the people (East Tenneseeians are the warmest, most friendly people we have ever met, and we have lived in a number of places: IL, MI, FL, IA, CA and TN). The trout streams are beautiful, also. We are leaving for FL, because the winters are too cold for us (We are in our 80's). We understand that the summers are hot in TN, but we were never there at that time as we spend summers in our remote Canadian cabin. You will love east TN. How many miles did you put on your 5th?
ReplyDeleteBob/Marie Rogers
coyatee@gmail.com
OK - we're going to continue to create posts for the blog because some have said they'd still like to hear from us. Thank you! We're pleased to hear that!
ReplyDeleteWe're also pleased to hear from folks that agree that TN is a nice place to call home.
Bob/Marie - Congratulations on the sale of your home. We may be jealous that we didn't see it before it sold! We don't really know how many miles we put on the 5th wheel. I guess we were so busy plotting our course for the next place to visit that we didn't spend any time tracking our distance travelled. If we figure out the blog add-on that shows routes travelled, we may add that to sum up our journeys. Any experienced bloggers out there with a how-to for us?