Hi Old Salt,

Sorry about Mrs. Salt's issues.  Hope all goes well for you with your move.

Not Tennessee, but we have friends who live in rural Franklin, Kentucky (about 45-50 minutes from Nashville) and it is beautiful there.  We visited that area with them a few years ago and thought it was really lovely.

Also have friends who live on one of the huge lakes near Loudon, TN and I know that isn't a place where you grow crops and have animals, but the area around Loudon is really nice.  It is such a pretty little town, too.  Farther away, probably 2 1/2 hours from Nashville.

Good luck to you.  I hope you find something that is just perfect for you.

I have cousins who moved from southern Illinois ages ago to Greenville, TN which is a small town nestled into the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. Absolutely beautiful. You could do worse!

OS,

I've travelled through TN on both business and pleasure quite a number of times.  My own personal taste would put me somewhere east of the diagonal from Johnson City to Knoxville into hill country and the mountains.  However, my guess is that might be a bit too far from Nashville to meet your needs.  In any case, much of the eastern half of the state is quite scenic so I doubt you could go far wrong, wherever you end up.

You can fish for Stripers and Muskies in some of the bigger lakes in the far east.  At one time this was one of MY targeted retirement areas.  Family needs now point us in the direction of Florida.

Hey, you may know better than me, but might not Yellowbird be able to provide you with a few tips?  I think he's still down in southeastern TN.  I could be wrong.

In any case, I salute your efforts to better accommodate the needs of Mrs. OS and wish you both good luck and good health with the transition.

Jimbo   

P.S.  Be sure to plant your corn a little early next year.  Also, be careful when you slop the cows and milk the hogs; they can get a little surly, at times.

Salt....Hope everything works out OK.  Wishing the best.

.......Mike

We had a good trip, did a ton of driving and saw much of Tennessee over 4 1/2 days. We had targeted 3 big areas to see and feel that we got a good read on all of them.

Linda has gout and arthritis which is the reason for moving south. I have some arthritis also, but not as severe as hers. We had mostly great weather for the trip, which was a blessing as we dodged a couple of storms.

Our primary goal was to see as much as possible and to choose an area to focus our search. We spent some time in the Smokies area, but decided it was way too touristy and populated for us. We have chosen to focus in an area north of Cookeville and around Dale Hollow Lake. It’s an area that’s thinly populated, has some great landscapes with hills, ridges, and valleys. This is north-central Tennessee. We plan to go back sometime in March after Linda retires to focus our search and become more familiar with this area.