Retirement relocation looms slightly below the horizon.
My wife, the most wonderful woman in the world, is a native urbanite who treasures the finer things in life. We are on the fence about de-metropolitanizing the homestead.
About the farthest down the spectrum I could move her would be a nice university town. At least, it's a good point of entry, because she still keeps talking about sunny, traffic-clogged places, and I've been there, done that, not going back.
1. Charlottesville, VA. VIR, 2.5 hours away, Summit Point 2.5 hours away, Dominion 1.25 hours away.
I would value your additional suggestions!
Ann Arbor and East Lansing are close to Waterford Hills, Gingerman, and Grattan. Plus Ann Arbor is about an hour closer to Mid-Ohio (2hr 40min according to Google).
IRP is a little farther away, equally, from both.
What else is important? Weather? We have wet and slightly cold winters (often hovering around freezing but not more than a few days in a row of actual cold 20 degree type days) but in central Ohio we have mid-Ohio about a half hour away, nelson ledges a couple hours away, a drag strip about a half hour away, and a lot of other courses 3-4 hours away. Columbus is a vibrant growing city with great food and a lot to recommend it. You can still get nice big plots of land with workshops a reasonable distance from town at a food price.
You have the Florida Tracks that have college towns close...
Daytona
West Palm "Moroso"
Sebring
FIRM
College towns near by...
Tampa
Orlando
Melbourne
Gainsville
Daytona
Athens Georgia (or watkinsville as a close town) . Road Atlanta is less than an hour and Atlanta motor sports park is about 2 hours.
Greenville SC is pretty much right in the middle of Carolina Motorsports Park, AMP, and the charlotte roval. Also closeish to some good kart tracks if you wanted to go down that road.
Also maybe Greenville/ Clemson area. Road Atlanta is still less that 2 hours and Carolina motor sports park is in similar range.
And While it isn’t a college town Atlanta has 5 of them and has access to road Atlanta, Atlanta motor sports park, and even barber.
Okay, I lived in Greenville and I liked it, but Bob Jones University does not a "university town" make, people! More like the set of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Oh wait, I forgot Furman. Okay okay, sorry to be a d**k. Everybody, please keep them all coming, university, college, or decent welding school.
I was oblivious about AMP. Looks cool!
If you want to escape the traffic-clogged metro areas, avoid Atlanta at all costs. Athens (University of Georgia) is closer to both AMP and Road Atlanta than Atlanta is.
Athens, Georgia, home of the Bulldogs, is less than an hour from Road Atlanta. It's a nice drive. :)
maschinenbau said:
If you want to escape the traffic-clogged metro areas, avoid Atlanta at all costs. Athens (University of Georgia) is closer to both AMP and Road Atlanta than Atlanta is.
He is 100% correct. But it did meet the college town/ track requirement... :)
If you're looking at Charlottesville, you might also check out Roanoke which is further south on 81. VIR is closer, Summit is still "in range", as is Dominion, and CMP/NCM aren't that far away; iirc
on the other hand, IAD/Dulles is a 'reasonable' drive from Charlottesville, whereas ROA is mainly a turboprop spoke-ride to one of the hubs
Two more in Florida: DeLand and St. Augustine. Each one is about 30-45 minutes away from Daytona.
sleepyhead said:
If you're looking at Charlottesville, you might also check out Roanoke which is further south on 81. VIR is closer, Summit is still "in range", as is Dominion, and CMP/NCM aren't that far away; iirc
on the other hand, IAD/Dulles is a 'reasonable' drive from Charlottesville, whereas ROA is mainly a turboprop spoke-ride to one of the hubs
Admittedly biased - But even a little further down 81 is Blacksburg which was on Forbes list (I know, I know, internet lists) of best places to retire recently. But 'urban' it is not... But it has less of those pesky Hoos then Charlottesville!
Stillwater, OK has one of the most fun, well run tracks in the country 25 minutes away in Hallett Motor Racing Circuit.
You're an hour from Tulsa, an hour from OKC which has a ton of awesome little "entertainment districts," an NBA team, what was named the best new restaurant in the country last fall in Nonesuch. And it's also very cheap here, which is usually important in retirement.
4 hours to Dallas or Topeka.
Louisville KY puts you between Putnam and NCM. Bowling Green Ky puts you on top of NCM and is actually a pretty cool town with WKU as it's college.
Western Mass. If you can handle absolute insane liberalism, then Amherst Mass would meet your criteria. Very nice town tucked in the Berkshire Mountains. New Hampshire, Palmer, Lime Rock, are all real close. NJMP, Pocono, and the Glen are all sorta close. Summit Point is less than a day's drive away as well. Beautiful country, nice people, excellent college town, lots of really really good schools nearby...... cold, snow, expensive.
Madison WI. 1 hr to Blackhawk Farms, 1:30 to Milwaukee Mile, 1:45 to Road America. Or live in Milwaukee and everything is closer. Just a little outside the city, housing is cheap and it's pretty. But... Winter.
What about Waco, Tx. Hour and a half from MSR Cresson, Hour and a half from COTA, 2 hours from Eagles Canyon. A bit further out you have MSR Houston and Hallett in Oklahoma. There's also a track being planned in Anna, TX but a track being planned isn't the same thing as a track being opened. It's also between DFW and Austin so you have plenty of access to day trip to the city.
itsarebuild said:
Athens Georgia (or watkinsville as a close town) . Road Atlanta is less than an hour and Atlanta motor sports park is about 2 hours.
Not bad if you can suffer the UGA.
tr8todd said:
Western Mass. If you can handle absolute insane liberalism, then Amherst Mass would meet your criteria. Very nice town tucked in the Berkshire Mountains. New Hampshire, Palmer, Lime Rock, are all real close. NJMP, Pocono, and the Glen are all sorta close. Summit Point is less than a day's drive away as well. Beautiful country, nice people, excellent college town, lots of really really good schools nearby...... cold, snow, expensive.
Thompson CT is close too....
In reply to turtl631 :
AutoBahn Country Club is less than 3 hours from Madison/Milwaukee as well.
Winston-Salem, NC is an hour to VIR, an hour and a half to Lowe's Motor Speedway, and I think CMP isn't much further. GSO airport has decent flight connections from it, and it's not far to RDU which will have many more flights. The Blue Ridge Parkway isn't terribly far, and Raleigh and Charlotte are pretty close for when SWMBO just needs a bigger city fix.
Might be worth a look.
Eugene/Corvallis Oregon?
UofO/OSU, traffic isn't anywhere near as bad as say, Salem or even Portland.
Portland/Vancouver isn't terrible by comparison to some other cities, but it isn't getting better.
Portland International Raceway, Oregon Raceway Park, Pacific Raceways, Spokane Raceway Park, The Ridge Motorsports Park, Thunderhill, Sears Point, Laguna Seca are all within a few hours or more away.
Eugene has a very active and laid back autocross scene, there's still at least one hillclimb per year, Rallycross and TSD Rally, Prosolo and other active autocross clubs in the area.
Seattle and San Francisco provide the glitter and glam that Portland doesn't, but it has plenty on its own.
Bend, while a bit further away from the Universities has about 300 days of sun by comparison to the rest of the valley.
