A retirement journey

Terry and I are beginning a new journey.  Terry's contract with the fire department will be ending this December.  Terry will officially be retiring after 50 years in the fire service.
We are hoping he will be renewed to work full or part time for two more years and then he will "really" be done working at age 70.
Right now it is not a sure thing to renew his contract for two more years.
If they do not then we want to move to our final retirement home.  That will be out of Illinois and to a more retirement friendly state.  We want to get out of the winters here to a more mild climate in the winter months.  Plus Illinois is third in the nation for the most expensive states to live.  We want to go where the climate is better, cost of living lower and lower crime rate and better way of life.

The three states we are looking are North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama.
Each offers lower taxes, lower crime rates and better cost of living.
I will miss being so close to my daughters and grands but we would like to move and get settled while we are still young retirees and can live better and be able to really enjoy our retirement years.  

We want to travel, Terry would love to be somewhere he can play golf almost year around.  I would love to have my garden and outdoor space almost year around.

Our journey will begin with North Carolina.  
Next Saturday we leave for Charlotte North Carolina for a week.
We will stay in a cute Airbnb in Charlotte and branch out from there to explore possible retirement friendly towns. 

One of the cities on our list is Asheville North Carolina.  This is where the beautiful Biltmore Estate is located.
Asheville is a city in western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Asheville, NC, is celebrated for its unique blend of breathtaking Blue Ridge Mountain scenery, a vibrant arts scene, and a renowned "foodtopia" culinary culture

I have mapped out cities to visit.  Starting out from Charlotte to Huntersville then to surrounding retirement friendly towns like Concord, Matthews, Davidson, Cornelious and Morrisville.  
  All of these towns offer great affordability and quaint and historic downtown areas.  Cornelious offers the beautiful Lake Norman area.  North Carolina looks to be a beautiful state with beautiful scenery and history.  The best part is they have similar seasons to Illinois but with a nicer winter climate.

While we are looking for retirement options we can also take in a lot of what this beautiful state has to offer.  

We will be exploring the quaint downtown areas along with the Smokey Mountain National Park, some of the beaches of the outer banks.

Edenton has a cute downtown area.  Edenton was voted the prettiest small historic town in the South.    

Matthews has an historic downtown with many turn of the century historic buildings that have been protected.  

We will be heading towards Greensboro which is surrounded by many beautiful towns.  One being High Point the furniture capital of the world.  High Point has many cute boutiques and a busy social district.  This picture is from Furniture Land which is a 1.3 million square foot furniture showroom.
Right near High point and Greensboro is Chapel Hill which is the quintessential college town, Chapel Hill is the home of the University of North Carolina, but it’s more than just a center for academia. From sipping award-winning craft beer on a rooftop and digging into a legendary BLT to shopping at local boutiques.

Lake Norman in Cornelious and Davidson is 20 minutes from Charlotte.
Morrisville is another town near by that is known for a better housing market for retirees.
Greenville is in this area and is known as the Friendliest town in America.

If time allows we will be visiting Raleigh Durham area.

We will see how much we can accomplish in a week.
This trip is more about finding out housing and culture for our possible retirement.

I am excited to visit as many of these towns and hopefully visit some of the cultural things to see and do.

I have been overwhelmed doing research and mapping out our journey.  I have had the help of friends that have family living in these areas and also many of you might know Shirley from Housepitality Designs on IG.  Terry and I are hoping to meet up with Shirley and her husband Tom if time allows.  Shirley has been very helpful with giving me information on some of the towns we are going to visit.

Have a wonderful week leading up to a special Mother's Day Weekend.  Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful women that take on the hardest and most fulfilling role of our lives.
Hugs,
Kris

When I return from our trip to North Carolina I will be doing a post on how my summer garden is coming along.