[southerngirl12]

We are quiet Lesbian Couple that have been together for 19 years and want to buy a retirement home or some land to build a home on. We are trying to decide between Arkansas or Tennessee. We would love to live in the mountains instead of the swamp. We are tired of living in a flood zone and don't want to be flooded out of our home anymore. We or getting to old to keep rebuilding back. There are places and homes down here that has never flooded and and that was not in a flood zone that are now flooding. Almost all of our Family live down here. We have lived in Louisiana all our life. We have had very few problems living in Baton Rouge La. as a Lesbian couple but there are a lot of places in Louisiana that you would definitely not want to live as a LGBT person. We don't want to really out of the southern part of the United States. We love the southern hospitality here and how you never meet a stranger. How people will start up a conversation with you even when you are in line at the grocery store or Walmart like they have known you for years and Its not because Baton Rouge La. is a small town. We were going to move to Biloxi or Gulf Port Ms. but it floods homes down there more often too now. That is why we have decided to move to the mountains. We were to wait until we we completely retired but do not want to live with the flooding anymore. Its horrible living out of a hotel while your house is under water. We have set a time line to be moved out of Louisiana in one year no later than two years if all goes well. That is how long we believe it will take us to pay down some of our debt and pay off our credit cards. It will also give us time to look around for a place to live that we might like to call home. The problem is we will still need to make a living. We know we cannot make as much per hr. up there in a rural area as we do down here in the city. Baton Rouge has lots and lots of jobs but it also has flooding and so do most of the surrounding areas now days. It is also getting harder and very expensive to get flood insurance and the other problem is you will not even be in a flood zone and then you will flood. They are also doing lots of rezoning now. This means that people are having to lift there house up 3 ft. to more then 7 ft. off the ground to qualify for food insurance now. Also most people cannot afford to pay someone to come in and lift there house because its very expensive especially if its on a slab. Most people cannot afford to pay a 60,000 loan back and make there house note. Its sad but there are a lot of people around here that have homes that flooded and they are just having to walk away from everything that they own and have worked hard for all their life and start over with nothing. There is also a lot of retired seniors that lost everything and can not afford to rebuild and will be in Fema trailers the rest of the life that was living just fine before the floods came.We do not want to be one of them that is why we or trying to move. Also because Baton Rouge La. is growing so much its crime rate and killing is getting out of hand and its only getting worse. The only states that we have started looking at on the internet is around the Gatlinburg Tennessee area we know nothing about what its like to live there . We have vacationed there twice and it looked nice and was very beautiful. We don't know what the coast of living is and how much land is or if there would be a lot of LPN jobs to choose from. We also like Eureka Springs Arkansas a lot for obvious reasons and Holiday Island Ar. and because it is beautiful and looks like a magazine picture. We also don't think that we would have any problems living there being a Lesbian couple. We also don't know anything about the towns surrounding Eureka Springs. We don't know anything about the job market for LPNs there and if there would be very many jobs to choose from that would pay enough to live comfortable on. The problem with looking on the internet for jobs is most of them will not give you any ideal of how much they pay. We have only been to Eureka Springs Ar. one time when we drove up while we were vacationing in Hot Springs Ar. for the night We have been to Hot Springs on many vacations and liked it but its not the same as living there we also like hot Springs Village and Lake Hamilton. The problem is we have read that it is a lot of crime there. We don't want to move form one high crime place to another. We will be going up to Eureka Springs Ar. on vacation in November for 4 days so we can start looking around at the area and we are stopping off in Hot Springs Ar. for 4 days to do the same. If anyone can give us any advice on the people, places or jobs it would be greatly appreciated and what places to stay away from. One place that came up when we was looking for land for sale on the internet in Eureka Springs Ar. was Flint Ridge Resort in Oklahoma and land was very reasonable and affordable there.It said it had lots of things to do outdoors and was very nice looking. We love the country. It also said that it was a gated community can anyone tell us anything about it. Is it LGBT friendly and would we be able to make friends easy there. We like socializing with other people and will be leaving all our friends and Family behind when we move. So it is very important to us where ever we move that people are friendly and accepting of us. We are also trying to look at retirement communities as I said we are older. Sorry for such a long post, but it is very hard to just pick up and move without knowing anyone where you are going and we cannot afford to take off from work go look at these places more then twice a year. So we are asking for help from any people that might know anything about the areas, people, places, jobs or things we have asked about. Any help or advice at all will be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much

[Naturen]

You may get more responses if you break your post into several paragraphs. Just a thought.

[southerngirl12]

Thanks so much I am new to all of this I will do that now.

[Slytrix]

I agree on the constant flooding. We have friends in Lake Charles and wouldn't like having to worry about rising water a lot.

I think you would be fine in most cities in Arkansas, with bigger being better. Nice people in NWA so good luck with your search. I do think you would be better off moving to your new area then pursue building a home if that's what you want to do. Much easier being close.

[Rock Climber]

If you are coming all the way up to Eureka Springs, you should definitely check out Fayetteville on your trip. It is a big town with a lot more to offer, and is similarly gay-friendly to Eureka Springs.

The big hospitals in the metro area expanding, and a new Children's Hospital opens early next year in Springdale. There should be plenty of opportunities for jobs in the Fayetteville metro.

[Nadal]

Sorry, I was not able to read the OP fully, my eyes are too tired.

Just some random thoughts/opinions:

Fayetteville is very accepting of LGBT.

TN and AR are beautiful states and have great areas to live, work, and retire.

Have always wanted to check out Chattanooga, it looks like a really cool town.

NWA will most likely pay more than Hot Springs.

Good luck with your search!

[southerngirl12]

Thank you Naturen for trying to help me with my post. I went back and did what you suggested. I broke it up into paragraphs but now I have two post. I don't how to remove the first one without removing the replies.

[Luvvarkansas]

Fayetteville or Eureka Springs (for Arkansas...know nothing about TN). Fayetteville will have more jobs if you need them, ES "rolls up the sidewalks" in the winter.

[latunafish]

just to address the concern of crime in hot springs.

there is very little crime in the gated area of hot springs village, maybe even less than that.

we have owned a weekend place on lake hamilton, in the 7 south area, for 20 years and we have never had any issues with crime. we even go to walmart and/or kroger after 9 pm on occasion, without any fear or issues. we eat out and entertain guests at all the local places (after dark) and we have never had an issue. (that includes downtown)

one more item of interest to you, might be: the hot springs area is full of retirees that require a lot of medical, therefore jobs in that sector are usually available.

actually, hot springs is on my short list of places to retire to at some point.

[Bygeorge]

Sounds like Asheville, NC is the perfect place for you.