Pros & Cons and differences of retiring to Bristol, Kingsport or Johnson City ? (Knoxville: sale, homes)

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by RetiredAZTeacher

First time poster. My husband and I are both retired and living in Arizona. We will be moving to Eastern TN this year in order to be closer to our kids (one in NYC and one in Miami!).

Anyway, have enjoyed these blogs on the Tri-Cities in helping us decide where to move...however, I have one favor of mbmouse or anyone else...this thread has great pics of Bristol and Kingsport and other areas, but not of Johnson City.

In order to compare all 3, (as asked in the thread title) would someone please post some pics of JC so all 3 "larger" cities/towns are covered.

Thanks in advance!

Happy to oblige ma'am

[AppalachianAngler]

Originally Posted by Tennesseestorm

I am not sure of that source, but " 0 " in Greeneville is wrong. Its only about 30 miles from Johnson City and only about 400 ft. lower in elevation.

Just wanted to clarify this: Greeneville (1519 feet) is only 115 feet lower in elevation than JC (1634 ft), therefore, not a big difference at all. Kingsport (1211 feet), however, is more than 400 feet lower than JC.

[dlk33]

As I was shoveling snow this morning here in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin, I got to thinking.... how many of people in either JC or Kingsport actually own a snowblower? Ok, stop laughing......how about a shovel? How often in the winter woud you say you use it?
Your answers will give me a really good idea about what the winter season is like there
Might as well ask about summer while I'm on the subject of weather. How many days during the summer season would you say that you stay inside in the air conditioning, because if you ventured outside, the moment you did, you'd start sweating from the high humidity?

[jabogitlu]

dlk, I'm not even kidding when I say this - I don't think I've ever even SEEN a snowblower, lol. I know what a snow shovel looks like, but I've never owned/used one.

As for the summer, well, yeah, it can be brutal, but not as bad as Florida, Louisiana, Texas, et. al. There are a few weeks that I stay inside unless there's just something I really need to do outside, and try to clump all my "exterior" activities into one event, and those weeks are pretty bad (I get hateful when I get hot ).

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by dlk33

As I was shoveling snow this morning here in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin, I got to thinking.... how many of people in either JC or Kingsport actually own a snowblower? Ok, stop laughing......how about a shovel? How often in the winter woud you say you use it?
Your answers will give me a really good idea about what the winter season is like there
Might as well ask about summer while I'm on the subject of weather. How many days during the summer season would you say that you stay inside in the air conditioning, because if you ventured outside, the moment you did, you'd start sweating from the high humidity?

I use my regular ol garden shovel from the shed if I happen to need to remove snow and the broom doesn't work. I think I have used that shovel once in the past 3 years to get the snow off the steps. (I am from CT, I KNOW snow! LOL) Don't even own a snow shovel. Boys own a sled, they might get to use it one day a year for an hour or so if they are lucky....I feel like I am depriving them compared to my childhood winters.
As for summer, maybe 3 or 4 days at the end of July, beginning of August I say to myself "dang! I thought I left the FL heat in FL!" (yea, lived there after CT.) The big difference is the humidity is really only in the mid afternoon, it does cool down in the evenings.

[jabogitlu]

Yep. Even on the hottest day you can go out and sit (in relative comfort) about 6 o'clock.

[MileHi]

Good thread for me. Guess if I do move to Tri-Cities from Denver it sounds like I can sell the snow blower to my neighbor. Sweet. Won't miss that thing.

[dlk33]

Ok, so it sounds like I'd be pleased not having to shovel snow there. Next question.... in the winter do you get outside & do the same things you would do on a regular basis, like you would do if it were fall, spring or summer, or do you stay inside out of the cold until it warms up sometime in March or April (outside of the things you have to do)?
It gets humid here from time to time in the summer, some years worse then others. I guess the thing to do there, is get things done either in the morning or early evening when it's humid.
I really do think that the extreme heat or cold becomes more of an issue once we start getting older, say after 40. When I was younger, I never ever even thought about the heat being an issue & I lived in Florida then.
Can you believe that I actually had a choice to either move to California or Wisconsin & I chose Wi. because I had never seen snow That choice was actually made while living in Hawaii.
We celebrated our 25th Anniversary in Ca.(Big Sur & San Francisco) & I thought it was beautiful! The cost to live there isn't though. I wouldn't move back to Fl. for several reasons.
As some of you know from other threads, besides the Tri-Cities area, we are also considering our retirement to Indiana, either Lafayette or suburbs of Indianapolis. Any of you have thoughts on either option? I'm willing to listen

[mbmouse]

I think the winters would be MUCH milder in Tn than the other locations you mentioned. Might be a few degrees warmer in summer here though.
Except for working in the garden, I pretty much get out and do the same things in the winter as in the summer. Some days don't even need a coat. It fluctuates a lot temp wise.

[dlk33]

While looking at all the pictures posted from JC & Kingsport, I noticed that there hardly ever seems to be much traffic (except the pics on the highway). Is that the norm there, because I kind of expected it to be a bit more populated then what the pics seem to show. With all the shopping & eating options I've read about, I expected it to be more busy there on the road. Maybe I just need to see pics of the parking lots at the mall, Target, Kohls & Walmart.