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DH is entertaining a job offer in Oglethorpe, GA at the paper mill. The salary for the position is fantastic. However, I don't think we'd want to live there, although if you know the area I'd love your input.
I'm also thinking about Warner Robins since he's just retired from the military and we'd be close to doctors and other things we'd need on base. How far is WR from Oglethorpe? Would it be a difficult commute daily? What about Perry?
We have a 12 and 14 yr old who will need music lessons and our 14 yr old participates in symphonies and youth orchestras. I have seen that there is something like this in Macon. They are homeschooled so school district is not a concern. For their sake I'd like to be close enough to some shopping and recreation opportunities. We are also hunters and very outdoorsy.
Considering that the job is in Oglethorpe,GA I would recommend Perry, it's only about 30 minutes from Olgethorpe versus an hour drive from Warner Robins. There's plenty of shopping in Houston County with the Galleria Mall in Centreville, plus living in Perry you're only 30 minutes from Macon, which has a bigger selection of stores to choose from. As far as outdoor activities go, you have the Ocmulgee National Monuments and numerous state parks in the area as well. There's also a Bass Pro Shops in Macon. I hope this info is helpful to you.
I really don't know anything about Oglethorpe so I can't tell you much about the city except for the fact its in Macon County. Regarding Warner Robins, its a great city and very family friendly with affordable housing. The only reason I didn't recommend it was because it would be further away from where you husband would be working. Perry is only 30 minutes away from Oglethorpe.
I lived in Oglethorpe back in 1979-1980, at a time when the paper mill was first being built. Although a smaller town then, I soon learned that it had plenty of history, some of it notorious & scandalous. I appreciate places like that, i.e., that are more than what they seem. At one point in the pre-war 1800's, Oglethorpe was the terminus for the railroad moving westwards through Georgia. It was a boom-town, growing rapidly in population and influence, and was a contender for becoming the state capital. Then a cholera or yellow fever epidemic occurred, and, combined with the railroad moving further west to Americus and the emergence of Montezuma across the river, resulted in much of the town's population moving away and, in some cases, taking grand homes with them (all the way to Americus). In the late 1800's, Oglethorpe and Montezuma were engaged in an election to see which town would be the county seat. At the end of the day, Oglethorpe won with apparently many more votes that it had voters! The same was true for Montezuma, but it unwisely stopped counting too soon! A lot of votes were bought that day, and in that great old American tradition, some voters rose from the ground to cast an opinion!
Assuming that you don't want to consider living in the Oglethorpe/Montezuma area, then I'd seriously consider residing in Americus and commuting to Oglethorpe. The distance is less than Perry (20 miles versus 25-30 miles), much of the highway is 3-lane or well-maintained 2-lane, shopping will be roughly equivalent, Americus has a fine downtown historic area with theatre (Rylander), it has a university that could possibly be a source of music instruction for your daughters, there's plenty of hunting, fishing, and canoeing nearby, there's the popular and thought-provoking Civil War site of Andersonville, and the also popular touristy site of Plains, Georgia (only about 10 miles further west and home of one of my favorite presidents). For cheap thrills, there's even a passenger train that runs thru there on weekends (the SAM Shortline, from Cordele to Plains). About the only negative for me, would be the fact that your husband would be driving into the sun during the mornings, and again when returning in the afternoon.
Perry will have some advantages for shopping & seasonal entertainment (a large waterpark is being built there), but it is further away and that can add up over the course of a year. It's also closer to Robins, and as a retired military myself I can understand why you'd want to be closer to base medical facilities. That said, there's a huge retiree population in Warner Robins and surrounding area, so I would surmise that getting an appointment isn't always timely or convenient. I'm currently working in Kazakhstan, but my home is in Los Angeles and I go to UCLA for medical needs. Tricare works fine in my situation, and I would suspect this would be the case for someone living in Americus as well.
So, my final advice would be to at least consider living in the Oglethorpe/Montezuma/Americus areas. My boyhood home was in Warner Robins, and I could never live there now because it's simply too scattered from one side to the other. Traditions and history are like drugs to me, which is why I recently purchased a vacation home in Macon. It's where I will disappear to when I need to reconnect with my childhood memories.
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