Unique live/work situation (Chattanooga, Clarksville: house, buy, college)

[striper1]

I am in the army in Ga now and will be reassigned to Ft Campbell within the year. My girlfriend is a doc and will be working at Vanderbilt Medical center. We are looking for a nice place to live in the Nashville area (I'm not a fan of living in military towns). Also looking to possibly buy a house as I will be there for at least 3 yrs. We defiantly want to be around mid to upper 20's out of college crowd. We are both very active and love to go, do , and see just about anything, especially outdoor activities. I will probably be heading up there soon and just wanted a couple areas to check out. Thanks for the help in advance.

[alleycat]

That's a tough call given your parameters. One or both of your are going to have something of a commute.

Here's a couple of suggestions:

The Midtown/Hillsboro Village area (which is near VUMC). You would have a long commute, but at least your girlfriend would have a very short commute. It sounds like the perfect place for you as far as being near "what's happening". It is a little pricey however, but with two incomes it should be doable.

Someplace in between, such as Pleasant View or Coopertown. This probably wouldn't be the perfect area for activities, but neither of you would have a terrible commute, and it wouldn't be too bad of a drive to come to Nashville for events and whatever. Both PV and Coopertown were once rural, and are still somewhat that way, but there are growing and several new developments have been built; so it tends to be somewhat of a younger crowd.

I'm not sure exactly what you meant by "outdoor activities". Hunting and fishing? Hiking? Camping? Sports? In any event, you can find all of those things within a short drive. There are two large lakes nearby, rivers, several large city parks, several state parks, etc. Of course, then there's the Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators and the Nashville Sounds for sporting events, as well as Vanderbilt.

[striper1]

Thanks that def helps. As far as the outdoors stuff goes, all that you listed apply. The midtown/hillsboro option sounds likes its worth looking into. I lived in Austin Tx and commuted an hour each way everyday to Killeen for work, so I'm comfortable with it, esp if gas prices stay on the low side. She on the other hand is not a fan of driving a lot, so that sounds like it may be a great place to start.

[alleycat]

One thing that will help you if you decide to move to Nashville, you would commuting opposite to the main traffic flow. Most people commute into Nashville in the morning and out in the afternoon; you would be doing just the reverse so that would help somewhat.

Since you're going to be in the area anyway, you might want to look at the Sango area of east Montgomery County while you're here. Ft. Campbell is on the northwest part of the county, so the eastern side isn't like a military town. I have property in that area, even though I live in Nashville.

And while it's more like a weekend trip than a day trip, visiting the Great Smokey Mountains National Park is well worth a visit. It's absolutely gorgeous, especially in the spring and fall. Some areas around Chattanooga are also scenic, as is a drive down the Natchez Trace Parkway which begins (or ends) in Nashville.

[gabbyknashville]

Doesn't the 101st require you to live within a certain commute time? My daughter and son-in-law are at Fort Campbell and he was told he must be within 10 minutes. You might consider Kingston Springs or Joelton as in between options but if you are not limited to a certain commute time, Alleycat is right in that you at least would be going the opposite way of traffic. You might want to consider something in the Vandy area since it is close to several interstate connections that would get you immediately on the road to Clarksville/Ft Campbell.