What is your opinion of Tennessee and where is the best place for us us? (Memphis: renting)

[irisflower]

Hello. I'm new here, but I decided that this would be the best place to find more personal answers.

Anyways, my group would include my husband and me, one 15 year old girl, 3 dogs, 1 cat and some amphibians/reptiles. The animals are all my daughters - she is crazy about wildlife and the outdoors. My husband has a job that he can do from nearly anywhere, as long as the town/city is not like 3 hours away from some form of a center of civilization, ha ha.

We once spent 2 months in Rock Island, TN to go see family, and we really loved it. My daughter spent all her time in the park just exploring and studying, while I enjoyed exploring it with her and the small town feel. I loved how there were dogs running around in the neighborhoods, horses were welcome and everyone was so welcoming and just the forest feel. It was so beautiful.

I grew up in (most of my life), and my family has lived in a small town/county (30,000 people for the whole county - it was a huge county) for 12 years that is filled with agriculture yet a really strong small town feel and close knit community. Tons to do in its own special way. We moved out of it though four years ago.


For me, I would like a place that is really friendly and also a Gardening club would be amazing, or just something for me to do. My husband travels often, so he is open to anything. However, there has to be no big flooding risk... He is paranoid about floods.

We are looking for a town that is really outdoors oriented, preferably a state park town that has tons of nature and hiking, that is not all old folks. I would like some place that is just busy with "country/small town life, where I look on the craigslist ads or newspapers and I can actually see hogs being sold or small animals auctions, if you know what I mean.

My daughter is home schooled, so we are not as worried about the schools in the area. But it would be nice if there are teens in the area, so she isn't totally alone, but if she has animals, she is open to anything.

I would REALLY love it if they had a very successful 4-H or FFA program in the county. Also, dog training somewhere in the area would be nice. We would like her to have the ability to internship with a veterinarian while she is there or something.


We will be posting on other areas of the site for information, but tennessee is our main state

Thanks!

[hiknapster]

Why not Rock Island since you are so familiar with it and you and your family loved it so much? If your husband travels a lot then it is about an hour-and-a-half to Nashville to get to the airport but that is certainly doable.

Usually I am asking about employment needs and warning about schools in most rural areas but in your case you don't have to worry about either. Flooding shouldn't be an issue in a lot of places, too, so you really could move anywhere. Tennessee is a very large state and there are three very distinctive areas. The biggest difference seems to be from West Tennessee and East Tennessee regarding topography and weather.

By the way, I work with flood maps on a daily basis. There have been large floods in Nashville and Memphis. However, flooding can happen in a lot of areas. Very generally speaking, most times the higher your property is, the safer you are, obviously. The best thing to do is pinpoint an area you are interested in and then check the flood zone map. Your insurance company should be able to tell you if you are in a flood zone. Your mortgage company, if you will buy, will certainly do so. And if you are renting you should be getting tenants insurance.

[JMT]

I agree with hiknapster, why not stick close to Rock Island?

Since your husband travels a lot and (I assume) needs to be near an airport, being fairly close to the Nashville airport would be ideal since it is--by far--the cheapest airport in Tennessee, serving as a hub for Southwest Airlines.

I'd check out places along the I-40 corridor east of Nashville, say, Smith County, Putnam County, or northern White County. It's a gorgeous area with waterfalls and large lakes, and it's only an hour from the Nashville airport (or less) and 20-30 minutes from Rock Island. The largest town in that area, Cookeville, is a young city (college town) of 30,000. Home schooling is very popular in Tennessee, you shouldn't have any problems finding a home schooling organization. There are 4H and FFA organizations everywhere. The large agricultural pavilion in Cookeville routinely hosts livestock shows and various state 4H and FFA championships.

Some of Tennessee's most beautiful state parks are also in that area:

Burgess Falls
Cummins Falls
Edgar Evins
Standing Stone
Virgin Falls

And it's not too far from Tennessee's most popular state park (and for good reason): Fall Creek Falls.

[jabogitlu]

There are some good options in East TN as well. You might like Elizabethton which is very close to Johnson City.

If you need an airport for hubs, then I agree with JMT - Nashville is the only way to go. Otherwise, there are some great options in the state all over the place.