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Good schools, lots to do, and about 10-15 minutes from N. Charleston. Also 10-20 into DT Charleston. Bikeable, and plenty to do outdoors.
History-wise, you have the Citadel, Ft. Sumter, Ft. Maultry, historic DT Charleston, and a lot of other stuff.
Agree with the others. Charleston. (Fayetteville is NOT what the OP is looking for, and the commute to crunchy-ville is going to be more than an hour.) Lots of hippies and crunchers in the low-country. :-)
I'm assuming this is old habits dying hard. Pope was an AFB from 1947 until 2011 and I frequently still it referred to as an AFB rather than Pope Field. Beyond that, the USAF still has units based there.
As someone else said, Pittsboro, not Pittsville. Also while they're not exactly a crunchy haven, the towns of Southern Pines, Aberdeen, and Pinehurst may be worth a scouting trip if you do choose Pope. They're not exactly cultural meccas, but are definitely nicer than Fayetteville.
My father was a USAF vet and I still remember my parents horror stories about being based at Whiteman (before the B-2s were based there) and Minot. They LOVED Nellis, though, so there was that.
We were in Whiteman for 7 years. LOVED it. BUT, hated the tornadoes and so we vowed to never return to tornado alley.
I have been completely butchering area and town names throughout my posts!! Yes, Pittsboro I'll look up those other three if we choose Pope BUT, hubby's not really that keen on Pope. He wants to go on missions but not that often and Pope loves to send people away Pope just came in the mix because NC seems like a better place in terms of education. Better K-12 and the universities are fantastic at a really good price. Our dd is also a gymnast (inspires to do college gymnastics) and between Raleigh and Charleston area, Raleigh has better gyms. I've been wanting to go back to work too (I stay home now so that the kids can have a 100% UK experience and gymnastics has taken a lot of our time -- an hour drive one way) and the many unis in the Triangle is just so appealing. Also, since this is our last base, when hubby starts getting his pension, NC is slightly better than SC in the tax area.
Charleston, based on what I have read so far and hubby's job, is the better of the two. Not as many deployments. The base is right next to the great city of Charleston. We LOVE LOVE LOVE history and Charleston seems to be full of it and the photos look beautiful. Once I have a job, housing should be affordable and oh my goodness, the restaurant options!!!! We LOVE good food! I am not too worried about the elementary/middle school. It's just the high school that we'd have to think about. Higher education is very important to me. Well, quality education in general is important to us. The girls are in the top set in their class and since the British school starts full-time school at age 4, the girls are about a year ahead of the US. So we really need a good school. Our youngest will be 5 in June and she's fluently reading "The creepy dragon flew into the window and got stuck. He was too big." Our 4th grader (year 5 in the UK) is learning many things 6th graders are learning in the US. But this is mostly because she's in the top set. I guess it's like being in honors class? You get more challenging things? I have no idea what honors classes are really
I am though having a bit of a difficult time locating jobs in Charleston. I can type in "instructional design" or "instructional technology" for raleigh and all sorts of things came up but I can't do the same for Charleston. I was using Indeed and Monster. Is there a better job searching website for the different schools there?
I Googled map Mt Pleasant to Charleston AFB. 23 min it said. How much to add for traffic? I am guessing he'll be working day hours, leaving the house at 6a and be there by 6:30a. He's dedicated and so he doesn't usually leave work until 5p at the earliest. Later if it's gym time. For some reason I thought Mt Pleasant is further away than that. That's why we were looking at Summerville and W. Ashley. If it's around 30 min, it'd absolutely doable and after I get a job, we can afford something there... or will $1900/mo get us a 3 bdrm house rental in Mt Pleasant that's doggy friendly? If we like the area, we'd most likely buy. But not until I get a job. So a rental for 6-12 mo. I have no idea of the base has housing but I have never lived on base and have no desire to.
Mt Pleasant has some of the best schools in SC. I lived there for 2 decades and worked for several years at JB Charleston. It took me about 30 minutes to get to work from Old Mt P. It would take you longer if you live way up 17 in one of those new developments.
It is not cheap. It's a very desirable place to live anymore. Many people are flocking in from all over. Even during the downturn my house was still worth 3 times what I paid for it.Check the resources on the base to help you find a job. Jobs are hard to find.
The restaurants in the area, even the shack ones are fantastic.
I worked at Bragg for 6 months and went home to Mt P every weekend. I was not staying there when I didn't have to. I loved working with our service people but loved the beach better.
Good schools, lots to do, and about 10-15 minutes from N. Charleston. Also 10-20 into DT Charleston. Bikeable, and plenty to do outdoors.
History-wise, you have the Citadel, Ft. Sumter, Ft. Maultry, historic DT Charleston, and a lot of other stuff.
Agree with the others. Charleston. (Fayetteville is NOT what the OP is looking for, and the commute to crunchy-ville is going to be more than an hour.) Lots of hippies and crunchers in the low-country. :-)
That'd be Moultrie. It's part of where my username comes from (the ramparts of Fort Moultrie were originally built with palmetto logs and when British cannon-fire was absorbed by the logs without cracking, the palmetto became a symbol of South Carolina).
Quote:
Originally Posted by scwilder
I Googled map Mt Pleasant to Charleston AFB. 23 min it said. How much to add for traffic? I am guessing he'll be working day hours, leaving the house at 6a and be there by 6:30a. He's dedicated and so he doesn't usually leave work until 5p at the earliest. Later if it's gym time. For some reason I thought Mt Pleasant is further away than that. That's why we were looking at Summerville and W. Ashley. If it's around 30 min, it'd absolutely doable and after I get a job, we can afford something there... or will $1900/mo get us a 3 bdrm house rental in Mt Pleasant that's doggy friendly? If we like the area, we'd most likely buy. But not until I get a job. So a rental for 6-12 mo. I have no idea of the base has housing but I have never lived on base and have no desire to.
Last time I was on the base, they were in the process of building new housing. It's nice on base but the surrounding area is trafficky and industrial. The traffic is the worst heading into Charleston in the am and heading out in the pm.
So from Mt P, it's not as bad. Just be aware: if there's a wreck on one of the bridges, everybody goes on the other one. That can be crazy.
I Googled map Mt Pleasant to Charleston AFB. 23 min it said. How much to add for traffic? I am guessing he'll be working day hours, leaving the house at 6a and be there by 6:30a. He's dedicated and so he doesn't usually leave work until 5p at the earliest. Later if it's gym time. For some reason I thought Mt Pleasant is further away than that.
If you can avoid the slow crawl down 17 (such as by taking 526 around) it shouldn't be too bad (although 17 has gotten better with the recent improvements through Mt. Pleasant).
Thank you!! I'll speak to my husband about this. We are more open to Charleston so if I have anymore questions, I'll post there. Garnet, thanks for the listing!
Charleston is amazing. Downtown that is. N charleston not so much. But if I had a list of 5 towns in the country I'd like to live a relaxed enjoyable life in, Charleston would be on it.
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I'll look up those other three if we choose Pope BUT, hubby's not really that keen on Pope. He wants to go on missions but not that often and Pope loves to send people away 
