Rural area retirement - is it really a young person's game? (friends, support)
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I used to work with a couple about my age that are serious outdoors enthusiasts. They recently bought a small house between Erwin and Flag Pond, TN, in the mountains. She works in Kingsport, about an hour away, and he works closer.
There is very little out that way. The nearest Walmart and community hospital are probably about thirty minutes away. No grocery stores. The nearest gas station is probably ten miles away. Road plowing in the winter and any other sort of maintenance is going to be minimal at best. There's virtually no one out there and it is essentially unspoiled wilderness.
This place is fine for a young couple that wants to be out in the middle of nowhere. For a senior, aging out here seems like it would be a nonstarter. A doctor's office is an hour away. Getting around in the winter in the snow is going to be a chore. The nearest major hospital would probably be at least an hour over narrow mountain roads.
The views are wonderful from their Facebook post. It's near several creeks. It's what people think of when they think of Tennessee country living, but it doesn't seem like it would be viable for many seniors to age in place there.
I was raised in the country,moving to town when I was 18 and returned to country life in my late 40’s. I couldn’t believe how things had changed regarding living in the country. Taking care of a large property, house, and garden required constant work and I soon realized I was in over my head. I toughed it out for 12 years before selling when I retired. So glad to not have so muc property to maintain now, but oh how I miss the privacy I used to have!
Like to visit the rural areas, wouldn't want to live there. The older I get the less I want to be that isolated. I need lots of activity around me when or if I want it. I think if I lived out in a rural area I would just age so much quicker and become inactive and very bored. But, to others it may be exactly what they yearn for in their retirement. Just not for me.
As for Walmart or any big chain grocery store, if you happen to live in an area too small to attract one of them, you are often subjected to a local grocer with a monopoly and high prices. Also, they're generally limited in product compared to the chains as well.
I used to work with a couple about my age that are serious outdoors enthusiasts. They recently bought a small house between Erwin and Flag Pond, TN, in the mountains. She works in Kingsport, about an hour away, and he works closer.
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The views are wonderful from their Facebook post. It's near several creeks. It's what people think of when they think of Tennessee country living, but it doesn't seem like it would be viable for many seniors to age in place there.
My mother moved to the beautiful mountain town of Boone NC with serious lung problems. She was a lung cancer survivor and the mountain woodland was the last place she needed to be. And it was. There was no decent respiration physician where she lived and she managed to get into Duke Medical Center for a couple of weeks.
She returned home but failed again. We took her back 200 miles to Durham, but that was not successful. It would have been much easier if we had the internet to find good care, but that was 1975.
I might end up taking my last breath at Duke, too, but it's a 20 minute drive for me.
I used to work with a couple about my age that are serious outdoors enthusiasts. They recently bought a small house between Erwin and Flag Pond, TN, in the mountains. She works in Kingsport, about an hour away, and he works closer.
There is very little out that way. The nearest Walmart and community hospital are probably about thirty minutes away. No grocery stores. The nearest gas station is probably ten miles away. Road plowing in the winter and any other sort of maintenance is going to be minimal at best. There's virtually no one out there and it is essentially unspoiled wilderness.
This place is fine for a young couple that wants to be out in the middle of nowhere. For a senior, aging out here seems like it would be a nonstarter. A doctor's office is an hour away. Getting around in the winter in the snow is going to be a chore. The nearest major hospital would probably be at least an hour over narrow mountain roads.
The views are wonderful from their Facebook post. It's near several creeks. It's what people think of when they think of Tennessee country living, but it doesn't seem like it would be viable for many seniors to age in place there.
Since you've given away the location thousands and seniors are now packing and on they way out there.
Live your life.
Some have mentioned that, well, it doesn't matter if you are 40 minutes from a doctor out in the boonies versus being 40 minutes from doctors in town. Well, for many it does very much matter. We have no public transportation where we are. Yes, an ambulance would come. But, other than that we don't public transportation. My mother is 93 and lives in town. She is able to still do some local driving (grocery store), but she can't drive to doctors across town. But, because she lives in the city this is not a big deal. The city has a transport service for the elderly that will come and pick her up and take her where she needs to go and then bring her home. She uses it for doctor's appointments but can use it for anything really (has to schedule a couple of days in advance. It costs money but it is way less than a cab or Uber).
The point is that being closer into town if someone is older and can't drive at all or as much or it is hard for them -- there are a lot of options. There may be public transportation or a transport service like my mom uses. Or, a cab or Uber. There may be delivery from grocery stores or restaurants, etc. Many of these supports can allow those who can no longer drive to stay at home. My mom is able to live on her own because she lives in a city where there are a lot of supports available. If she lived where we live she would have to move.
We were just talking about this on our state forum. Here there is public transportation available to rural area residents. It has to be scheduled in advance, and the cost varies as to which area of the state you live in, but it is available. This was something I didn't realize until someone mentioned it, because as far as I know the state doesn't really promote this program heavily. I wonder if other states also have similar options that many of their residents are unaware of.
Since you've given away the location thousands and seniors are now packing and on they way out there.
Live your life.
I'm sure they will pile into rural Unicoi County.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crashj007
My mother moved to the beautiful mountain town of Boone NC with serious lung problems. She was a lung cancer survivor and the mountain woodland was the last place she needed to be. And it was. There was no decent respiration physician where she lived and she managed to get into Duke Medical Center for a couple of weeks.
She returned home but failed again. We took her back 200 miles to Durham, but that was not successful. It would have been much easier if we had the internet to find good care, but that was 1975.
I might end up taking my last breath at Duke, too, but it's a 20 minute drive for me.
If you already have an existing medical condition, I hope that person would move to an area where they can be conveniently treated. It's one thing to be healthy, then something come up, but another thing entirely to be sick and just bullheadedly ignore it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DubbleT
We were just talking about this on our state forum. Here there is public transportation available to rural area residents. It has to be scheduled in advance, and the cost varies as to which area of the state you live in, but it is available. This was something I didn't realize until someone mentioned it, because as far as I know the state doesn't really promote this program heavily. I wonder if other states also have similar options that many of their residents are unaware of.
Best I can tell, it isn't well-known. An eye surgery facility is on the bottom floor of my office building. We will occasionally see public transit/Northeast TN Rural Transit haul someone in, but maybe once a week. The bulk of the ambulances are from places like Dickinson County, VA.
Very true. Modern small-town America is anchored by Wal-Mart. The specialty stores - butcher, baker etc. - are a fine thing from a consumer viewpoint, if they're still in existence. Quite often, one finds the "center" of town boarded-up, and the commercial-activity moving to the highway-exit, on the outskirts of town, where there's a Wal-Mart, an Applebee's and a Speedway gas station. These shopping-centers become oases in otherwise unremitting expanses of corn and soybean. Distance to "civilization" is gauged in terms of proximity (curiously, measured by minutes of driving-time, not distance in miles!) to those retail establishments.
In my case, I reside some distance from two Wal-Mart towns, and about twice that distance to the actual city. My mailing-address lists one of said towns, but my shopping is in the city, or its more affluent (by local standards) ring of suburbs. The town - the county seat - was eviscerated by decades of economic decline. That hampers the real-estate market, whether in town, or in the surrounding countryside. And the low (or negative) property appreciation-rate is a contributing factor to why many people are unwilling or unable to relocate.
You understand, and it seems many do not.
In many small towns and rural areas, small, community shops would now be dead anyway because of internet commerce, even if Walmart never existed. Kingsport has one local hardware store that I know of these days - Colonial Heights Hardware. Customer reviews on Facebook are far from favorable.
We have a significant level of business along our interstate exits. A former suburb, Colonial Heights, sits along an exit ramp, but it has since been annexed by Kingsport. There are a few chain restaurants and several local joints there. A Walmart is down the road a couple miles, still in Colonial Heights.
Kingsport strip annexed a stretch of interstate for four miles up to what was a Sam's Club.
Walmart is the lifeline of rural and small town America to the wider world, almost as crucial as the Internet.
Have you tried Jet.com? You can get veggies, fruit, and even meat and ice cream. Service is very good.
Thanks, I'll definately check. I'm really looking forward to the new store too. You get really good meat and can buy it and go home and cook it so it never sits. Now, if they would sell milk...
I'll check Jet out. I have discovered that the camping type preserved milk tastes pretty good, and I tend to not use the last bit of a gallon. I'm hoping this place does sell locally produced milk since it had a minimum of sitting on shelves.
It was interesting, I got a ride for something from the senior center bus, and was telling the driver about how I order my groceries, and he said most people he knows does the same. If its that normal now, it might make a good thread to discuss how you get rid of a pile of empty boxes. Or the most creative way to use left over boxes...
You can live in a city and die from sudden causes too. We had recent experience with a friend who was injured while in a recreational pursuit in mid-Knoxville. We were about 5 miles from a university medical center, a teaching hospital. 911 was called immediately in the accident. While waiting for the ambulance the victim's pulse was fading, CPR was started, the ambulance arrived about 12 minutes after the accident and they used a defibrillator, and then readied him for transport, which took about another 10 minutes. He had a pulse as the ambulance left for the hospital, but after a couple days had to be removed from life support. Why? You have 4 minutes without oxygen to the brain before brain damage becomes likely. The 12 minutes for the ambulance to arrive was too much, even with the CPR, he was essentially brain dead when the ambulance arrived. Being 5 minutes from a major hospital did him not one bit of good. You can live in the hospital parking lot if you want, when your number is up, you are probably going to die.
If you have chronic conditions that require frequent hospital visits, or frequent specialty care, live where it is convenient for you to get the care you need. Otherwise, live where you want and enjoy your retirement. I'm not going to live my life in fear that I'm going to be too far from the hospital. In a big city/urban setting you have a greater chance of becoming a violent crime victim, being hit by a bus, being in a traffic accident, etc. There are going to be hazards wherever you are. There is no perfect place for everybody.
I personally love the rural lifestyle to an extent. I don't love hard landscaping/farm-type labor on a large scale. Been there, done that. But I do like living in a wooded landscape with wildlife and space between me and my neighbors.
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Sounds like where I am
