UNC Center for Creative Retirement (Asheville, Washington: shops, friendly, parking)

[DRDBA]

Does anyone have any experiences and opinions about the UNC Asheville Center for Creative Retirement?

I am thinking of retiring to the Asheville area for a variety of reasons in the next few years. I will be in my late 50 or early 60s. I have a PhD and I'm currently working for a "think tank" in the Washington, DC area.

I would like to get out of the rat race of the DC area. But, I know that I will need some intellectual pursuits and stimulation in retirement.

[mahoneycutt]

I worked as IT support for the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement for five years.

I can't say enough good things about it. There are around 1600 members with slightly more women than men. The average is age is around 66 (though there is no age limit). Classes are frequently taught by retired experts in the field. You can get a good feel for the place at: [URL="http://www.ncccr.com"]www.ncccr.com[/URL]

NCCCR also offers workshops to help you decide where to retire: CREW - Creative Retirement Exploration Weekend and Paths to Creative Retirement.

The people are friendly and some members just take classes while others are involved with running the organization.

To show I'm not totally biased, parking can be a problem at times and classes fill up quickly (especially the popular ones).

Please let me know if I can answer any questions.

Mike Honeycutt
[EMAIL="mahoneycutt@gmail.com"]mahoneycutt@gmail.com[/EMAIL]