Retirement/relocation destination?

Paducah ... makes any sentence funnier.

 

I did two years in Florida before moving on.

Can’t wait to go back. Hurricanes are part of it.

Here is what you do:
Vacation on the coast.
Live permanently 10-15 miles inland.

 

I'm where I want to be. We remodeled our house and landscaped about 11 years ago with the intention that we will never move. Yes, I live in California. Anybody who is ready to criticize me for that, just don't bother.

 

The most exciting thing in Paducah is the Superman statue just across the river in Metropolis, Ill. And it rates about a 0.01 on the excitement scale.

 

The most exciting thing for me in Paducah has always been the tap selection at the Mellow Mushroom. Lots of Three Floyd’s stuff on tap there that can’t be found anywhere else.

 

I am 10 years and 8 months from planning to return to my corner of Florida.

Not that I’m counting or anything.

 

The I-15 corridor around Salt Lake City is an interesting option for retirement.

 

If I stumbled into fuck-you money and could retire anywhere, I think Charleston would be pretty high on my list. Probably not the most educated of choices, as I've only spent a few vacation periods there, but seemed like a pretty awesome place to be.

But more realistically, I could see myself in a good college-town atmosphere. Decent entertainment, lots of things to do, etc. Coupling it with a metro area would be a bonus (Minneapolis, Evanston, Phoenix, Austin are some that immediately spring to mind). I could see places like Madison or Oxford being decent options, too.

 

Just know that Oxford (I assume Mississippi) is way, way different than the other towns you mentioned. It truly might not have a McDonald’s to its name if it were not for the university. And a few miles outside of most any county seat in Mississippi, the world gets very vacant very fast.

 

I lived there for a couple of years in my early 20s. My cousin and I would go back for big fishing/golf/eating/drinking weekends, and I wanted to go back before getting married the first time. He wanted to move there. I did point out that living there on an every day basis wasn't the same as the three-day party weekends we were having.
The same could be said for anywhere.
It's like my place. People think it's a Sandals resort or Daytona spring break all the time. It's not. I'm mowing grass, doing laundry, changing batteries in smoke detectors, etc. just like anywhere else you live ... just in a better place.

 

I went to school at Ole Miss many years ago. Oxford now is a lot different from Oxford then. More crowded, more rich folks, more entitlement. Athens is getting the same way.