Exploring new territory

Took a trip down to Gloucester, VA this weekend for a few days to visit one of my daughters, but also to scout the area as one of my retirement options. First of all liked the area with a whole different class of folks than the DC area. Hasn't ever been a railroad in that area that I can find, but just across the river is a railfans paradise within about a 30 minute or less drive. A lot of nice homes that are single level something for me to consider as I age and with my disabilities. No hobby shops to speak of without having to drive at least 30 minutes, but there just happens to be both a Lowes and a Home Depot within 10 minutes of the area which will be a nice source of building materials for a layout. Also since I am heavy into both the logging and marine aspects of the hobby there is a considerable fishing industry presence down there, and I passed at least three sawmills close in the area. So some serious future home for the last layout searching is underway. Also the town has the 4th largest Walmart in the US located there, another source for supplies besides ordering on the web. Probably will add about one more day to the shipping time on my supplies but I can live with that. Best part is that the Missus feels right at home there

 

Sounds like a positive move, John. Also you can travel to Washington from Richmond with a choice of nine (9) daily Amtrak trains, assuming that you would want to for some absurd reason...LOL

 

John, thank you for sharing this information.
We, my wife and I, have been retired since 2005 at which time we moved from MN to IL to be close to our daughter and grandson.
My roots are in IL. My layout was rebuilt on a smaller basis than I had in MN. Now the daughter and her husband have relocated
and we are evaluating our options for the next phase of retirement in regarding where to live.
I am strongly in favor of returning to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. I miss the metropolitan setting we enjoyed for nearly 30 years,
and I know there are still a few excellent hobby shops and railroad activities there.
I doubt such a move would change the theme of my next layout, but home I will have more room to pursue the dream layout again.
Is that feasible for a 75 year old retired professional?

 

Actually for me that would be from Williamsburg, VA just across the York River from were I would be. Still have some kids in this area and we would be able to make the drive from there to the Virginia suburbs to attend some of my Granddaughters, two of them, dance recitals. Stay overnight and get the $%^ out of dodge the next day. All the rail yards and things related to the 1 to 1 are in Yorktown, Portsmouth, and Norfolk. I am pretty well used to resorting to ordering things through that outfit just West of Baltimore now since their is an almost total lack of a decent hobby shop here that has any selection in N scale or other stuff.

 

I don't see why not. The key for me is the quality of life and not just the hobby. My Wife loves crabbing and the good eating that follows. I love to fish and garden and just the sights and smells of deep wooded areas and there are a lot down there. And to quote my daughter who now lives there "when a man comes up behind you here you reach for the Mace, in Glouester it is a different story". Fresh seafood and lots of farm markets with local produce plus just plain nice folks.

As far as hobby supplies I have always been a scratch builder, and with a Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, Southern States, and a Tractor Supply all within a few miles I can come up with the building supplies easily for the layout plus the wire for wiring it and a generator to keep the lights on.

And for my medical needs when I hit myself in the head with a hammer there is a nice hospital in town. As far as building the layout I will go slow and probably take a few years to get what I want even though my design is small. I already have most of what I need to populate the layout. So I can take my time and work on rainy days, or in the winter. The rest of the time I will be busy fishing, crabbing, painting, writing, working on new recipes in the kitchen and my family cookbook, and tinkering in my garden. That is when I am not in the little local restaurant we found trading stories with the other old timers that gather there. I just wish I had found this place 10 years ago.

 

John, Also the fact that Mayo Clinic is close by ranks about as high as the hobby shops for me.

 

First rate hospital there. After an early morning breakfast of some of, if not the best, creamed chipped beef I have ever consumed we took a early drive down a lot of the residential side streets and we ran across a very large, spread out over two blocks, retirement/ assisted living/ nursing complex. So if it gets to the point that I don't know which part of the loco to spot under the water spout there is a place to tuck me away were I can terrorize the female staff all day from my wheel chair or walker.

 

I'd like to hop in here as I'm approaching retirement and am suffering some of the same dilemmas.
I've been with the same company 43 years, lived in 7 states. The last relocation was beneficial as I had 5 choices of locations. Since Colorado was our target for retirement, I happily took the assignment in Colorado. I've got a good sized layout underway (18'x36')
My wife and I have four children in four different states, one being Colorado. The others live in states that don't appeal to us. This past summer the one in Colorado moved to Omaha, which has been hard for my wife as she has always been close to that daughter. So I asked her if she wanted to us to retire there. We've been looking at it seriously for the past few months and it is viable. I lived in Iowa for a number which has similar weather ans Omaha has a good hobby shop and a strong model railroad community. We'd be in the middle of all the kids and grandkids, if a bit far from the others (NYC, Dallas, Boise)However, what if the son-in-law is transferred again?
Our current thinking is to sell the house in Pueblo, move into a small apartment, store the stuff we want to keep, buy an RV and tour the country for a year or two. We do like to travel and have a long list of places to see. This would allow time to see how Omaha works out for that family.
A second choice is Boise where another daughter lives, as well as my sister. Not much of a hobby shop there and I don't know about the MR community.
It's important for us to be near good medical and family. If only family were a little closer together somewhere. I have lost some of my interest in working on the layout. It is moveable. I'd probably make a few changes, but the concept works so far. A basement would be the most likely future location.
Just my musings.

 

Up until this month I was still actively hunting a location. My daughter talked up the area and we decided to go visit and scout the area. We both came away very happy with what we saw and found. I am close enough that my kids up here can make a drive of two hours or so to visit, and we can occasionally make the reverse trip. The important things such as spiritual needs and medical are there along with everything else. Here I spend a lot of time on the road cursing stupid drivers and setting in traffic just to pick-up a few items. Big thing here is that I am just sitting here watching my disposable income evaporate. Down there after doing my research I find that I will end up with over double the disposable income to do more and the quality of life will be much better. Best yet I can be at a train show in about 20 minutes in Virginia Beach and in a hour or so in Richmond with less hassle to get there than I have here. Actually it is a better drive to Virginia Beach from Gloucester than from here to Chantilly.

So hopefully about this time next year I will be heading south with the newly retired Missus in tow to new digs. The new layout I don't expect to even get started on until I have been there about six months provided my health continues to improve and hold out. I plan to start the port area first as that is the most work involved and will get me up a going with a small decent switching layout as I build small sections at a time.