This is great stuff. An incredible amount of sage advice.
I am going to retire in four years from the Fed. I will be 56. Not going to retire, retire, just call it quits after serving Uncle Sam since age 18 as both Navy man and civilian.
Wife and I are giving serious consideration to southern Vermont. Biggest reason is to get away from the Northern Virginia sprawl, population growth, crime, traffic, etc.
I grew up in Upstate NY and lived in Maine for many years. Returning to the cold is a concern, as we are really spoiled by the mild Virginia weather. I just want to return to a simpler life, and if I want to go to the store or mall it is not a 45 minute+ bumper to bumper traffic ordeal. I will never, ever understand why people cannot drive a simple straight line point A to point B on I-95 or Route 1. It never fails, at any point of the day, some sort of screw-up. Either a wreck, or people slow down to a crawl to rubber-neck some guy changing a tire or watch a Trooper writing a ticket.
I want to just to work part-time, duck hunt, partridge hunt, fish, get re-introduced to coon hunting, hang out with the wife and follow our youngest son's baseball career. We figure Vermont will give us that peace and quiet, and is just across from Upstate NY to stay close with family and friends. I have thought of finding seclusion in other parts of Virginia, but I just miss the NE.
Kind regards,
Vermont is a way of life and a very pleasant one at at that. Burlington is a nice city, Montreal is an easy trip, Boston and NYC are close. I lived in VT for decades and miss it enormously. The quality of life is very, very high. But it comes at a cost. Property taxes and income taxes were high. Pollution was about non-existent and the rivers ran clean and the fish were nice. Hunting is OK except when the yahoos fill the woods. Bird hunting is great. The state has virtually no gun laws. Crime is low. Heating your house is expensive. Still, it's probably one of the best places in the world to live. There's good medical care and should you get weirdly sick both Boston and NY have world-class hospitals. Lake Champlain is really beautiful and one can still afford waterfront property. Great boating and fishing.
Even though most of the state has been reclassified as one growing-zone warmer it still was too cold as we got older so we want an additional zone south.
