9 replies to this topic

[BrianT]

We spent the day looking at rv parks in the Lawrenceburg, TN area. We even hit some parks that are really quite distant from the area, I think about 7 or 8 total.

We're wanting a place where we can park for a couple of months and stretch out and relax with some kind of surroundings. Yes, we're spoiled rotten having visited some really nice places in the past.

We were avoiding the state parks because of our size and because they don't like you staying more than a couple of weeks at a time.

We saw two parks that were close in proximity but neither of them looked like a place we'd like to spend any amount of time. The most desirable was barely one step above a Walmart parking lot boondocking experience.

Anybody know of any hidden gems? It's a beautiful area. But if anyone can build a nice rv park, we have missed it completely.

Seriously, anybody???

Brian

[PETE & PAT]

We went thru Kentucky and Tennessee 2x in the past year and both cases we had a hard time finding any decent parks in those states. Maybe the decent ones are all "tent" only parks which we did find quite a few of. Good Luck -- we stayed several places, but none were what we would call a nice park.

[BrianT]

Thanks, Pete & Pat,

It's interesting. Such a beautiful area. Maybe there's just not enough business to make a higher end park profitable. (?) Then again, there's not a high end (or even middle-of-the-road) park in that area so no way to really know. There are some tourists $$ that pass through the area with the Amish farms and attractions. It's hard to think that no one has made a place that would feel good to stop and stay a while. (We would.)



Brian

[Russ Barnes]

There is a Thousand Trails Park in Holenwald, about 38 miles from Lawrenceburg. We stayed there one time about 5 years ago for a three day weekend in our TT. Large park, quiet area, nice lake, but things could have changed - either way for the better of worse. It did have large spots with choices of out in the sun or under trees. I have some friends who go every year and love it. Once it was a private park and very upscale, but it seems to have had downs and ups since then.

Russ

[BrianT]

Thanks, Russ! We went nearly as far east as Fayetteville and were all the way out west to Savanah, but we didn't make it to Hohenwald this time. I'll definitely have to keep that on my list of places to check out. We made it up to Columbia... the park there just wasn't quite "us". We shoulda headed west instead.

That would definitely be in the area of the Amish, Mennonites, and Quakers. (We were told by one of the locals just yesterday that the stretch along Hwy 20 is pretty heavily populated with a Quaker group.) I do really enjoy poking around the countryside, watching what the farmers are doing.

Brian

P.S., I did find it interesting that in Savanah, TN, they had gas for $3.43/gal, which was quite a bit less than most of what we saw anywhere else. Never did figure out why so cheap there. And of course, we didn't need much at the time... (sigh)

[Russ Barnes]

Brian,

Not sure where your home is but we are on the Texas pipelines and from comparing our gas to friends in the NE they aren't. Plus our taxes in TN are pretty descent. We lived in NY, NJ, WI and found out what expensive taxes with limited return was all about.

Russ

[BrianT]

Might could have something to do with prices, Russ. I hadn't thought about pipelines.

Home... What's that? LOL!!

Seriously, that's what we're looking for. We don't have a home-base at this point. And we figured out that being overly mobile doesn't really fulfill what we need in life. So... we're looking for someplace to call, "Home". We kinda like TN, and the area around Lawrenceburg / Ethridge / Summertown... that general region. Lots of farming, which we both like. Not much government regulation. Land prices generally pretty low. Generally rural area. And enough rainfall and good soil that it's fairly lush and green much of the year. Plus... it's kind of in the middle with her family being within a day's drive to the south, mine a day's drive to the north. Nothing too big terribly close but most anything one would need not too far away, with major metro stuff within about 90 minutes drive in a couple of directions.

We just don't want to jump into something too quickly which is why we want to park the rv and stay for a while, just to see how we like it once the initial novelty of the area wears off. It's too hard to sell real estate these days to invest too quickly and then discover it was a bad investment. The cash is a little harder to come by than it used to be, at least for us.

I kinda forget, did you tell me you are just south of Nashville and were looking to head farther south? Sure is pretty country...



Brian

[Russ Barnes]

Brian,

Our S&B is about an hour SE of Nashville, near Murfreesboro. We were both Yankees and one day in '88 we were sitting on a beach in Maui and asking ourselves why we were staying in WI. I won't repeat all the bad stuff about the rust belt that most already know, but we decided to change our residence. She asked where my first choice to move was and since my Marketing role had me traveling the U.S. and around the world I said Nashville was my first choice stateside. About three months later I had the good fortune (maybe aided by some hard work) to be transferred to a new start-up engineering operation that Mercury Outboards created in FL. My wife loved being near the beach, but after living in salt air, on sand, around snakes, bugs, gators, and snowbirds I didn't! However three years later we closed that operation and I managed a transfer to this area, that was 21 years ago.

OK, moving forward to now we are nearer to fulltiming (only anchor is my snails pace finishing our truck) and our plan is to sell this house and hit the road. However, needing a state to call residence we have considered the popular TX and SD choices, but we are still leaning heavily to buying say an acre or two the next county S. of here and having the option to come home for R&R. That way we keep circle of friends, Dr's, Dentists, etc. Property is cheaper one county out, there is no smog test for vehicles, there is no wheel tax for vehicles, HDT and fiver tags are cheap, there is no state income tax and the only problem I see with TN is they have this thing called a Hall Tax. What that does is take 6% of anything over $37k that you receive from outside investments. Now I haven't done all the calculations yet to see if we can even reach that return, but I know we're close. However, lately the Republicans that are now in charge have been looking at this and realizing how many well-to-do recording and business families are leaving the state when they retire and these business oriented politicians are trying to change things. Last year they raised that exempt Hall tax from $27.5k to $37k and this year they killed the "death tax" for family inheritance.

Russ

[jitterbug]

Brian: A truly delightful place to "stretch out and unwind" is located a bit of distane from Lawrenceburg, (about 2 hours East) at Jasper, TN.

Hales Bar and Marina Resort located on the banks of the Nickajack Lake. (423) 942-9000 or (423) 942-4040 or (423) 942-9025

Website: www.halesbarmarina.com

Their copy reads:

"Bring The Entire Family And Vacation With Us On Beautiful Nickajack Lake On The Tennessee River !!! 1265 Hales Bar Rd., Guild, Tennessee, 37340, At Mile Marker 431.1L (423) 942-9000 Don't Forget to check out our specials!!!!"

[BrianT]

Thanks, Jitterbug. Looks like a neat place, indeed. I'll bet there are some awesome sunsets over the water.



Brian