Ultimate retirement location???

[bkinnon]

Just read a post from Rob regarding riding year 'round in Kentucky and it brought to mind something I have researched and pondered for some time. Is there a retirement mecca for us old trail riders where off road activities are welcomed? I live in Maine and enjoy riding snowmobiles in the winter, but the retirement years are not far off and I will move south. I know this will roll a few eyeballs, but I also really enjoy riding 4 wheelers, as my wife rides with me and I would want to be able to continue that as well. I just like to ride. I even love riding my John Deere lawn tractor.
In northern New Hampshire, the state has just purchased 7200 acres of timberland and is going to utilize it as an ATV park. 350 miles of trail for all off road activities. If I could find something like that in Georgia or someplace warm, I would buy a home today.
Hopefully there is a place for me. If you are aware of it, please don't keep it a secret. I need a place for my Pentons to retire as well.

Bill MacKinnon
Minot, Maine


Downeast Pentons- Central Division

[lksseven]

Bill,

Lance Armstrong is wealthy, lives in Texas, and he loves riding dirt bikes (immediately after winning his 7th Tour de France, when asked what he was going to do to celebrate, he said "go home, drink beer, and ride my dirtbike."
       Let's start a letter writing campaign to have him buy ten thousand acres in Texas' Hill Country and designate it a Penton Preserve!  (I'm calling dibbs on Carbaugh's spare bedroom!)

Larry Seale
I choose to ride

[fasmith]

Texas.  Really.  And I am a redneck originally from SC.

There are a number of positives, and a number of negatives, however, Texas is very motorcycle friendly, both street and dirt.  There are many retirees here and among these are many whom are motorcyclists - street and dirt.  My dentist is 73 and he still rides his GoldWing to his office every day, regardless of weather.  

Positives

A large number of off road clubs.  The clubs open up a large amount of riding areas. With my membership to the Austin Motorsports Club I have private access to 1500 acres of excellent woods trails to ride 24/7/365.  Yes, it does cost $245 a year for this, but I also meet others whom invite you to ride their land at no additional charge and then you meet so many different people that it seems the entire state opens up to you to provide this huge opprotunity to ride so many places without hassle.  For me that is the best thing, no complaints about noise, etc.  Additionally there are many public off-road areas avaailable. Most cost about $20 a day to ride.  The City of Austin has a public motorcycle riding area of about 600 acres that is free to ride.  It is a very popular riding area and will give you a thrill a minute - the original trail was laid out by trail bike motorcyclists making it very technical. It has a 6 mile loop that is very, very difficult.  The mountain bike guys are envious of it.  

There is a huge amount of four wheelers here. I don't ride one, but there are many four wheeler clubs here.

And here is a way to take a look at all these clubs, riding areas, etc.

//www.texasoffroad.net

and check out the "forums" page to really get a dose of information on off road riding.

Email or ask Tony Price about Texas too. .. he is in Dallas.  

Weather..  here in Central Texas..  except for late July and August, you just can't beat the weather.  This morning.. it was 55 and by 1pm, the forcast is saying a high of 80 and yesterday it was 77. The next ten days, Central Texas is only going to have one day below 70.
Yes, it can get cold... if you call a high of 45 to 50 cold.  I think where I live, Georgetown, TX, we had maybe 4 nights of freezing weather all of 2005.  Yes, it can be dry..  no rain, but for some reason, I did not really run into any real dusty conditions all last summer. It rained enough to be ok.  

There is a big group of motorcyclists who do dual sport rides.  The big ride is the one they do every October in Big Bend.  

Negatives  - In and around Austin, traffic sucks. Big time. Interstate 35 from San Antonio to Dallas is packed all the time.  Going north and south sucks, going east and west is ok and pretty good.  

Positive - No state income tax.  No personal property tax. No sales tax on groceries here in Georgetown.

Negative - Tax on your house can be "Yikes!" depending where you buy a house.  

Negative.  -- Texas is huge.  It takes me 6 hours to get to Shreveport from here.

Positive.. Pretty darn good people here...  true Texans.. are really friendly people..  always ready to help.  Texans are proud of their state, so don't be uppity to them.  They have a right to be proud, it is a pretty cool place.

negatives - Lots of transplants here.. I know I am one, but I came from SC where I like to think we are friendly too..

There are several motocross tracks here that are very good.  

I could go on and on.  Texas is pretty good.  We have been here 5 years and I can say.. it just gets better and better.  Sure I miss SC and I will move back one day to SC ...  but for now. I highly recommend this area as a place to look at for the golden years.

Freddie Smith

[LynnCamp]

I asked the same question two years ago -- check out some of the great answers by doing a search within this forum on the phrase "The ultimate place to live".  There may be other threads along those lines if you do some word searches.

The outcome of my thread? -- Thomas Carmichael asked me to declare the winner -- but Helmut Clasen then quickly declared Canada the winner and I didn't want to cross Speedy.  But now I will fess up that it is Colorado.

The outcome of our search? -- We found Salida, Co to be the ultimate retirement place.  They have warm, dry, sunny winter weather (55 degrees in the Winter), no summer humidity, UNLIMITED open trails of all degrees and types, the largest historic downtown in Colorado, and a world class whitewater river running through it. Ironically, a large percentage of the retirees are from Texas and some from Tennessee. There is no industry and no jobs to speak of.... there is a large hospital and it is 2 hours west of Denver and 1 3/4 west of Colorado Springs.

OUTDOOR MAGAZINE's AWARDED SALIDA AS ONE OF THE TOP 20 TOWNS IN AMERICA with the following:
" NOW THIS, is Colorado! The adventurous are drawn to this oasis at 7,038 feet in the Upper Arkansas Valley, near the center of the state—as are the hordes who come to run the Arkansas River. The sweetly unpretentious town of Salida has a thriving arts scene, century-old crackerbox cottages, two whitewater play holes just steps from downtown, and a municipal pool filled with hot-spring water. Courtesy of the mild banana-belt climate, locals can bike (on pavement and off), hike, fish, and paddle nearly year-round. The 148-mile Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, punctuated by Class II–V drops, slices through Salida's historic district. Northwest of town, the Sawatch Range boasts 15 fourteeners, more than a quarter of the state's total, and hundreds of miles of hiking trails. Nearby Monarch Ski and Snowboard Area, at 11,961 feet, averages 30 feet of snow a year.

Here are some photos.

http://familynewsroom.com/co

Good luck with your search!

[bkinnon]

Well this has started off really well. Maybe we could get Mr. Armstrong and Lyle Lovett to be sponsors for a migration of POG members... I believe Lyle Lovett owns a KTM dealership in Texas, and Sheryl Crow has been photographed on a KTM.

I sure looks like Texas gets it with off road activity. I could come home to Maine when it gets too hot. Here in Maine it seems all off road activites are officially shunned by state government, tree huggers and bird watchers. The state takes all registration monies and dumps it into the general fund so that we can continue to enable out of control state government. Here is a web site that the club I am president of has just begun. All volunteers and shunned even by the ATV clubs. We have just begun getting politically connected, but it is a struggle and will take a long time to preserve the privilege of off road riding. Nobody gets it here.

http://www.pinetreetrailriders.com/

Thanks for the replies. What a nice web site Freddie.

Downeast Pentons- Central Division

[OUCWBOY]

Arkansas!!! Cheapest place in the US to live and it only cost 24.00 to register you vehicles.
You can buy a nice 3 BR home for under 100K


Donny Smith

[Paul Danik]

You can cross Pennsylvania off that list!

Still there and still paying[8D]

Paul

[Kip Kern]

I really can't complain about Indiana.  We have quite a bit of riding area, taxes aren't too bad, jobs are a little low but starting to build back up.  Houses in the country are still affordable (New house + 10 acres = $180K)  The best part, still lots of neat dirt bikes popping up out of barns and such!:D

[OhioTed]

Last time checked, Ohio was ranked 4th in the U.S. for motorcycle registrations, but I'll be durned if I can understand why.  The weather for the most part is quite motorcycle-unfriendly.  Also, off-road riding, save for in the Wayne National Forest, is virtally non-existant these days.  Also, about the WNF, I understand that you must have a permit to ride there, not available by mail - rather only at the Forest Headquarters - which is not open on weekends.  True?  Anyone up in the Pacific NW care to comment on your region?  Always wanted to check out that area.

[Rain Man]

Bill, I can emulate your quest with both climates. Cold and Agusta
  (our beloved state capitol)
 mista I've been shivering working in my heated garage for 3 day now!!

Raymond
 Down East Pentons

[Mick Milakovic]

Speaking of houses and Indiana, I'm still trying to sell mine:  1/2 acres with 11 fruit trees, 5 bedrooms with a master suite, 2 baths, Living room, family room, eat-in kitchen, laundry room, 2-car garage for $79,000.  OK, no pushing and shoving! I'll even throw in a project bike! []

[lksseven]

Mick,

Would it be a long commute to Tulsa?   [8D]

Larry Seale
I choose to ride

[Dave Withrow]

I've been a bunch of places........even Salida(used to ski at Monarch a lot).  Texas IS a great place to ride, but I don't know about the cost of living.  Missouri and Arkansas are areas that have a lot of riding areas, nice climate and seem to be relatively inexpensive.  I'm up for anywhere but cold, flat, windy central Illinois!
GO PENTON!

[tlanders]

I think Dave and Donny have it right - the OZARKS!!!! At least Rosemary and I love it plus all the other MOVMX (Missouri Vintage MX) riders (200 plus?). Plenty of rivers to float and deer and turkey to kill also.

Teddy

[Mick Milakovic]

Larry, I guess that depends on what you consider LONG!