Flight of Fantasy

Karen DeBord and Jack Phillips are living their own personal dream at Smith Mountain Lake in their golden years.

The story below is a preview from our 2017 edition of Retire-VA. For the full story view our FREE interactive digital edition now!

The plan was fairly simple: retire early, say at 56. Find and buy a nice piece of land abutting a small airport, preferably near a body of water. Build a B&B with an airplane hangar. Get on with the final phase of their lives in an idyllic setting.

Karen DeBord, 63, and Jack Phillips, 64, did all those things, but there was nothing simple about it. Financing, especially, became an ordeal after construction began on their 5,700-square-foot, four-guest-bedroom B&B, which would become Bedford Landings.

All this happened during a serious economic downturn. They were trying to sell their home in Raleigh, North Carolina, (where she taught at N.C. State and he was a design engineer for medical devices) and it took three years. Then there was finding the spot, designing the B&B and getting everything paid for. They went to 12 banks before finding one that would loan them the money to complete the house.

For 18 months, while the B&B was going up, they lived in Jack’s hangar, something of a Spartan existence. It finally worked out and they’re running the successful B&B along with Bedford Landings Air Tours, where Jack has four small planes in various stages of renovation; one of them an open-cockpit 1929 design Pietenpol Air Camper. He is building an experimental four-seat RV-10, a plane that will cruise 200 MPH that they hope to use to travel. There is also a recently purchased 1946 Piper Cub. He uses a vintage Cessna for his flying tours of the lake.

“We knew we didn’t want to stop working and that we wanted to do something together,” says Karen. They also knew they wanted to live in the western half of Virginia because her mother, who lived in Blacksburg, had Alzheimer’s and needed care. Karen, who grew up in Blacksburg, returned to Tech where she had worked previously.

From the beginning the couple dived into life at the lake, joining organizations and groups, the chamber of commerce, choirs, and Karen is looking for a writers’ group to help critique a book she is writing. They have kids and grandkids and though, “we’re not a babysitting service,” they enjoy entertaining the young ones.

“We’re very happy here,” says Karen. “I tell people considering retirement to think about what they will be doing with their time. Run toward something and define what’s next, something new and challenging.” And keep it simple.

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