There are a lot of reasons to retire in Virginia’s Blue Ridge and people are finding new ones every day.
Aaron Spicer
You can’t miss the beautiful fall foliage, especially at the top of Mill Mountain!
Virginia’s Blue Ridge has always been one of those under-the-radar destinations for the newly-retired, even those who’d never heard of it. One quick visit and, Boom! They’re hooked.
For some years now, economic developers in the region have concentrated efforts to attract young professionals by emphasizing the outdoor recreational opportunities. Those same efforts are attracting retirees. Among the top reasons retirees give for relocating to Virginia’s Blue Ridge (behind being near their children) are the natural beauty and recreational opportunities.
It’s hiking, biking, walking, picnicking, dancing, kayaking/canoeing/rafting and a host of other activities that dwell outside.
Ron Downing, who lives with his wife Veronica at Richfield Living retirement community, says they were attracted by the “beauty of mountains and pureness of non-smog air. The very innocence of Virginia: it hasn’t been urbaned-up. You feel you’re in the country.” Veronica emphasizes “arts, entertainment, fresh food markets, music, orchards (fresh food from its source), hiking, biking. It is easy to enjoy outdoor life, even if you’re not a camper.”
Virginia’s Blue Ridge has a love affair with the higher arts – theatre, opera, ballet, symphony, visual art – so much so it is nationally noted in many cases. The audiences for those art forms are heavily mixed age groups, and retirees are well-represented.
“Our core audience does tend to be made up of older individuals, depending on the production, but Opera Roanoke’s mission focuses on creating opera experiences for all ages. I believe our audience skews older because it was common for individuals of that age to be exposed to classical music and opera during their youth and young adult years, creating a lasting appreciation for the art form, which does not happen as frequently today,” says Brooke Tolley, general director of Opera Roanoke.
“Opera Roanoke’s productions are of a quality that is not often found in regions of our size, which is why we often have individuals travel from some distance to see the performances. Having high-quality opera and other engaging art forms is certainly an advantage to living in Virginia’s Blue Ridge, especially for retirees who may find that they have more time for recreational activities.”
Retirement facilities range from the low-end retro look of the 1950s to the splendid total care models that take retirees in as single-family household occupants and house them until their full-care final years. They offer a large number of amenities from transportation to yoga, music performances to memory care and rehabilitation services, indoor saltwater pools to hikes on the Appalachian Trail. The food is often quite good in the better facilities and energetic retirees can stay busy from dawn until bed-time on a daily basis with their new friends.
Virginia’s Blue Ridge offers a wide variety of educational experiences for retirees from free community college classes to book clubs and writers groups and related conferences. Local libraries are modern, inclusive and numerous—each having a number of attractive programs for the elder crowd..
Larry (83) and Becky (80) Lavinder moved to Friendship Manor in 2019 from Franklin County, where they lived 21 years. They were beginning to have health issues and Roanoke made it more convenient. Their son lives in Salem and keeping an eye on his parents had become a challenge.
“We love it here,” says Becky. “There are no gutters, no house maintenance, no yard work and we’re all on one level. We call maintenance when we need it and when a lawn mower is going, it’s not Larry doing it.”
Larry is retired from DuPont and Becky was a learning-disabled private tutor. For them, life changed in several ways with the move. Becky says, “We were able to be more social. We were so busy before that we didn’t have time to be social. Roanoke offers a lot and we’re familiar with the area, so we can do things weren’t able to do before.” Larry has even taken up the bicycle. “He’s known as the bicycle man around here,” says Becky.
Kathy Giglio and her husband Chuck moved to Roanoke four years ago from Albany, New York. They had been looking for a new home for a few years and visited several places in North and South Carolina. “Roanoke was on the way home from a trip to the Knoxville area to see if that had the right fit. It didn’t.
“Here are some of the things we looked for in a place to retire. The first was affordability. We couldn’t afford to retire in New York. So, a place had to be affordable. Housing costs were easy to check on Zillow. But other things like taxes and the cost for food and gas are included. Gas is about 40 cents a gallon more in Albany than in Roanoke. I didn’t know until we moved here that groceries and utilities were cheaper. Kroger has a store brand for nearly everything that is cheaper than even Walmart. My utilities here are about $1,400 a year. That was what it cost just to heat my big 100-year-old house for two months in winter.
“We didn’t consider Virginia at first because there is a vehicle tax. We have a car, an old truck and six motorcycles. But our taxes are still cheaper than New York.
“The next thing we were looking for was a place near the mountains because we ride motorcycles. Roanoke has great motorcycle roads. We also were tired of the long cold winters. Shorter winter means a longer motorcycle riding season. We can basically ride year-round here with the addition of heated jackets and hand grips. We can’t ride every day but often enough that we don’t get stir crazy. Are you starting to see a theme here?”
And finally, says Kathy, “We were looking for walkability. We lived just outside Albany in the not quite suburbs/not quite country with no sidewalks and nowhere to walk to. Here, we found a new house within a half mile of Grandin Village. It is a small house that is easy to maintain. My husband was mowing almost three acres at our old place. Here it only takes 40 minutes to mow. We also love going downtown on a Saturday morning. Even though Albany is a capital city and about the same size as Roanoke, it feels deserted once the state workers go home.”
Kathy says that upon landing in Roanoke, “We joined a local motorcycle club, Twin Valley Riders, and I joined Newcomers club. We have met friends through these clubs. We have some great neighbors. Chuck helped organize a block party this summer. We have been trying to talk friends from Albany into moving here.”
Jan Willis of Roanoke’s Newcomers Club, which introduces so many people to the Valley, is a Martinsville native and Virginia Tech grad who has lived all over the country. “Throughout our travels,” she insists, “we still considered ourselves Virginians. Although we saw some beautiful parts of the country, I always felt the Blue Ridge was my favorite. In 2019, she and her husband moved to Roanoke because, says Jan, “since I had to follow [her husband] around the country our entire marriage, I got to choose. … Whenever I told my Virginia friends I was considering Roanoke, every one said Roanoke was great. No one discouraged it.”
Activist Diana Christopulos says she and partner Mark McClain spent three years looking for a place to retire after living in Dallas. They “wanted a four-season climate, reasonable cost of living, VA Hospital (for Mark’s medical care), less traffic/smaller metro area, colleges and universities to make up for any cultural deficit, a pretty setting and walkable neighborhoods. Lagniappe: a minor league baseball, near the Appalachian Trail, closer to my family.” They found it all in the Valley.
The Downings met while he was stationed in Korea at a USO event. He was career military, and she was a tour director. They eventually married and moved back to Western Virginia (Covington, where he worked for Westvaco) before moving to Roanoke, where he had lived before. They had lived in Europe, Asia and eight states and, says Ron, “the thought of going home, where I identified [was attractive]. I realized the Roanoke area was special.”
Veronica had a similar feeling when they first arrived, because Virginia’s Blue Ridge looks so much like her home in Korea and the climate is similar. She says, “When I arrived in Covington, I felt I belonged. The country is very similar [and it has the same] climate—four seasons—mountains, valleys. I adapted very well.”
Veronica jumped right into the swirl of a new city, graduating from both Virginia Western Community College and Roanoke College (with honors) and Ron found outlets for his music hobby. “Being retired helped me stay more engaged with passion—which is music, wineries and vineyards and playing music, playing for crowds that enjoy dancing, play Richfield.”
Veronica, who is a fine cook, according to her husband, discovered the Williamson Road International Corridor, especially J&L Market with its Korean foods. “She came here to embrace America,” says Ron. Veronica says that “many foreigners lock themselves into their old community and only mingle there. I’m not that kind of person. I like different life experiences.”
The opportunity in Virginia’s Blue Ridge is there for current and future retirees. All they have to do is look around and reach out.