Southwest VA/Tri-Cities info requested

[HeavyPetter]

Bacon:

what are your impressions of SW Virginia relative to western NC? We really liked the idea of asheville or hendersonville, but there aren't any jobs there.

I know you asked him because he's from Asheville, but I will tell you straight up that people from SWVA are fucking scary. I had a territory that went from Lynchburg to Danville, to the WV line, but stopped a little north of Wytheville and a little south of Lexington/Buena Vista. Lynchburg and Roanoke were okay. Blaksburg/Christiansburg were so-so. Pulaski, Pearisburg, and Dublin were downright scary (especially Pearisburg). In other words, the cities are okay, but once you get off the beaten path, you're in the heart of Appalachia and people spend a lot of time sizing each other up.

I haven't spent much time in Abingdon, so can't comment specifically on it as an enclave of civility or much else.

Also, I don't know what kind of doctor you are, but if you are going to treat people from a wide area, you should be prepared for a lot of folks who smoke and don't receive regular health care. This may be true everywhere, but my impression is that you will run out of healthy people with private insurance pretty quickly.

I would think that western NC would be a much nicer place to live.

As others have mentioned, the scenery in SWVA is incredible the wilderness is still wild in a lot of places.

 

[Baconwfu]

Bacon:

what are your impressions of SW Virginia relative to western NC? We really liked the idea of asheville or hendersonville, but there aren't any jobs there.

Honestly I haven't spent much time in SW VA. I know Western NC very well, especially the mid and southern NC mountains and can say that Asheville is far and away the best city in the Southern Appalachians, especially in the ETN, SWVA, WNC area. The places I have been in SW VA have been very rural and seemingly isolated. Like i said, the Tri-Cities are there, but they are kind of soulless and don't provide the "cultural support" for that region that AVL does for it's metropolitan region

 

[JamesSokolove]

So how did you enjoy your time in the quaint town of Abingdon?

 

[BacktoBack]

Much as many here described. It's a beautiful little town with a decent amount of fun stuff to do. We loved the restaurants. The barter theater is terrific. Cost of living is very good. Lot of educated folks (relatively speaking) due to the hospital as well as the federal and county courthouse. A few very, very wealthy coal $ families. It drops off fast as you get away from Abingdon. Very, very mountain people. A lot of them terrific in many ways. But a lot of poverty and pain pill and meth abuse. Overall I'd still be there if my boss wasn't a dip stick. I moved to boone and we have a lot of the same folks here. But we have the college and lot of part time residents from Florida that change the demographic here. SW VA strikes me as fairly similar to rural America in a lot of areas. But I could be wrong.