Need a list of water destinations

[Scuba_ref]

With our youngest child in her last year of High School we are starting to make plans for a potential move. Our current plan is for my wife to switch to a Travel Nurse position that allows her to choose where she works for 13 week increments. So, we will spend 13 week increments checking out different areas of the country.

Wish list includes:
Warmer weather and water than the Pacific Northwest
Good boating destination

That's about it! I'd like to start putting a list together and doing some research so that we will be ready to go come fallish!

Suggestions?

 

[Bruce]

Hot Springs, AR (somewhere outside the city). Lots of work for nurses. Four lakes within 30 miles. Two of which are beautiful undeveloped Corps of Engineers lakes. Lake Ouachita is 40,000 acres of the second cleanest water in the country with 200 islands to play on.

 

[Beachbummer]

Pensacola in Florida.... only visited, but there's great boating there.

 

[GiddYupJoe]

Can't beat the lakes in TN and KY. Tellico (TN River) Norris, Rocky Fork, Cumberland, Dale Hallow. The list goes on...

 

[malibu Dan]

With our youngest child in her last year of High School we are starting to make plans for a potential move. Our current plan is for my wife to switch to a Travel Nurse position that allows her to choose where she works for 13 week increments. So, we will spend 13 week increments checking out different areas of the country.

Which list includes:
Warmer weather and water than the Pacific Northwest
Good boating destination

That's about it! I'd like to start putting a list together and doing some research so that we will be ready to go come fallish!

Suggestions?

My wife and I are both nurses (she being an ICU nurse) are interested to see how you guys fare with this adventure.. keep me posted...

 

[merlinjet]

Lake Havasu, AZ...plenty of sun all year around!

 

[Scuba_ref]

Great start to the list, many of these suggestions were already on the list. Definitely want to hit the southeast. Have been looking a lot at the AR, TN, KY, MO area.

One problem, if you can call it that, is we are very accustomed to having very little boat traffic. When I watch Lake Front Bargain Hunt (LFBH) or follow many of your outings on the forum I get overwhelmed at the amount of development and traffic on many of these lakes.

There is also the lake clarity issue. Our water in the PNW is often crystal clear. Some lakes I see on LFBH are very murky.

 

[Robconn]

Lake Lanier in GA,
Hospitals: Northeast GA medical center
Northside Forsyth
Gwinnett Med Cntr
North Fulton
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
St. Joseph’s Hospital Atlanta

 

[mdchachi]

Don't forget Michigan. 13 weeks in the summer would be perfect. Too many boating destinations to count.

 

[PEARCE]

Southeastern Oklahoma is beautiful! Broken Bow Lake is in that area and it's a very deep and very clear lake by our standards. It's a canyon lake within a National forest so there is no development around the lake. The downside is there isn't much development in the surrounding area either. You may have to go to Texarkana for a larger hospital or go farther north into Oklahoma. I guess it depends on where you end up living. As @Bruce said earlier Arkansas is beautiful too with several beautiful lakes and big cities within close proximity of each other. The downside to that is the is a possibility of more people and boat traffic, but that isn't always a bad thing. I know Tennessee is a beautiful state with nice and friendly people, but I can't speak of personal experiences on any of the lakes or rivers. Good luck with you search and decisions.

 

[2kwik4u]

There is also the lake clarity issue. Our water in the PNW is often crystal clear. Some lakes I see on LFBH are very murky.

Most of the KY/TN lakes are going to be pretty "murky" due to the traffic they see and the more or less mud bottoms. Dale Hollow is VERY clear with a rock bottom. Most of the others are going to be in 2-3ft visibility range. Some less. I can typically see my feet in most of the larger lakes. Some of the smaller ones with high traffic, not so much.

I want to be VERY clear on this though. These local and smaller lakes are "dirty" meaning they have a lot of dirt suspended in the water. They are NOT polluted. At the end of the day you don't smell funky, or anything like that. You will want to shower the light dirt out of your hair. It's not as bad as it sounds, but it's not the crystal clear water of the PNW for certain.

 

[Wisefam22]

Lake Lanier in GA,
Hospitals: Northeast GA medical center
Northside Forsyth
Gwinnett Med Cntr
North Fulton
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
St. Joseph’s Hospital Atlanta

This, come visit the south and enjoy the amenities for a summer... if you are out shoring the week it's way more manageable. Weekends arent bad if you avoid lake Lanier islands area. And holidays can trailer it to hartwell and it's like a normal weekend.

 

[Scuba_ref]

Don't forget Michigan. 13 weeks in the summer would be perfect. Too many boating destinations to count.

I would love to boat in Michigan, I don't want it to be my fulltime residence though. But your point is well taken - pick some spots like MI where we would like to spend some time but not settle down. I like it!

 

[AlphaKap]

This, come visit the south and enjoy the amenities for a summer... if you are out shoring the week it's way more manageable. Weekends arent bad if you avoid lake Lanier islands area. And holidays can trailer it to hartwell and it's like a normal weekend.

North half of the lake is nice on the weekend as well.

 

[haknslash]

Lake Martin, AL
Lake Guntersville, AL
Smith Lake, AL

Those are nice, clear and large lakes in our state. Of the 3, I prefer Martin the most but haven’t been to Guntersville since I was a little child so not really familiar with it. Boat traffic can be pretty busy depending on the area of the lake and time of year. I usually boat on the Coosa River so visibility is like 1’ or so but beautiful and calm on Lake Mitchell portion of the Coosa River system.

I also suggest checking out the Alabama Gulf Coast (Mobile, Foley, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach) as well as checking out the Florida panhandle (Destin, Panama City Beach, Fort Walton, Port St. Joe) areas. Can’t beat the clean white sands and clear turquoise waters! Tampa and Clearwater, FL are nice as well.

 

[MattFX4]

Lake Oconee, GA is a nice destination. Very high demand for nurses in the Atlanta area also. My wife has her masters in Nursing and is in leadership at Northside Hospital. They can't keep nurses due to other hospitals in the area offering huge signing bonuses to lure them away.

 

[Bruce]

The downside to that is the is a possibility of more people and boat traffic, but that isn't always a bad thing.

Lake Hamilton which I live on is quite busy on Holiday weekend.

On a holiday weekend Lake Ouachita looks like Lake Texoma on normal weekend. Even on the busiest weekends we can still find a cove to ourselves. On a weekday we have miles of lake to ourselves.

 

[djetok]

With our youngest child in her last year of High School we are starting to make plans for a potential move. Our current plan is for my wife to switch to a Travel Nurse position that allows her to choose where she works for 13 week increments. So, we will spend 13 week increments checking out different areas of the country.

Which list includes:
Warmer weather and water than the Pacific Northwest
Good boating destination

That's about it! I'd like to start putting a list together and doing some research so that we will be ready to go come fallish!

Suggestions?

Grand lake of the cherokees. You can have a house in just about any price range on the lake. Beautiful but very busy lake with huge boats. Lots of towns to live in of decent size if you don't want to live on the water (grove, jay, and Pryor is not far off). Tons of marinas to store your boat if you do not go lake front. It's in between tulsa, ok and Joplin, mo. 45 min to 1 hour each way depending on where you go.

https://www.realtor.com/realestatea..._OK_74349_M75441-67996?ex=OK637465447&view=qv

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/29561-S-585-Ct_Grove_OK_74344_M73519-18716?view=qv
https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...Legend-Pl_Afton_OK_74331_M73783-03003?view=qv
https://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.3162

Fort Gibson is another beautiful lake. With Wagoner, muskogee, and tahlequah. Not a fan of muskogee biggest city close by. Tahlequah is a college town (northeastern state u) one of my alma maters.

I forgot the lake I grew up on skiatook. Clean and clear 20 minutes to tulsa and not super busy either with 2 marinas. Cross timbers is the nicest with nice homes as well, none on the water since it's a corps of engineer lake.
https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...ine-Dr_Skiatook_OK_74070_M88740-93399?view=qv

https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...gio-Dr_Skiatook_OK_74070_M84789-40539?view=qv

https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...-View-Dr_Sperry_OK_74073_M85317-83645?view=qv

I know that I sound like I am on the chamber commerce, I am not. My family is on the town charter though.

Cost of living in Oklahoma is incredible, with low taxes.
https://www.missourieconomy.org/indicators/cost_of_living/

 

[Julian]

Bimini! (Miami area--but that would be "busy" water compared to where you boat!)

I'd love to spend a summer boating around the Keys. I'd also love to spend more time boating the Atlantic Intercoastal areas from Washington all the way down to the Keys!

 

[NORCAL-GAS]

Highest pay in country is NorCal Bay Area. All the way to Sac. Good lakes around as well.