MAY be moving to KC-area...help?
 

My wife is retiring in June and, with most of our family having migrated to the Kansas City area, for various reasons, we have sorta started looking into a possible move to the area, too. She would like to continue teaching in some reduced way but not as a full time teacher. What I'm looking for are smallish towns (under 40,000 for sure) that are at least 25 miles out and no more than 75 miles or so away from KC. Kansas OR Missouri isn't an important factor but (he-he) I like to ride hills and pretty places so THAT IS important. My wife doesn't ride so she really doesn't much care where we decide to look, just so long as it's within an hour or so from the kids and is a place that may offer her some meaningful but reduced-schedule teaching. I'm not going to stop working but am a photographer and can set up pretty much anyplace without too much difficulty. I've done a very little computer research on this but would prefer to hear from folks in the area and then check them out during one of our several upcoming visits. We're coming up next weekend for the Chiefs-Cowboys game and will have all day on Saturday and Monday to do our first scouting trips...help us out with a few places to consider, thanks!....oh, by the way, GO CHIEFS!

Hey Trophy,

I can't speak too much to the MO side, but between my town (Lawrence) and KC there are plenty of towns to check into: Baldwin City (with a private university), Tonganoxie, and Lake Perry (with good mtb trails) come to mind. These towns have a "country" feel but are close enough to us and KC that you can pretty much do/get anything you want without too much trouble. As for hills, eastern Kansas is not Colorado, but there are good hills with a minimum of route planning. For the most part country places on either side of the border offer nice scenery.

I can tell you that there are several organized rides around here, and the Lawrence Bike Club has weekly rides all year that would be reasonable from any of the towns above. The same can be said of Kansas City of course - it just depends where you end up. Best of luck to you!

If you could figure out where she's teaching that would make it easier for you to make your decision. The reason being is that some of the towns are spread out far so if you move to location X, I guarantee you she'll have to commute to location Y and those will be on opposite ends of town!

MO seems to be more hilly and picturesque. KS can get annoying with the wind. Lawrence is a college town with all the benefits of such. There are many nice areas around the KC metro area and beyond depending on how far you out you want to be from the hubub or how close you want to be to the hubub.

1 hour will get you almost anywhere in the metro area and beyond as long as it's not during rush hour so you could conceivably live 75 miles away and still be able to drop in unexpectedly on your grandkids whenever you wanted :)