this is a great thread, and there seems to be a fair amount of interest and chatter on this topic. Sleepybear DM'd me with some great questions and as the interest is up, i'll share my response to him here as well.
By all means, please add to it as many have above. (open to critical review as well)
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regarding TN: Chatt and other areas:
There's a triangle between knoxville, chattanooga and Nashville, and inside that triangle is a lot of lovely places to live, rural, farm communities of good people.
and lots of outdoor living with affordable land. Depends on how close you need to be to a walmart/dollar G...
I love the Cleveland Jamestown area (NE of Chatt), close but far enough. just north of Chattanooga and nice land and people. half hour to 45 min to downtown Chattanooga
if being in a city or nearby matters, chattanooga is a great choice. hiking, climbing, boating, trail running, mtn biking, and more. the food is great, the city and surrounding town events are plentiful and the people are nice here.
housing and land feels expensive to me. but that is true of most of TN as we have no state income tax and a lot of people moved here during covid driving prices up. (GNASHville is stupid money right now)
Just minutes from Chattanooga is the Ga and Alabama border. you can live in either one of them for less money but will be taxed differently and in different school systems if using the public system. Ga has the hope scholarship and you kids can get there undergrad basically for free if they do it right. i don't know the details but worth a look.
there's a couple riding park for ATVs in the area. and a few very serious offroad areas within an hour of chattanooga. Lots of riders in the chattanooga community.
My machine is a farm machine so i rarely have time for trail riding but i know it's around here.
We ride on county roads north of the city in Apison/Ooltewah/McDonald area with no issues. stopsign intersections. we ride down to Ooltewah for supplies or a nice meal sometimes, with no issue and with tags and meeting the requirements, we are good. i carry the legal docs in the machine in case a LEO pulls me who is not sure about things. so far no issue.
as far as driving to a riding area, i'm sure it can be done, i've never tried it. but if i had an offroad park within range, i'd def try it.
Keep me posted and i you decide to come visit Chattanooga, let us know.
j