Deciding where to buy a vacation home or retirement home in NW Wisconsin? What you can learn from our dashes back to Minneapolis/St Paul, MN.
My husband and I moved to Northwest Wisconsin several years ago, when we were nowhere near ready to retire. (We’re still not.) Our work has required both of us to make occasional trips back to the Twin Cities for meetings. We also get down to the Cities now and then to visit relatives. Even if your situation is different, there’s a lot you can learn from our dashes back to the city.
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Elsewhere on my website, I’ve shared many other good reasons to consider this last, undiscovered northwestern corner of Northwest Wisconsin. You’ll get more for your money, and it’s less developed and less crowded. We have lots of great lakes, streams, trails, public land, etc. All that. But today I especially want to tell you about one key advantage of living here: It’s closer.
To get here from the Cities, we can head north on the freeway, hang a right at Hinckley, and be in Minong before we know it. From there, we’re almost home. From the Twin Cities, it’s an easy 2.5 hours.
From here, it’s possible to drive down to the Cities for a meeting and return the same day. If we were just a little farther away, we’d reach a threshold beyond which that sort of trip would be just plain crazy.
Even now, they can make for a long day. Recently, for example, I visited Edina Realty headquarters for an all-day seminar. Edina is about three hours from here. Unfortunately, my terrible timing gave me the opportunity to experience two rush hours. I left at 5:30 a.m., and arrived home about 7:30 p.m.
So if you’re looking for a vacation home or retirement home, then what do these occasional dashes to the city have to do with you? Everything. The same thresholds will still be there. But they’ll instead determine how much enjoyment you get from your new cabin or lake home. If your drive time is beyond a certain threshold, then there will probably be fewer weekends when you get away to your weekend getaway.
Planning to move up here for good when you retire? Welcome to the neighborhood! If you’ll still be visiting your friends or grandchildren back in the city, 2.5 hours is a lot easier drive than 3.5 hours. The same is true, by the way, if they’ll be driving up to visit you.
If places like Minong, Wascott, Gordon, Barnes, and Solon Springs aren’t yet on your radar, they should be. Same with the Minong Flowage, Saint Croix Lake, and the Eau Claire chain of lakes—and dozens of smaller lakes that are worth checking out, too.
Please take a moment to explore my website and find out more about this undiscovered northwestern corner of Northwest Wisconsin. Then drop me an email or give me a call. I’d be glad to show you what’s available in our neighborhood.
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