Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas seems like a nice place to retire. It's not so great for kids. This little town sits on a lake, in north-central Arkansas. We only traveled there because my great-grandmother, great aunt and great uncle lived there.

Traveling to Horseshoe Bend is not easy, no matter where you live. From Lawrence, we took I-70 to U.S. 63 at Columbia, stopped for lunch in Rolla, Missouri, switched to state highway 9 at the state line, then took a couple of lesser known winding roads to reach town. Horseshoe Bend, when I was a kid, had one restaurant, one stoplight, mostly gravel roads, and a golf course. My relatives had a satellite dish. Otherwise, you could only receive a snowy translator for either KAIT in Jonesboro or KOLR in Springfield. I forget precisely which. Activities included avoiding someone's private property, in a part of the nation where people shoot trespassers, and skipping rocks on the lake. But it's a beautiful location, and I would not mind retiring there. I'm sure a lot of people had the same idea, though.