Please take a look

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?p=11536818#post11536818

Thanks - Jay

Having grown up in Tennessee and lived in every major city it has except Memphis, it is pretty hard to beat. I grew up in upper east Tn next to the North Carolina line, so I have traveled Tn and Westen NC alot either by car or motorcycle. It all depends on what you are looking for. If you want to be in the country and have access to a big city with the shopping and hospitols then I would say anywhere withing 50 miles of Knoxville is the best. MY second choice would be Chattanooga which I lived there for one year and liked it alot as well, Chattanooga would give you pretty quick access to South Carolina. Chattanooga is a beautiful city with everything you would need, again anywhere within 50 miles or so and my pick would be up I-75 between Cleveland and the lakes which run north all the way to Knoxville. Third, I would pick Asheville NC, not as big of a town but beautiful scenery, shopping etc, and nice folks. If you are into the outdoors like trout fishing or riding through the mountains you could not go wrong with Asheville NC. I have not been everywhere but I have traveled alot for business and really anywhere in the TN, NC, SC, and Northen GA areas are hard to beat. Good clean living with change of seasons. I hope this helps.

I have been in Chattanooga since I was born and love the city more each day. Its close enough to many major cities and the city has a great character. Nashville is only 1.5 hours away, Knoxville a little over 1 hour, Charlotte is about 5 hours, and Atlanta is about an hour as well. We have many spots in Chattanooga that sound like what you are looking for when you mean "rural". There are some great homes with nice land acreage for sale right now. The best thing is that you are so close to many MTN twisties...:) The dragon is only an hour away. :)

Josh K