A River Runs Through It

A River Runs Through It

It looks...muddy. Rough and muddy. Why would anyone want to get in it? Certainly not to swim. Intentionally.

I've been contemplating a move. A big move. A life changing move. Why? I'm peacefully retired. Content with my life in almost all ways. Only one or two nagging issues. Nothing I can't live with yet they persist to tug at my mental well-being. Even made a list of pros and cons. Cons won out. Still I look at alternatives. Do I truly want to sail away into uncharted waters this late in life? Yet, they say you only live once...

So I'm looking over a piece of property far from my current living arrangement. A home I have lived in for fifty-three years. The home I raised my four children in and where I entertained all my seventeen grandchildren. Now I've even started on another generation here. Most all these descendants still live close by but some are scattering as they make other choices in their lives. Shouldn't my husband and myself also be able to make new choices better suited for us?

There's not one place the others are gravitating toward. They are going north, south and west. Maybe we'll go east. Actually southeast. About 700 miles. Close to a region we temporarily lived in several years ago we really enjoyed because of the natural beauty. I've often said I simply want beauty in my surroundings. My family fulfilled that wish. But since I'm spending more time sitting gazing outdoors, I want the view to be awesome. And I want less cold and snow when I do venture about.

These seem like simple wants but in a world filled with mounting needs and uncertainties these selfish wants feel frivolous. Sure the political climate where I now live at times is untenable. Taxes grow untamed. Every necessary cost keeps rising so our retirement funds shrink to non-maintainable levels. One of us may have to return to work. Our minds are sharp but our bodies are failing. Instead of moving away from family we may need to rely on them more. We would be crazy to uproot everything and branch out to unknown perils.

Still I study the pictures and peruse the ads for more clues. So many details remain missing. They claim the natives are friendly but I've heard stories that tell a different tale. The posts show smiling faces enjoying adventure and carefree living but what truths are they glossing over? Maybe I'll eventually resort to calling and talking to a real estate expert to put my mind at ease. But we'll require a trip in person to verify it could be exactly everything we are hoping it will be with no hidden pitfalls.

The represented vision makes my spirit soar. 'Picturesque' doesn't quite capture the splendor. Imagine a verdant green bowl dotted with white unpretentious farmsteads topped with red or silvery roofs surrounded by three-hundred-sixty degree long-range Smokey Mountain grandeur being sliced through by a bubbling winding river cutting its way north.

North. Yes, I said north. One of the few rivers in the States that insists on going it's own way. Stubbornly up out of mountains in North Carolina, though lakes in Tennessee and on to the Ohio and finally to the Mississippi rivers. It has quiet still moments that run deep but much of it is rocky and difficult to traverse as it tumbles and careens over or around obstacles in its course. But adventurers are highly attracted to pit their oars against it so they attack white water rapids with rafts and tubes and kayaks getting buffered about to their delight. This ancient waterway is free-spirited unencumbered by dams so it stays warmer and carves new paths at will.

Curious, I follow the curvy bends from the satellite view. The river front property description says I'm free to build a dock yet I can't detect any other docks along the route. Even though the trees are green I don't note any river boat traffic. Hard to tell if any of the dots are tubers or rocks.

If we were to purchase this bit of paradise I thought maybe could rent out some of our green space to motorcyclists known to travel these back roads to pitch a tent over night and offer them a tubing or rafting experience for a bit of extra cash. Probably risky business in this area known for moonshiners, right? What am I thinking? Motorcyclists and moonshiners! My kind of people? Not likely. My husband, though, yes! The things of which dreams are made.

Anyway, back to my dreamy property. Once a building stood on the banks of the river. The concrete foundation still exists. Water, electricity and fiber optics are available but sewer is not mentioned. If there was a building wouldn't that still be close by somehow? Another question for Realtor. Don't need to build immediately. But a motor home will be needing something. Be prepared to install a septic tank.

More research leads to an adventurist business in nearby North Carolina (although it's to the south it is upstream from the property, confusing due to the flow, of course). This place offers rafting, zip lining, canyoneering and rock climbing. Soon it becomes obvious what must have happened to all the docks I assumed must have lined the shorelines. Asheville. Ground zero for devastating flood caused by Hurricane Helene, September 2024. Also evidenced by all the brown patches along the river bank visible from the satellite pictures. The building no longer there may very well have been erased by floodwaters.

What this concludes for me is the grass is not always greener elsewhere. No matter how pretty the pictures. True I read about a flood in 1916 and one in the forties besides the one last year. Another may not happen in my remaining lifetime. Living in a motor home means we could drive away from any danger. ( Also allows us to visit family whenever we choose. Sounds great but harbors a host of other possible difficulties.) No sense to try and navigate uncharted waters.

Anyway, think I will count my blessings and stay content where I am otherwise I may feel like a fish out of water. But it never hurts to look.