I laid my head on my pillow.  I’m home drifted through my brain.  I dreamed of mountain roads and hideaways.

Driving up a flat urbanized peninsula makes me long for terrain and a slower pace.  We left the road warriors and stress behind.  When we arrived a light rain fell with a cool blowing wind.  The weather cleared for five glorious days of sunshine with highs in the 40s.  Mmm… I was in heaven.

The reality is, if we want to build and move in two years, we need to find the land that calls to us.  We had to figure out what we wanted…our “Property Wish List” if you will.  Armed with a list of properties we hit the roads.

My husband has been driving around these roads, on and off, for the last forty years.  After Church on Sunday Morning, He took the wheel while I navigated.  I told him the first stop was a small breakfast place in Lansing.  I proceeded to direct him to Hwy 88 east.  He said we needed to go west to get to Lansing.  I had put the restaurant in his GPS which directed him to the east.

He kept mumbling that Lansing was in the other direction.  He was following the GPS, so I ignored his muttering.  When we parked in front of the restaurant, He started to chuckle. We got out of the van.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Where is the first property?”

“In Lansing. It’s right around the corner from here.”

“We are in Laurel Springs.” He said gently as we sat down at a table.

“What? No!” I took out the listing handing it to him.  He pointed to the page.  It read Laurel Springs.  “Oh no!  I’m so sorry,” I said turning red.  He just smiled as I ordered breakfast.  I really do think the man likes to see me blush.

So much for my navigational skills in the mountains!  It is obvious I’ve learned to depend on GPS to get me around.  In my defense, there was a property we looked at near Lansing later in the day.

The farthest out we went was to the northwest corner of North Carolina.  It is where the North Carolina state line meets the Tennessee and Virginia state lines.  It is beautiful country and very rural.  We were about twenty minutes up the side of a mountain when I flashed back to living in the boondocks in Florida.  There are a lot of pros to living in a rural setting but, one big con.

Living so far from town is hard in an emergency when the roads are flat and there is no snow or ice.  I pictured myself as a Granny on this beautiful property literally on top of the mountain.  But, in my mind’s eye, I saw a picture of me in a cabin with fresh powder on the ground.  I had to back to Florida; there was an emergency with one of our kids.  I drove a truck pell-mell down the mountain road to get to a major airport at least three hours away.

I didn’t want to sound old or scared.  Or even worse, old and scared.  I just felt uncomfortable being that far away from town.  I thought a little more, and then said to my dear husband, “this is too far out.”  I explained what I had envisioned.

He agreed it was too far out to do what we want to do with our lives. As he turned the van around, he laughed and said he wasn’t ready to live off the grid just yet!  I wholeheartedly agreed!

Driving back to our family house meant driving over another mountain top to get back to the highway.  It was a little hard to enjoy the view from the top when there were no readily available restrooms!  Oh My!  It put an exclamation point on that decision!  The good part is the road trip gave us our Property Wish List:

The Must Haves:

• Unrestricted land to build our dreams
• No homeowners association (or a very limited one)
• Location within thirty minutes of a city
• A secluded spot for a cabin
• Wooded acreage with some old growth trees
• Access to a good roadway
• Fiber optics (I am a writer! {wink})
• Terrain that dips and slopes
• Enough room to play in the woods

Would Be Nice:

• Buffering by farmland or preserved land
• A view of the mountains
• Noisy water like a flowing stream or river
• A good little breakfast joint!

We are exploring a couple of locations already.  I am trusting God to lead us to the land he has designated for us.  At the very least He is a better navigator than I am!  I rest in his hands, the perfect place for this writer to work out her dream.

“Blessed are those who trust in the Lord; the Lord will be their trust. They are like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It does not fear heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still produces fruit.”  [Jeremiah 17:7-8 NABRE]

God Bless

Milly