I have a hiking staff that I cut from the 120-acre property that my mom and dad once owned in the mountains of north Georgia. I've had that staff since I was 16 years old. Somehow, I've kept it close over the decades (almost four decades and counting). I have a statue of a bear carved from a piece of cedar that I bought in a shop when I was eight years old on a visit to the mountains of my native state. Again, somehow I've kept it close at hand for 47 years.
But I don't get upset about things like vehicles. However, today we sold our canoe. We've had it for a while. Ten years or more. I can't recall exactly when we bought it, but we've used it to paddle rivers and streams all over the southeastern USA. Everywhere from Tennessee to Virginia to North Carolina to South Carolina to Florida. We had a great time using that canoe.
Well, today we sold it to a very sweet couple from Asheville. I think they're going to have as much fun with it as Carole and Andy and I did. After they purchased the canoe, and before they headed back home to Asheville, we drove them over to Mountain Island Lake (five-minute drive) so that they could take the canoe on a test run. Watching them paddle away, I did get a bit of a pang seeing our canoe go angling away from us forever.
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| The sweet couple who bought our canoe. |
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| Their little boy, Zane. |
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| Goodbye, canoe! I think you're with a great family! |
