One more time ...

Have you ever experienced a moment in time that changed your life … a glimpse at what could be your next right step … a moment that felt like an epiphany ?

After a long night of feeling utterly bereft and sad beyond words, that’s what happened to me on the morning of October 23rd.

Pour yourself a cup of tea and I’ll tell you a story …

Those of you that have been following along or have know me for awhile, know that Dave and I have led a fairly nomadic existence, not so much as travelers, but our version of nomads … we don’t really travel, we just move … and we have moved A LOT. In the 45 years we have been together, we have moved over 3 dozen times. A lot of those moves were within a single town, but they were still moves.

About a year ago, we found ourselves getting itchy again … itchy to find a place that fits us and how we want to live our lives. Little ol’ Bryson City, as quaint as it has become and where we have lots of old friends and a long history, just hasn’t been meeting our needs.

We want easy access to high quality food. Right now, we make regular trips to Ashevile (1 hr + drive) for the farmers tailgate market, for the bulk and organic food we prefer to consume. Arts oriented venues and decent vegan restaurants are there as well. Rock climbing options for Dave are all at least 1 1/2 hours away, if not more. A big concern as I close in on my 69th birthday (with Dave a couple of years behind), while we love our quiet 7 acres and our little log cabin, this little homestead is just not a great choice for the “ageing in place” life we’ve begun to consider.

We had started our quest for a better spot by looking into moving closer to the Asheville area, but after months of monitoring the real estate market, I found literally zero homes in our price range that would get us close enough to make it worthwhile. Sadly now, Asheville will be years recovering from the aftermath of Helene … not a happy option to consider.

We thought about going back to the Pacific NW, a place we dearly love. But with sky high property values and very high property taxes with minimal tax breaks for senior citizens, the places we would choose to live were out of our range. Plus, that felt like “going back” not “moving forwards.”

Then came the night of October 22nd. I was feeling lost and adrift and so so sad. Laying in bed, trying to go to sleep, I dissolved into tears. I woke Dave and cried on his shoulder for awhile. He managed to calm me down and I was finally able to go to sleep.

The next morning, I took it slow, sitting at the table sipping my beloved cuppa PG Tips from my trusty mug. I clicked on my Instagram feed and the first post that came up was an account I’ve been following for years, Field + Supply, based in Kingston, NY. I’ve been jonesing to go to one of their markets for ages and maybe even someday be a vendor … and that got me to thinking … where is Kingston, NY?

Turns out, Kingston is in the Hudson River Valley region of New York, just a couple hours north of the city … hmmm. The Hudson Valley is legendary for its creativity and a major hub for the arts, Turns out, it’s also a big agricultural area and has a huge community of sustainable/organic growers and terrific farmers markets in many of the towns along the river. New Paltz is considered to be one of the best “hippie” towns in NY. The amazing Omega Institute is in Rhinebeck and Woodstock … yes, WOODSTOCK … is in the region as well. Who knew?!?! I sure didn’t. The western side of the valley is also home to a world class rock climbing area for Dave, the Shawangunks.

I headed over to Realtor.com, plugged in our parameters and, holy cow, I found at least half a dozen very viable homes in our price range within less than an hour of Kingston. Also turns out that county has significantly lower property taxes than areas further south or east. Also turns out that, even if we found a home in a higher tax area, New York offers game changing property tax discounts for senior citizens based on adjusted gross incomes, for which we could quality.

Wowza … so when Dave came down for his morning break, I asked … what about the Hudson Valley?

That afternoon, I went into town to chat with a realtor friend and see what she thought we might get for our little place. She and her boss came out that afternoon to take a look. Within a couple of days, I’m taking pics, we’re signing listing agreements and they’re showing the house to potential buyers. Within a week, we had a signed contract. The house never even hit the MLS.

Now here’s the crazy thing is, Dave had been to the Hudson Valley to go climbing ONCE over 45 years ago and I had never set foot in that part of the world. So, we quickly did some schedule rearranging and put together a blitz road trip to NY. We left on November 10 and got back on the 16th. Sadly, by the time we got there, all the sweet potential homes I had saved were already under contract and the one we did look at was a big project, a large NO. Plus, this is the time of year when inventory is slow to hit the market. What to do, what to do???

We were pretty bummed when we got home. We spent most of a day looking for other potential places to live. The next day, we went for a long walk on one of our favorite trails, talking about our options the whole way. We came back with a clarity and certainty that the Hudson Valley would be a terrific place for us. It’s also where the Van Kleeck side of the family has deep roots. The Hudson Valley is where his father was born and where his ancestors landed back in the 17th century. And how’s this for confirmation … we stumbled upon a “Van Kleecks Lane” north of Kingston.

When we moved to our little slice of Western NC back in 2021, we really hoped this would be IT. But it turns out to have been the necessary vehicle to get us out of Florida and a transitional spot to set us up for what’s next.

Needless to say, Dave and I are kind of shell shocked, soaking in a solid pool of WTF, but we have a plan. We’re going to put everything into storage here in WNC, head north and hang out in AirBnB’s (you can get pretty good discounts for stays over a month) while we look for our next home. I won’t go so far as to say our “forever home” … but I REALLY hope it is.

What this means for me and this website, the making/business side of things is going to be on hold for awhile. My “job” is going to be house hunting and familiarizing myself with our new landscape. I’ll be posting updates on social media, so if you’re interested in following our new adventure, check my Instagram feed.

Finally, on this most auspicious of new moons … a new moon in my sun sign and the middle of Mercury retrograde … we are making great strides towards a new and bright future. Our house is set to close in the morning on December 16th and we’ll head north that afternoon. We’ve taken similar leaps in the past and they have always served us well. This one is a bit different in that we don’t have a specific target destination. So, this is where we wholeheartedly throw it up to the universe and “let go, let God.”

All good wishes and juju appreciated!

Stay tuned!