My wife and I were discussing my/our dream of living in the mountains yesterday. It hit me while we were talking that she only sees the mountains through vacation eyes. Her vision of mountain living is high on the side of the mountain with views that reach all the way to Emerald City.

Whenever we talk of the mountains I am always emphasizing the climate compared to the sub-tropics we live in here in SE Texas. Yet, lately when I mention the record highs they have been recording in NW North Carolina she asks why we are moving there if it’s just as hot as here…What do you say? I keep trying to tell her there is a difference between a summer that lasts two, three months and this endless summer we call a climate here. I mean let’s get real I can remember Christmas Days were the high was in the 90’s (well at least the high eighties). Living in a place with four real fully realized seasons has to make for a more interesting life than endless summer with just yuck in between.

I keep making the comment about living “in” the mountain, not on the mountains. As nice as it may be to live on the side of a mountain or even the top. It isn’t a particularly realistic goal for a couple of flatlanders approaching retirement. And while for a vacation retreat, the end of the road is great, on a daily basis I think a little closer to town will probably be in everyone best interests. For me it’s the being in the mountains with access to the tops that counts the most.

Now that doesn’t mean a gated subdivision is in our future. I have played the “master planned community” gig once in my life and truth be told I don’t have it in me to even want to keep up with the Smiths much less the Joneses…Give me my own little place with enough semi-flat land for a garden if I want, some trees to watch the seasonal changes take place. Country enough for some occasional wildlife to enliven the day, but city enough to have choices.

So I guess this years vacation will be spent trying to explain (and show) what living “in” the mountains is all about.