Weekend Retreats/Retirement
When I was young and a newlywed getting a way for a weekend meant taking a vacation at a tourist attraction. Then when our children were old enough a vacation meant amusement parks. Now that my husband and I are of retirement age, the ideal place to get way for the weekend seems to be that little piece of land we always talked about.
Of course we dreamed of a place in the country; a home-away-from-home. But actually finding it seemed to elude us until somewhere between that time, as empty-nesters, and retirement. So we made a plan. Find a piece of land in the country, build a cabin in the woods, or invest in land on water somewhere - a lake, river, or ocean. It didn’t matter where or what; what mattered was taking that first step - saying YES to finding our place.
First we had to decide where to find the land. I like warm weather and water but not necessarily the beach. He likes cold weather and water but not necessarily the mountains. So we sat down and divided a sheet of paper with HIS LIKES on one side and HER LIKES on the other side. We each wrote down all the things we wanted in a weekend retreat. We both liked the idea of warm weather but not too hot so a beach was out. We both liked water but we didn’t need a house on a lake. So we agreed a cabin on a piece of land with a lake large enough to boat or fish on would be ideal.
We then had to decide if we wanted our land to be close to our home in the city or far away. What kind of drive would we like to make if we were to leave on Friday afternoons and return on Sunday afternoons? The decision was made that two hours was the farthest we would drive to get to our place.
The next step was to get a map and determine how far a two-hour drive was from our home. Making a circle around using the correct distance gave us a circumference to determine where we would begin our search. Searching for land to buy with a lake large enough to meet our requirements at first seemed a challenge. We thought we should find the lake first, but then it became clear that there were lots of properties for sale that had lakes on them and those lakes might not be on the map. So instead of focusing on the lake, we focused on the land to buy.
Finding a beautiful rolling Platte of land for sale that was approximately one-and-a-half hours from our home in the city, we took a drive to get a feel of the area. It was a very nice drive down a county road off the Interstate that led from our home town. A little country store on the corner of the road which sold various sundries and gasoline for our car seemed the perfect spot to stop and ask questions.
Finding a kind gentleman who owned the store, he told us his family had owned all the land on that side of the highway, approximately three-hundred acres. When his mother passed away, the family decided to subdivide the land and sell it off. The piece of land we had seen advertised on an Internet web site, was one of the parcels in this man’s family. Hearing the history of the land, how his great-grandfather had farmed it; how the soil was rich; and then he shared the best part.
When his grandfather owned the land, he took the lowest part of the property and turned it into a lake that was a half an acre in size. A natural spring fed the original lake but his grandfather dredged it out and made it big enough to stock with bream and striped bass. He asked us if we wanted to see the property and we agreed.
Walking around back, the gentlemen opened the wooden doors of an attached garage and we piled into a Honda Mule that seated four. My husband rode in the back and I sat up front with the gentleman as we rode around the back of the store, into the patch of woods filled with deep scented pine trees and then along a path through a beautiful field of un-harvested hay. We came upon a knoll and saw before us the most beautiful piece of land we had ever seen. And both my husband and I knew at that moment, this was our land.
Magnificent trees, a lovely lake, wild flowers scattered everywhere, and rolling hills off in the distance where the setting sun would make for a beautiful evening. We thanked the nice man and with a handshake between the three of us, we got back into our car and drove home. Following the road back, tracing our steps through the rural land, we talked all evening about the next steps we would take to make our weekend retreat - our place in the country - our very own.
