I am a retired physician who moved from Eau Claire, WI to Asheville in 2008 and have been a river canoeing and exploring nutcase since high school. In Wisconsin I managed to explore 300 rivers between 1969 and 2007. From those experiences came an E-Book available on the River Alliance of Wisconsin website. In June of this year, I paddled a river in Rhode Island called the Wood River. It was notable because that was the 50th state where I had paddled at least one river. I could go on, but I have canoed more than 500 hundred rivers including more than 60 in North Carolina. Obviously, rivers have been very important in my life.