By the time she reaches the fall line, the Falmouth white water and then Fredericksburg she seems to laugh out loud, passing us by on her journey to Portabago Bay and a final confluence with the Chesapeake Bay. Just below the Falmouth bridge though she settles down to a mature and soft spoken adulthood. Ultimately the Chesapeake will subsume her susserent flow as it did the mighty Potomac and these matrons of old Virginia will blend all they bring with the Chesapeake's outflow to the Atlantic Ocean.

Surely she knows her fate; in another 80 miles the old woman will reach Saluda, resigned by then to murmur  to herself of the memories and wisdom gathered during her slow journey between these history filled banks, preserving her quiet tales of years past, as whispered as a secret shared with those who still listen to the Elders. Mostly though she just talks to herself as the Elders often must do.  At Saluda she adds 184 miles of memory and a thousand years of wisdom to the bay.