Welcome! I am from IL. Moved down to NC to the lush green forests and beautiful rivers of the mountains. One of the largest parks in the US is here... Great Smoky Mtns National Park... there is great whitewater there, but you have to wait for some good rain.
I work at NOC (
www.noc.com) and we are located on six rivers... based on the Nantahala which is a dam-controlled river... cold, scenic, has challenging sections and easy sections. There are a ton of great rivers down here. We also have kayak instruction.
Have great fun!