Blog #10 – January 22-23
You might expect, as I did, that Boone, NC is literally the Boonies. Last weekend I visited, and was surprised to find out how wrong I was. Yes, it is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains and is a steep drive up from wherever you are. Most people know it as a vacation spot with to great skiing (it’s relative) and lots of other recreational activities. What we didn’t realize is that Boone also has a large satellite branch of UNC with 20,000 students. Appalachian State has as many students as undergrad and grad schools at Harvard. Consequently it’s a big town, a draw for the entire region. Color me surprised!
We planned to leave Asheville early on Saturday, but we took it slow after a migraine attack. We had to drive both cars, as we are doing future planning for our trip. The beautiful drive north to Boone showed us how much it snowed while we were away.
North Carolina has a glossy monthly magazine called Our State. In a previous issue, I’d read about the “Cheese Trail.” Little did I know that one of the spots listed would be on our route. On the phone, David mentioned he was passing a store with a big sign that said Cheese and I exhorted that we must stop. He turned around and I caught up and met him there. This family farm raises their own cows and makes cheddar in the English style. We also got some great sausage from a local farm.
After Boone, we headed over to my mom’s in Oxford for the last time in a while. We had dinner together and spent some time with her in the morning. We even got a chance to see the baby quail she’s raising for spring release.
Later that morning, David and I rearranged items in the Smouse trailer. We put more in storage and took some final items to Asheville. Then, we washed the salt off my Outback and installed the car in the trailer. It’s the last time we going to see it for a while. The trailer is set up to be driven by a third party whenever we get where we’re going. Then we’ll have the second car and all the clothes, etc. stored in it. We finally got on the road at 4pm, instead of 1pm as we had hoped. Oh well. More to come soon!
The Long And Weinstein Road 