You Can’t Go Home Again

I am back from Boone this early Sunday. Here are a few observations from the North Carolina High Country:

It is cold. Yes I lived there for 6 years and forgot how cold it is. You can count on Boone being 12 degrees colder than Charlotte and there is always a very strong wind.

It is wet in Boone. It rained so hard Friday that the golf course I was playing flooded. We had to stop play and drive the cart to high ground.

Boone has very bad traffic, along with neighboring Blowing Rock.

The area has some breathtaking views if you can get your breath. Everyone there smokes cigarettes everywhere. I moved my seat twice at the football game to get some fresh air. Most of the restaurants reek with cigarette smoke.

There is a lot of fog and clouds in the High Country. People point to the sky if you see a blue patch.

Boone obviously has a lot of steep hills being in the mountains. Anywhere you walk is a chore and leaves you breathless.

I arrived in Blowing Rock Thursday afternoon to see a lifelong buddy to play golf, reminisce, and see a football game. Bill and I were in the first grade through college together, yet we have not seen each other for 12 years.

I met him at one of our old watering holes to have a few drink and watch the sun set behind the mountains. It was so foggy that we could barely see to drive. We did have a good time laughing at the older version of our selves.

We agreed that we both looked like some makeup artist had taken the younger person and added a few wrinkles, pulled some hair, stolen some sight and hearing.

The next morning our waitress at breakfast had a very familiar accent. She was from St Thomas, VI. I change my order to goat water and johnny cakes, and she said, “You know about those foods?” She went off telling me how she missed the island and her foods and friends.

Later we attempted to play golf and were rained out.


Saturday we did a little visit to some of the places we lived as college students. I took a picture of our real “Animal House” on Deck Hill Road. I lived there at least 2 ½ years. What a fun place that was. Then we visited a few dorms and rooms. Man those were tight quarters.

Finally the football game where Appalachian lost. It was the first home loss in 30 home games. Count on me to jinks the home team. I haven’t been to a home football game in two years where we won whether college or NFL.

I woke up early Sunday and was back home by 9 AM. I missed Gigi and the crazy dogs.

To all that love the High Country, good for you, it just doesn’t do it for me anymore.

1 comments:

TerryC said...

It always amazes me that people (especially YOUNG people) smoke cigarettes. It's such a "low class" thing to do.

And when we moved down to the islands, the number of smokers I saw INCREASED. I was appalled! All this fresh air and sunshine and people everywhere putting that crap into their lungs. Amazing, appalling and most of all...ANNOYING!