• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

For those with little ones in tow, a rite of passage for every North Carolinian child is the Appalachian- and Old West-themed amusement park, the Tweetsie Railroad. A 1917 coal-fired steam locomotive starts your journey through a gloriously campy 1950s-style Wild West show, past marauding Indians and heroic cowboys. Midway rides, Western shops selling toy guns, fudge and no-holds-barred Olde Tyme souvenirs, and family-friendly shows complete a full day’s worth of innocent Americana that would make even Garrison Keillor blush.

You can debate the railroad’s lack of political correctness with students from nearby Appalachian State over dinner in Boone, a chilled-out university town that brings quite a bit of culture to the otherwise outdoorsy area. To check out the college town vibe and do some shopping or eating, head to King Street. Or to stick with the mountaineer vibe and eat one-seventh your weight in one sitting, stop in at Daniel Boone Inn, which has been serving up family-style meals since the 1960s, and the three-meat-and-five-veg menu hasn’t changed much since then. The classic Southern/country staples are all here - green beans, country ham biscuits, stewed apples and fried chicken - and they’re all here in massive quantities.

* * *

TRADITIONAL MUSIC JAMS

There’s no better area in North Carolina to hear traditional music than the hills of the High Country. This list will get you started: check with chambers of commerce, tourist offices or just about any local for more.

• Mrs Hyatt’s Oprahouse, Asheville, on Thursday evenings

• Old Fort Mountain Music Jam, Rocket Building, Old Fort, on Friday evenings

• Historic Orchard at Altapass, Milepost 328, Little Switzerland, on Saturday and Sunday afternoons

• Mountain Home Music Concert Series, Blowing Rock Auditorium, Boone, on Saturday evenings (or tune in to WECR 102.3 at 8pm)

• Jim and Jennie’s High Country Music Barn, Crossnore, on Saturday evenings

* * *

Spend a day off the Parkway after Boone. First, get your fingernails dirty at Foggy Mountain Gem Mine. While there are a half-dozen spots near or on the Parkway to go gem mining, many have cartoon mascots and tour-bus parking that caters to large crowds. The smaller Foggy Mountain was founded and is operated by graduate gemologists who take their craft a bit more seriously. Kids (and anyone who has ever made a mud pie) will love buying a bucket of rocks and digging through it for guaranteed semiprecious gems from all over the world, North Carolina included. After sifting through your rocks in a miner’s flume line, you can ask the gemologists to cut and mount your hand-picked gems in any number of settings.

Continue on Hwy 105 for 1.5 miles and take a right on Broadstone Rd, reaching the Mast Farm Inn & Simplicity Restaurant, a 200-year-old farmhouse inn and restaurant. Each guest receives a personalized menu for dinner - “Slow Chicken Nascar style but mighty low on points and Ashe County cheese trucked over by Junior Johnson” or “Hot Potato and Leek Vichyssoise buddies from West Jefferson singin’ Elvis tunes while cruisin’ 421 by Wilkesboro…” - so plan to stay a while. Which is a good thing, considering the rooms are as inviting as the restaurant. Sumptuous linens and claw-foot tubs in the main house might tempt you, but the front porch rockers, wood-burning stoves and an honest-to-goodness log cabin will draw most visitors to the gorgeous cottages.

* * *

“There’s no place else [like North Carolina] I’ve been in America that reminds me so much of Europe. There’s the down-home rural personality of the mountains, plus the space-age technology of the Triangle. When you’re surrounded by the mountains, the coast, the Piedmont, you have a tremendous number of microcultures, much like France, or Switzerland, or Italy. Here, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, you go 10 miles between villages and each of them has a distinct character.”

Henri Deschamps, owner, Mast Farm Inn

* * *

After breakfast, head further into historic Valle Crucis to the Original Mast General