boone nc

The drive to Boone can be great. It’s up in the North Carolina mountains. You can go up  I-85 through Georgia and S. Carolina (cheap gas! fireworks!) and then turn north in Gastonia and be here in about 4 hours. But I-85, while fast is also….well, it’s interesting in a tacky way. Coming straight up to Asheville and then north east to Boone is beautiful…..the lovely Smoky Mountains and this time snow.

Boone is nice, almost all the way to Tennessee, home of Appalachian State University (App State, ASU, the Mountaineers), a college town from more innocent days (but quickly catching up). The woman who cut my hair today’s son is majoring in Fermentation Technology, an old trade up here but I think he’ll be legal (minor in chemistry. People told me they also study making kimchi and miso, among other fermented things). Boone’s quaint, vacationy and still quiet, classes start next week. I’m staying in Sugar Grove—see?  Everything’s poetry. nice place, relaxing but stimulating.

east lake, georgia

I’m currently in Atlanta, Georgia in a neighborhood named East Lake. It has been mentioned in rap songs but is also home to the very famous Bobby Jones designed East Lake Golf Course (members only).

it is just south of Decatur, Georgia which has cachet and so has lots of restaurants and traffic. Notable sites in the area are Value Village thrift store, the place that gives a two week guarantee on used tires, the undertaker with a broken clock and, a bit farther, the Dekalb Farmer’s Market.