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.