My visit to North Carolina

Whenever we set off to go anywhere, my late, great friend Richard would always announce in faux Evening News tones, “What began is a simple trip to the grocery store ended in tragedy today for two youths whose car jumped the guardrail and plunged"… or some such thing. I never take a safe trip for granted.

So here’s my report on the trip, picking up from my fun at the PHL airport.

Got to Greenville-Spartanburg airport, right next to the BMW factory. They have a visitor center, but I skipped it. My favorite sign along the way was on a truck for Ingles Supermarket. It featured a picture some tortilla chips with smiling faces on them, and the words, “Nacho typical supermarket.” I have no idea what they’re getting at.

My friend Bennett is a lanky fellow with reddish blonde hair and a large and distinctive beard. He hangs wallpaper for a living and is married to the math chairman at the local college. We met working at day camp at our local town park and became fast friends over mutual enjoyment of sports and music, and he’s a person that it has always made me feel good to be around. He is a voracious reader and the walls of their house are filled with books in every room except the kitchen (actually, I didn’t see their bedroom but I’m guessing there are books there too).

Asheville is a terrific small city in the mountains of western North Carolina. It was built up mostly in the early 20th century and has many fine art deco buildings. The downtown is almost completely free of chain stores and features lots of galleries and restaurants and music clubs, tucked in among the occasional office building. I’m not really sure what the economy is based on, but there are a couple of colleges and lots of college students and street musicians milling around, even on a weekday night.

My one full day there we went to a place called Chimney Rock Park. A couple of pillars separated off from a palisade and created a striking skyline overlooking a lake. You can hike from the bottom of the palisade or drive to a parking lot or take an elevator (!) to the top. We climbed, of course. It’s about 1/3 mile vertically and between 2 and 3 trail miles featuring a memorable number of wooden steps. After you get to the rock, you can hike along the top to a waterfall and cool yourself off in the stream before it plunges over the edge. We wondered how the fish got up to these little pools up on top of a rocky ridge 2000 feet above the main river below.

Then you go down 100 feet or so and make your way along the face of the palisade with sheer rock above and below. Very cool. Then the long but easier climb down. This is a place well worth visiting if you’re ever looking for a weekend getaway. There’s a nice lake a mile away and beautiful country everywhere.


Dinner and a long night of talking about all kinds of things followed. It’s rare that I get the chance to relax and open up. I guess it’s rare for everyone. I was sad to leave the next day, but it was well worth making the trip.