"Conan The Librarian" wrote in message
...
SimRacer wrote:

[Cherokee]

Until they got their gambling license and built that Harrahs out there,
they
were a very poor and somewhat downtrodden people. Sounds like things
haven't
changed much, even with all that casino cash rolling in. They're
lobbying
our (NC) legislature to get it so that they can use live dealers with
their
games out there, to increase their traffic even more. Presently, all the
games out there are video in nature. I'm only 36, but I've been going
out to
Cherokee for years, and your description sounds literally spot-on, even
if
you'd said it 25-30 years ago (sadly).

It's funny, but I was having a feeling of deja-vu there. I'm pretty
sure we must have gone there when I was a kid. We went to the Smokies
pretty regularly for the fall colors, but usually stayed in Pigeon
Forge. And that would have been 35-40 years ago. I'm guessing it was
pretty much the same.

Yes, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg aren't terribly far from Cherokee/Ashville.
I remember going to Ashville/Cherokee and then slipping into TN to visit
places like Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, even Chattanooga. One of my fondest
memories as a child, that was related to our mountain trips, was a trip to
Ruby Falls.


[stream condition after a rain]

Yes they do (clear up fast). I have a log home farther up the mountain
range
from where you were (Boone NC, NW NC, across the border from Bristol
TN),
and rain will stain things up pretty good for a little while, but as you
correctly noted, it doesn't take too long to clear out...usually. A
couple
of those hurricanes made it up into our mountains last year though, and
did
some real damage with the resulting deluges. Homes were lost, roads and
mountainsides washed away, it was a mess. They're still cleaning parts
of it
up. The last time I went out there (about a month ago, the wife is
recovering from surgery or we'd be up there at least every other weekend
during the warm months), there was still a good chunk of the Blue Ridge
Parkway closed from Mt Mitchell on North uptoward Grandfather Mountain.
I
assume from reading your great UCAP (Up Close And Personal recount)
here,
that you didn't see too much in the way of that storm damage. That's
good to
hear from the Southern end. They were hit pretty hard too.

Not knowing the area, it's hard for me to say if there was damage.
I did see some areas that looked like they had flooded, but whether it
was last year or years ago, I couldn't say.

There's a pretty good chance that the remnants you saw were from those Gulf
Coast hurricanse that came up through the area and flooded lots of the NC/TN
mountains last Fall. I hear they just recently reopened Mt Mitchell itself.
(Side note: You ever get a chance to get to the "top" of Mt Mitchell,
definitely plan on eating at the cafe up there, and order the baked trout
(Rainbow), you won't be sorry. I am not affiliated with this eatery, but
I've had that dish a couple of times and it is quite good IMO) I am not
belittling what those storms did to Florida, LA and all those Southern
states when they came ashore, but they wreaked havoc on our hills
after-the-fact, no doubt.


Nice series, sounds like you had at least a reasonably nice time in our
humble little state. I've heretofor not been into fly fishing, but my
neighbors up there (up there = Boone NC, I live near Raleigh during the
week...) are really trying my patience over it, so I may soon have to
give
it a bonafide try. I'm a flat water (largemouth/crappie/striper) and
inshore
angler (striper/redfish/flounder) primarily, but my log home is on a
small
river up there that is apparently the home of several species of trout.
My
closest neighbor says that if I 'ain't outfitted for fly fishing by next
Spring, he's giving me a rod and forcing me to go' so I figure to give
it a
whirl over the next year or so. Oh the humanity! LOL! More fishing stuff
will have to be purchased....

Nice pix too BTW, thanks for sharing.

Thanks, and my pleasure. I had hoped to make it over towards Boone,
but time was too short. The first real love of my life lives near there
(in Vilas?), and I've always loved that stretch of the parkway.

Near Boone? Valle Crucis maybe? That's a little hamlet located between Boone
and Linville (Grandfather Mountain). If so, that's actually where my little
weekend home is located. Well, it's closer to Valle Crucis than Boone
anyway. While all our mountain areas are beautiful to me, I am partial to
the Boone/Valle Crucis/Linville/Blowing Rock area. Don't know why, I spent
an entire childhood roaming the East Coast mountains from Cherokee to
Roanoke VA, and just like that little corner the best.



Chuck Vance