Boone NC

Driving around Appalchian State University on Aug. 13, 2018, the streets were wide in the sunshine, the buildings were tall and built of red brick, and it was clean! New looking.

Traffic was not too heavy, and yet we got turned around a few times.  I'd looked at a map before coming, but it didn't take into account the hills.  That's what mountain towns will do for you!

There was some construction going on across from this interesting building...part of a theatre complex I believe.  I'd already checked and found the APU's fine arts museum was closed on Monday.

But we found the heart of the town, again so clean.  Then we parked on King Stree and found a fun place to eat.

 "Feed all regardless of means"...FARM.  It offered different price plate sizes with recommended donations.  We chose simple sandwiches, Helen preferring a vegetarian one, mine was chicken.

And Helen took home some soup for later in the week.

When asked how we liked it, I was honest and said my chicken was tough.  I'd had to take the meat out of the bun and use a knife to cut it.  The manager came after us outside and offered us our next meal gratis.  We smiled and said we lived out of town, but thanks for the offer.  She was very gracious.  Since we ate around 1:30, it's possible my sandwich had been sitting in a steam tray for over an hour...which is why the lettuce wilted, but I wasn't saying anything about it.  We both were glad to promote the ideas behind the restaurant, where people who can't pay can sign up to volunteer to help the staff.  I sure like that philosophy.

We walked up and down on the shady side of the street, since there weren't any shops or other interesting places on the other side.  We did find an area map in front of the Town Hall, and yet confined our exploration to several blocks of this street.  Later when we were in the car we explored some of the back streets, and decided it was ok that we'd visited where we did.  We also got on various highways on our way to Blowing Rock and saw many of the big box stores that exist in every college town.

I hope this theatre stays alive.  Loved the ticket booth, imagined what the interior might look like.

We were drawn to a "bookstore" but found it much more than that.

 There were some great gift things as well as "New Age" books.

 Then we paused to browse in a hand crafting co-op...lovely work, well displayed! And the prices were very good. 

Our foray looking for a rest room led us through a nice clothing shop up the back stairs where this lovely form greeted us.


The Boone Post Office was a sweet classic building that I captured on King St.

Next stop, getting on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Blowing Rock. Helen was determined to show me the Linn Cove Viaduct, which we'd driven on before, but somehow missed paying attention to the last part of the Parkway that had been built.