I can’t recall ever going to the North Carolina mountains in May. I’ve taken the occasional family summer trip in July or more often, gone in October to check out the stunning fall foliage.
But there have been years when I didn’t get to the mountains at all. It’s a long drive from eastern North Carolina. And I’m more of a beach person.
If you live in Charlotte, though, the mountains are closer than the beach. My middle daughter and her husband, Charlotteans, have bought a vacation home in Beech Mountain, 25 miles on the other side of Boone. She wanted her dad and me to visit Mother’s Day weekend.
It was close to a five-hour drive counting in a rest area stop or two. Well, actually, that was the trip going home. On the way there, we got as far as Boone and then rewarded ourselves with a big country dinner at the Daniel Boone Inn. We needed fuel for that last 25 miles. Eating at 5:30 on a Thursday afternoon in May, we just did beat the crowd. There was a line at the door when we left. I can’t even imagine how busy the restaurant must be during the peak of tourist season.
Yes, I ate it all.
My daughter’s house sits on a hill—or maybe a small mountain? We had to keep an eye on her boys, ages 4 and 19 months, to be sure they didn’t take a step off the side of the yard and go rolling down.
A steep front yard
It was Mother’s Day weekend and temperatures at home soared into the low 90s. But we enjoyed comfortable upper 70s as we walked along the dirt road in front of the house, stopping to admire gurgling streams. The trees were just beginning to leaf out, being a couple of weeks behind those in the eastern part of the state.
Who doesn’t love a gurgling mountain stream?
There was no air conditioning in the mountain house, but we didn’t miss it. Open windows and ceiling fans kept us cool, even a little chilly at times.
Arriving home on Sunday afternoon, I discovered there was no air conditioning on the second floor of my house in Rocky Mount. Open windows and ceiling fans didn’t work to relieve the stifling upstairs heat. (Click here to read about my wait for HVAC assistance: http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/Patsy-Pridgen/2018/05/27/Waiting-for-cool-air-wasn-t-all-bad.html)
I wasn’t in the mountains anymore.
Patsy Pridgen 
Great article Patsy! I always loved the Daniel Boone Inn. They used to have the best Blackberry Jam. We would go to Chetola Inn for long weekends in the Summer, when I was growing up in Mount Airy. It was not a very long trip from there to “paradise on earth”, as my Daddy used to say.
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Yes, the Daniel Boone Inn has been quite the attraction over the years. I think the ham biscuits are my favorite. You were lucky to grow up in Mount Airy, such a pretty place and close to the mountains! Thanks for commenting.
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