Friday, September 4, 2009

Jackson county

Well, we know this county was named for Andrew Jackson. There are interesting towns and shops here in Jackson county. One of the odd kinds of things you can see here are chainsaw artists. Here's one. I've only seen these guys in the mountains. Truthfully, I've never bought this. Except at one Merlefest, PJ bought a "mountain sprite" created from the laurel. It's interesting hanging in the window, kinda like a kitchen witch I guess.

One of my favorite towns is Dillsboro because of the family style restaurant in the Jarrett House. Now I stayed there once in the 1980s and while it was quaint like grandmas, it also had those mattresses like grandmas that roll you to the center. I see on the travel comments that today the mattresses are great and the sheets are very high count cottons making it worth it to stay just to be in those sheets. Humm...
Now they say the food is less than it was, but the last time I went, probably four years ago it was great, but it is traditional FRIED Chicken. I'd still go for the vinegar pie. That's famous enough.

Sylva is another interesting town. I spent a summer at Cullowhee with my mother when she was renewing her teaching certificate. I learned to clog, took a watercolor class and went ruby mining. We rented a trailer for the summer. Well, it was an experience. My Dad came up with my siblings in the middle of it all and we went to Cherokee and some amusement park. I can't remember where in the world it was. Anyway, Sylva was interesting because it, at that time, was still the only town. People came to it on Saturday mornings down from the hills to visit each other and trade whatever. I see it is still only half the size of Elkin.

Two other important things to do are tubing in the river and riding the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad from Dillsboro to Bryson City.

As for the American Revolution, humm....Rutherford scatterd the native people. One hundred years later, these little towns showed up.

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