I woke up this morning – a few days before Halloween – to snow flurries only 2,000 feet up the ridge to the continental divide. That’s the earliest snow that wasn’t blow-by from Mitchell we’ve had for 16 years! No, the leaves haven’t quite hit peak here yet, so even if there were accumulation higher up we probably couldn’t see it. But we haven’t had the regular winter coverings we used to get around here, and it hasn’t snowed enough to sled on for at least five years at my house. Global warming, I guess.

We really like to have four real seasons in a year. That’s why we chose to live here in Western North Carolina. So it’s not so strange that a little bit of white stuff makes us giddy. The summer tourist season was mighty slim this year when gas went to $4 and $5 a gallon and hundreds of thousands of people stayed home. Then came hurricane Ike, and we had no gas at all for three full weeks in September. Schools and factories and businesses had to shut down, people took to walking and riding their bikes to the store, even as deliveries stopped and there was no fresh bread or milk to be had. The leaves are a bit late this fall too, by this time they’re usually few and far between. What could save us, in a region where tourism is the #1 economic activity? Why… snow!!!

Thus it was with great delight that I noticed Cataloochee Ski Area’s ski and snowboarding season started today, October 28 with fresh made snow 8 to 12 inches deep. The weather pundits are predicting that yes, our ski season will start early and last long, which is the best news we’ve had all year. Cataloochee’s the only one open now, but others will be up and sliding sometime between the first week of November through the week of Christmas, depending on snow-making conditions.

Hawksnest Resort is aiming for any time after November 1st, looking good for that right now, too. Sugar Mountain is planning to open November 7th, and several other areas may open earlier this year too. If you’ve a favorite, be sure to call and find out if they are planning to move up their opening dates to take advantage of what is shaping up to be a spectacular ski season here in the beautiful NC mountains!

Check out the links below to get contact and ski package information from the resorts themselves, as several are offering great season passes and combo lodging/lift and slope deals this year. Book yourself and your family for a fine getaway early, and wax up the gear!

Links:

Ski North Carolina
Appalachian Ski Mountain
Cataloochee Ski Area
Hawksnest Resort
Ski Beech Resort
Scaly Mountain Outdoor Center
Ski Sapphire
Sugar Mountain Ski Resort
Wolf Ridge Ski Resort

Many families who consider North Carolina to be the bet vacation spot in the nation will be thinking right about now, what plans can we make for the kids this summer? A fine answer to this question is to book those kids at one of NC’s great summer camps, to coincide with a full family vacation to any of NC’s wonderful summer festivals and events when the camp period is over!

There are literally hundreds of choices, and camps located in every region of the state offering a regular smorgasbord of activities and skills to learn and adventures to enjoy for kids of all abilities and ages. There are some good web sources listed below this post, where I’ll highlight a few of North Carolina’s best special-purpose camps.

Teen Overnight Surf Camp in Wrightsville Beach. Money Magazine named the southern NC coast as one of the top vacation spots in North America. The week-long overnight camps offer instruction in the art of surfing the Outer Banks’ gentle waves, improving your surfing skills, and exploring different coastal ecosystems while you’re at it! Enrollees stay in air conditioned suites on the campus of UNC-Wilmington and the staff of professional instructors are well qualified to deal with both beginner and intermediate surfers. The $1495/week fee includes lodging on campus, meals, 24-hour adult supervision, shuttle transportation from Wilmington’s airport, equipment, instruction with a 3-1 camper to instructor ratio, daily transportation to the beaches, admission and private tour of the Fort Fisher Aquarium, surfboard factory tour and extras.

If your teen is thinking about a future in computer technology, consider iD Tech Camp, which will introduce him or her to campus life while enjoying one on one instruction in campus computer labs from instructors with a six to one student-instructor ratio. Camps are held Wake Forest University in the Winston-Salem area, and UNC-Chapel Hill in the Raleigh-Durham area. Overnight campers live in university dorms, study in the university’s computer labs and eat in the university dining halls. Instruction in designing computer games, producing digital movies, designing web pages and even programming and robotics is available to broaden your young ITer’s skills.

Talisman Programs offers a “wilderness experiential” exceptional program for exceptional children in coed residential summer programs geared toward campers age 7 to 17 struggling with ADD/ADHD, learning disabilities and Asperger’s Syndrome (high functioning autism). Enrollment is limited so that the staff to camper ratio can encourage meaningful bonds, and there is a high return rate as kids come back year after year to enjoy the adventures. There are programs specially designed for younger children and teens, and include wilderness and water skills, rock climbing and activities designed to encourage group interaction and leadership skills.

Check out the many offerings at these listing sites and see if you can coordinate your summer plans to offer your children a wonderful adventure before reuniting to take in one of the fine family festivals our state offers!

Links:

North Carolina Summer Camps for Boys and Girls
North Carolina Summer Camps: Black Mountain
Mountain Adventure Guides
Special Needs Summer Camps for Kids & Teens
Family Support Network Resource Guide Directory

We once got to take care of a wonderful old Border Collie after his kids went off to college and he got arthritis. He’d been “The World’s Best Frisbee Dog” in his day, and still made a valiant effort to chase down the stray discs our grandchildren would toss in the yard. Unfortunately, our property is seriously up-and-down, and poor old Angus had almost as much trouble with his eyesight as he had with his joints, once rolling halfway down the hill before we could rescue him.

So we quickly learned not to let him outside when playing the first 9 holes of our newly-installed disc golf course, complete with metal poles, bicycle wheels and swing chains as ‘holes’. Now we’ve 20 holes along with plans for another nine on the flatland at the top of the driveway. Hold an informal tourney every January called the “Kudzu Open,” and have a big basket full of pro discs – Archangels and Orcs, putters and drivers, most bright enough in color to be readily found even if they go off the side of the fairway and end up 200 feet down the mountain in a pile of leaves.

The garden sits squarely in the fairway of the 2nd and 4th holes, lose a stroke if you land on anything growing (compost pile doesn’t count). Still have 4 broken windows in the library from when my nephew’s shot went wild and managed to break every single one of the panes one right after the other (he got extra credit). Still, it’s fine exercise, it’s fresh air, and it’s something to do with a disc if your frisbee dog can’t jump anymore.

Our course is a well-kept secret to all but the couple of dozen of us who play it regularly. But there are many other courses in this WNC area that are well done, more coming on line every season. The disc golf craze is picking up some pros, some clubs and associations, and some real tournaments!

Read about disc golf in The popularity of golf’s alter ego keeps spreading, or check out some of the courses, events and reviews in the links below. This is a sport the youngsters can play along with the old guys (and gals), and everybody has fun!

Links:

North Carolina Disc Golf Directory
WNC Disc Golf Club: The Courses
WNC Disc Golf Club: News and Events

6. Ski Resorts and Summer Fun

North Carolina’s western mountains are home to a number of world-class ski resorts, most of whom offer summer fun as well. The chalets and cabins are as comfortable in summer as in winter, with easy access to Western North Carolina’s favorite recreational areas.


7. Mayberry, RFD

Just off the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway, right in the heart of the Yadkin Valley wine region, off the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway lies the little city of Mount Airy – birthplace of Andy Griffith and bearing a strong resemblance to Griffith’s fictional Mayberry. There is a “Mayberry Days” festival, a quaint downtown with great antique shops and galleries, and traditional bluegrass music at venues in and outside of town.


8. Wine Country

North Carolina’s wineries offer some tours and tastings most times of year. Home to the nation’s first cultivated wine grape, NC still ranks 12th in the nation for wine production. It seems like wherever you are in the mountains, foothills or piedmont, there’s a winery close by that your family will not want to miss.


9. Fine Furniture Capital of the U.S.

Hickory’s famous furniture markets showcase the fine wordworking craftsmanship of furniture manufacturers who have been turning out some of the world’s finest furnishings for generations. With names like Drexel, Thomasville, Ethan Allen, Lane, Broyhill and more, decorators and collectors will find a variety of styles from antique reproductions to the most modern designs available in Hickory.


10. Traditional Music Trail

Old time bluegrass music, Irish reels, gospel singing and traditional blues all have their homes in the countryside, hills and hollows of North Carolina. the Blue Ridge Music Trails organization offers a searchable database of traditional music and dance for music-lovers who visit the state.


Posts to This Series:
Part 1: Reasons 1 – 5
Part 2: Reasons 6 – 10
Part 3: Reasons 11 – 15
Part 4: Reasons 16 – 25

Way back in the middle ages – 1174 to be exact – a French businessman from Lyons caught the radical gist of Jesus’ teachings in the gospels and committed himself to a life of voluntary poverty and itinerant preaching. His name was Valdes. He renounced his previous business practices, threw all his money into the street, and started a soup kitchen during the famine of 1176. He traveled the countryside preaching the gospel of Jesus and eventually creating a rift with the dominant Catholic Church.

Valdes inspired other wandering preachers including Peter Waldo, who established the Poor Men of Lyons sect that preached apostolic poverty as the way to perfection. They traveled to Rome around 1177 and received the blessing of Pope Alexander III, who at the same time forbade their preaching without authorization from local clergy. The Waldensias (as they became known) of course disobeyed the papal edict, and were formally declared heretics by Pope Lucius III in 1184 and by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.

More than 80 Waldensians were burned at the stake as heretics in Strasbourg in 1211, an act that signaled the beginning of centuries of persecution that very nearly destroyed the pious sect. The sect was granted refuge in Piedmont by the Count of Savoy, even though the House of Savoy remained staunchly Catholic. Persecutions continued through the 1400s until the only refuge left was in the Cottian Alps southwest of Turin. When news of the Protestant Reformation reached the Waldensians, the Tavola Valdese decided to seek fellowship with the Protestants. Their acceptance by German and Swiss Protestants put them firmly in the Calvinist camp rather than on a fringe of Catholicism, even though Calvin’s beliefs did not follow Peter Waldo’s original sectarian beliefs. Later Waldensians aligned with the Presbyterian Church.

While finally granted freedom of worship after the French Revolution, a group of Waldensians emigrated to North Carolina in the late-1800s to establish the town of Valdese in the western piedmont region. And there the Waldensians remain to this day, with a rich history, a great winery, and even an outdoor drama to depict their flight from persecution. They have a Waldensian Museum and a Waldensian Trail of Faith open to visitors, as is the Waldensian Heritage Winery which offers tours and wine-tastings to small groups during operating hours all year long.

There is a Waldensian Festival held every August, where a Bocce Ball tournament is held on the Waldensian packed-clay Bocce Court, and the Trail of Faith and Visitor’s Center offer historic information. The outdoor drama, “From This Day Forward” is staged every Friday and Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. during July and August every year at the outdoor amphitheater.

Check out some of the links below for further detailed information, and be sure to include a visit to Valdese on your North Carolina travel itinerary this year!

Links:

Visit Valdese: Tourism Site

Waldensian Heritage Wines

Anabaptist Network: The Waldensians

The hectic holidays – and the unusually warm spell that accompanied them this year – are behind us. Temperatures dropped into the teens as New Year’s Day came to its early close and snow fell across the western mountains. Snow making machines have been cranked up and are supplying base for the several great snowtubing runs at various WNC resorts, and the higher elevation slopes did manage to retain enough base to keep the skiers and snowboarders happy during the warm spell. From Cataloochee’s page…

As of 8pm. on Tuesday [Jan. 1], it is a chilly 19 degrees and it has been snowing since 4pm. We have received 2 inches of natural snow and the snow is forecast to continue into Wednesday. Snow making weather is in the forecast for most of the upcoming week and we will begin to make it as quickly as the temperatures allow. In an effort to capture the colder weather and maximize snowmaking to improve conditions and open more terrain, Cataloochie guests should expect snowmaking to be in progress during skiing hours if temperatures permit for this week. Please be prepared for winter conditions with hats and goggles and please dress accordingly.

Cataloochie’s TubeWorld runs in Maggie Valley hopes to open on Thursday, January 3 with new base. In the ski area the new snow will add to the 20-36″ packed powder base already present at the higher elevation. Seven trails are open along with 5 lifts, and the area will host an ‘Everything’s Elvis Day’ on Sunday, January 6 which promises to be a lot of fun.

At Appalachian Ski Mountain near Boone there is a current 18-32″ base of packed powder, snowmaking is ongoing during the night, and they received several inches of natural snow. 4 of 5 lifts are open along with 6 of 10 trails. The ice skating rink is open.

Hawsnest is currently open after a delay due to high winds, and their tubing runs are open as well. Ski Beech has 4 of 15 slopes open on a minimal base depth of 8-18″ mixed packed powder and frozen granular. Their ice rink is open as well.

Sugar Mountain resort has 12-38″ of mixed powder and frozen granular. 5 lifts servicing 9 slopes are open, as is their ice rink. Tubing is still closed. On Saturday, January 12, they’ll be hosting the National Winter Trails Day event, offering both snowshoes and guided snowshoe tours free to all comers.

Wolf Ridge Ski Resort has 12-28″ of natural and manmade powder, 5 slopes open and 3 lifts operating. Snowmaking is ongoing and they’ve received 4 inches of new snow in the last 24 hours. Their terrain park is closed, but the tubing park is open. Sapphire Valley ski area is not yet open, though its Frozen Falls Tube Park is open day to day. Now that the weather’s turned cold, they should be opening very soon.

The ski reports are updated regularly at Weather Underground, so do bookmark that page! And for a full roster of direct links to the on-site web cams, resort schedules, directions and trail maps, check out the NC Ski report and snow condition Guide. We’ll see you on the slopes!

Links:

Weather Underground

NC Ski report and snow condition Guide

Football season is upon us, and North Carolina’s Panthers soundly defeated the Rams in St. Louis, the first time since the franchise began that their opener was an away game. Charlotte is the city the Panthers call home, and is also the home town of NASCAR. For sports lovers, you just can’t beat it!

The home schedule for the Panthers at the beautiful downtown Bank of America Stadium and events schedule for Lowe’s Motor Speedway are below, and there are several overlapping weekends that sports lovers could take advantage of for booking a multi-purpose get-away in the Charlotte environs.

Whether one chooses to stay at one of the fine downtown hotels so as to take advantage of Charlotte’s lively music scene. excellent restaurants and brew-houses, or to rent a cabin or condo at nearby Lake Norman so as to get in a little water sport and golfing action too, there is plenty to fill any vacationer’s schedule.

Lake Norman is just 18 miles from Charlotte via interstate highway. It’s the largest man-made lake in the state with more than 520 miles of shoreline and extending over four counties. There are power and sailboat rentals, some prizewinning fish, fine sand beaches and a State Park which offers camping, hiking and biking trails. There are several championship golf courses around the lake, and luxury accommodations along with lakefront cabins available for rental. Several world class restaurants front the lake, and there are numerous regional attractions nearby. Not the least of which is Carowinds theme park, so bring the kids!

Charlotte Douglas airport is conveniently located, and a busy hub with flights in and out from just about everywhere. Shuttles to most outlying and downtown hotels serve arriving passengers, or you can rent a car right at the airport and take your own time and sightseeing tours. Getting your tickets ahead of time is always advised for Panthers home games, though speedway events generally have room for drop-ins and also offers tours of the facilities on off days.

The North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame Museum is just a short drive from downtown Charlotte in Mooresville, where even the cop cars are adorned with NASCAR checkered flags and everybody who’s anybody sports a favorite driver’s car number on their bumper.

Panthers Football: Home Schedule
Sept. 16, v. Houston
September 30, v. Tampa Bay
October 28, v. Indianapolis
November 11, v. Atlanta
November 25, v. New Orleans
December 2, v. San Francisco
December 16, v. Seattle
December 22, v. Dallas

Lowe’s Motor Speedway Events:
September 13-16, Food Lion AutoFair
October 10, Jani-King Southern Showdown
October 11, Bojangles’ Pole Night
October 12, Dollar General 300
October 13, Bank of America 500
October 26-28, Goodguys Southeastern Nationals
November 1-3, World of Outlaws World Finals
November 23, Souvenir and Race Ticket Blow-Out

Links:

Lowe’s Motor Speedway Home

Speedway Visitor’s Guide

Carolina Panthers Home

NC Vacation: Lake Norman Vacation Rentals

NC Auto Racing Hall of Fame