The Borderless Appalachians

There is only one place to begin this journal entry and that is the beginning. We took a long ride around the (our) world last week on a beach-less vacation to the mountains.

The tour started in the Blue Ridge up in Virginia looking at old Rock Churches made famous by the book A Man Who Moved A Mountain by Richard Davids and ended by dropping in on the Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee before heading back through the mountains. It would seem that one contrast the other, but in fact a preacher actually taught Jack how to make whiskey. We found out by reading the previously mentioned book that this was not uncommon amongst many of the primitive preachers of the mountains.

Our journey begins in Mayberry, Virginia long the Blue Ridge Parkway and winds through Galax, West Jefferson, Franklin, and Highlands, North Carolina then down near Georgia's Chattooga River the site of at least part of the movie Deliverance, then on over to Tennessee to visit Copperhill and Ducktown, we also went up the Ocoee to Cleveland, over to Lynchburg and ending back in Townsend and the Great Smoky Mountains.