When he was a young boy, Jason Hardin fell in love.

It was a 1973 Harley-Davidson Sportster. Owned by his father, Hardin remembers watching his dad kick-start the bike in their basement. 

Strolling through downtown Bryson City, one tends to cross paths with the scent of delicious food wafting from a nearby building. Upon further inspection, that building is The Filling Station, a popular deli. That scent is their renowned flagship item — the Cuban sandwich.

Dieter Kuhn was 4,500 miles from his hometown in Germany when he came across Sylva, a small community tucked away in the heart of Western North Carolina.

“The Great Smoky Mountains are pretty unique, with a lot of similarities of terrain and temperature to the Black Forest (Germany),” he said. “It’s very comfortable here, and being part of this town reminds me of home.”

David Lippy was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic in Orlando when it hit him.

“The city was so congested with vehicles,” he said “I had to go three miles to work from my house and it would take me a half hour one way.”

Amid the cherished traditions of Western North Carolina is the deep foundation of family and friends getting together to celebrate their heritage, whether it be through music, dance, food or craft. 

By Michael Beadle

Editor’s note: Smoky Mountain News Writer Michael Beadle recently traveled to Europe. The following is the second of two stories about his experiences abroad.

By Michael Beadle

Welcome to the Autobahn: land of the speedy, home of the brave.

You have to be brave if you want to pass a car going a mere 80 miles an hour and not end up as the hood ornament on a BMW.

By Michael Beadle

Editor’s note: Smoky Mountain News Writer Michael Beadle recently traveled to Europe. The following is the first of two stories about his experiences abroad.

You can’t go home again.

More than years after Asheville literary giant Thomas Wolfe gave us this immortal expression, his words echo with the love and longing that a place gives us.

By Michael Beadle

One thing that paralyzes American tourists about visiting foreign countries is the language barrier.

From time to time, I’ve contemplated compiling an anthology of travel writing from Western North Carolina. Such a volume would commence with the descriptions of the region compiled by the Moravian explorer Bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg in the early 1750s. Next would be William Bartram, who entered the western tip of the state in 1775 and published his famous Travels’ in 1791. In the 19th century, the accounts were numerous, with my favorite being In the Heart of the Alleghenies (1883) by William G. Zeigler and Ben S. Grosscup. And accounts were equally numerous during the next century. The difficulty would lie not in finding materials but in winnowing it all down to manageable proportions. One late 20th century writer that I’d insist on including would be the irascible Bill Bryson.