This must be the place: ‘Set the gearshift for the high gear of your soul’

The time had come.

Last Friday, right around noon, I received a message on Facebook. It was a fella looking to purchase my old pickup truck. Though the engine had died in October, the beloved truck itself was still sitting in front of my apartment in Waynesville. Partly due to my longtime and sentimental history with the vehicle, partly, due to the mere fact nobody had shown any interest (yet) in taking it off my hands.

Bridge across Lake Junaluska Dam could reopen in 2018

Ka-chunk, ka-chunk … Ka-chunk, ka-chunk….

For over a century the sound of wheels on wood have greeted residents of and visitors to the Lake Junaluska Assembly alike as cars, trucks, people and pets cross the bridge over the Lake Junaluska Dam.

New plan for Walnut Street met with satisfaction

After a series of contentious public hearings almost a year ago resulted in outcry from nearly all quarters of Waynesville, the North Carolina Department of Transportation has officially backed off designs that would have changed the character of one of the town’s most historic and aesthetically significant streets.

Foothills Parkway complete

For the first time, vehicles can drive the entire 16-mile section of the Foothills Parkway from Walland to Wears Valley, Tennessee.

Roundabout for Walnut Street?

The obtuse angles of the intersection at Waynesville’s North Main and Walnut streets may soon become graceful curves — or even a roundabout — by 2020, depending on what happens with the now-underway public involvement phase of the project.

Franklin to implement Main Street parking changes

After paying for several engineering studies over the years, the town of Franklin is moving forward with a plan to try out some different parking designs on Main Street.

This must be the place: ‘What a way to ride, oh what a way to go’

Three pickup trucks. One stretch of highway.

Since 2005, I’ve routinely traversed a never-ending stretch of Interstate 81 from north-central Pennsylvania into Eastern Tennessee. Some of the trips were for business, others for pleasure, with every single trek one of personal reflection amid a wide-spectrum of the beauty — physical and spiritual — that is singular to the identity of America.

Safety to improve at Bryson City intersections

Improvements may be coming to five intersections in Bryson City that would increase safety for drivers and pedestrians.

Green air in the Blue Ridge

A report recently issued by the Land of Sky Clean Vehicles Coalition clears the air about Haywood County’s greenhouse gas reductions.

Tourism, trade could grow with WNC railroad renaissance

Long before the Oct. 3, 1880, arrival of the first scheduled train in Asheville, the American railroad has been romanticized in both story and song, on stage and on screen.

Trains took us to our baby, or away from our baby. Trains took us off to war, or home to peace. Trains opened vast swaths of the American West to settlement, bringing with them jobs, growth, trade and prosperity while quietly gliding over miles upon miles of cold steel rail.

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