The story below is an excerpt from our September/October 2017 issue. For the rest of this story and more like it subscribe today, log in to read our digital edition or download our FREE iOS app. Thank you!
These autumn treks don’t just offer great leaf-peeping—there are also unique flavors, fun to-do’s, delightful places to sleep and a few ghostly presences.
VIRGINIA
It’s a Friday afternoon in October, and I’m motoring across Montgomery County, Virginia.
Coming to Christiansburg, I marvel at the fluffy sugar maples staging a blaze-orange show on the lawn outside the Montgomery Museum and Lewis Miller Regional Arts Center (montgomerymuseum.org).
Or I can blast into Blacksburg to see the Hokies strut in burnt orange and Chicago maroon when the Virginia Tech football team takes the field on game days at Lane Stadium.
For the weekend, I set up a comfortable camp at the Homewood Suites by Hilton (540-381-1394), just off I-81 in Christiansburg. Then, for breakfast, I slip into Shawsville, following U.S.460 east to Hale’s Restaurant (540-268-9809).
Established in 1967, this easygoing eatery serves tasty tomato-and-onion omelets plus advice on where to see the color-changing of the leaves: Keep east on U.S. 460 and enter the “Elliston Straightaway,” says Hale’s Restaurant manager Selena St. Clair. “You’ve got the mountains in front of you and to the side. It’s a two-mile stretch.”
While also in Shawsville, check out Camp Alta Mons, the site of an old spring resort off Crockett Springs Road (altamons.org). You can hike a couple of miles to see the 40-foot-high Stiles Falls. But, beware—you might also hear of Willie Jack, once a camp caretaker and now a ghost; some say he’s good, and some say he’s evil!
Following U.S. 460 west to Blacksburg, I head for the Historic Smithfield Plantation (540-382-4647), built in the 1770s. It was originally the home of pioneer settler William Preston and now “history heaven,” says Smithfield’s director, the affable April Danner.
And when is the best time to visit? Why, autumn, of course!
“There’s something special, magical about fall. I don’t know what it is,” Danner says. “But, in the fall, you just become absorbed with history.”
Rolling to Riner, I lunch on a roasted beets and baby spinach salad plus grilled tuna tacos at the White Barrel Winery (540-382-7619) on Childress Road. Then I tour nearby Sinkland Farms (540-382-4647) on Riner Road, the site of a family-friendly Pumpkin Festival with a corn maze and hayride as leaves turn colorful and crisp.
“We have festivals every weekend in October,” says owner Susan Sink. “I don’t know a heck of a lot about commercial agriculture, but I know how to throw a good party.”
Back in Christiansburg, I wrap up my weekend with a delightfully decadent feast of frog legs, gator bites, fried flounder and Rappahannock oysters at the Fatback Soul Shack (540-251-3182) on Roanoke Street. Outside, you can see neon-esque portraits of soul legends Sam Cooke and Otis Redding on the windows and, on the menu, read the motto, “It ain’t easy, bein’ greasy.”
NORTH CAROLINA
Stealing away for a romantic weekend, my wife and I head for the High Country of North Carolina: our favorite go-to destination for a guaranteed good time. We love to see what’s new but appreciate tradition—even our own in Blowing Rock, like dining on the delights of the Storie Street Grill (828-295-7075), serving pecan-crusted mountain trout and tempura-battered asparagus fries.
We check into the Green Park Inn (828-414-9230). Known as “The Legendary Grand Dame of the High Country,” this Blowing Rock hotel was built in 1891 and retains an antique ambiance. We both loved the biscuits at breakfast; and I relished the vibe of hearing a piano playing in the lobby.
Still, the desk clerk brushed away my inquiry about whether something supernatural may linger from long-ago. Who knows? Famous figures have, indeed, slept inside the Green Park Inn’s walls: Herbert Hoover, Annie Oakley, Calvin Coolidge. It’s said that author Margaret Mitchell penned part of “Gone with the Wind” here.
“Everybody thinks the Green Park Inn is haunted, I guess, because it’s so old,” suggests Krystyl Harris, the music festival coordinator at The Blowing Rock (828-295-7111), an attraction with a grand view, lying within walking distance of the hotel.
At mid-day, we take a brewery tour with Micki Reed at the Blowing Rock Ale House (828-414-9600). And, in the brewery’s restaurant, I savor a succulent duck breast sandwich, seasoned with peppered bacon and sliced Fuji apples.
“The duck is phenomenal,” says our server, Lauren Olson. “We let it sit for a really long time in this old-style marinade, so it gets a really nice flavor from that.”
From downtown Blowing Rock, we spin about a half-dozen miles south on U.S. 221 and find the folksy Grandfather Country Store (828-295-6100) at Blue Moon Gap.
How to describe: It’s a stacked-and-packed structure, featuring a rambling collection of books, snacks, hats and toys inside a century-old layout of “strange additions,” says the co-owner, Sharon Blair Tolbert.
And much of this store’s business comes from travelers using U.S. 221 —what Tolbert calls “an old-fashioned, two-lane road like they used to be.”
Following a two-hour visit to the rock-capped peak of Grandfather Mountain (800-468-7325), we follow N.C. 105 to the terraced vineyard of the Grandfather Vineyard & Winery (828-963-2400), bordered by the bubbling Watauga River at Foscoe. Tasting room manager Nicole Winder shares samples of Pinot Noir while also pointing to Casey, her beloved border collie and winery mascot.
“Our busiest time here in the tasting room is in the fall,” Winder says. “The vines are in full bloom. And you kind of get a little bit of that color change in the leaves of the vines.”