Blue Ridge Parkway

Blue Ridge cropped You tie your hiking boots in perfectly snug knots and gently stand up, brushing the pebbles off of your left knee. A deep breath of fresh air fills your lungs as your first step leads into the wilderness. The warm breeze smells like dirt, nature at its finest. Leaves crunch beneath your powerful feet and pebbles fling off the trail, scuttling to a slow stop. You march on. Thoughts of the office vanish from your mind and Thanksgiving stumbles in. Certainly, something you 're grateful for is this round, aged, beautiful earth that you have the freedom to trek along. Today is National Take a Hike Day. Nobody knows whether this day is designed for people to bellow "take a hike" to those who deserve it, or venture into the wilderness for some healthy, much-needed exercise. Aladdin Travel interprets it as the latter. What better time to embrace nature than late autumn? Leaves transform from bright greens to light yellows and dark ambers before they shrivel and freeze off into the bone cold winter. Just a few months away marks the National Parks 100th birthday year! What a wonderful excuse to travel to one, right before the whirling holidays swing in. Knock a few National Parks off avid hikers ' bucket lists this year! 1.) Blue…

encaustics, pastels, you name it, Asheville has it. There is even a sculpture made from spheres. However, these round objects aren’t typical sculpture materials, no, they are crumpled up washing machines that look like crumpled up pieces of paper. This sculpture and others in Asheville that are just as unique make this place so fantastic. As far as pottery and glass goes, there are thousands of beautiful pots and vases for sale, or just on display. Asheville offers a variety of unique blown…

North Carolina, and the Blue Ridge Mountains are part of the Appalachian Mountain range. Throughout the section of Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, there have been “trails” made, one highlighting the music of that region, and another, the heritage. The heritage sites not only represent the history of living but also the music history. The people and traditional music of the North Carolina Appalachian Mountain…

ideal American childhood. Now, consider my story. My childhood home, settled at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, was equipped with a basketball hoop in the backyard and a minivan in the driveway. I grew up in a two-parent middle-class home with evenings spent at the dinner table waiting for Jeopardy to start; then, I would read my older brother’s comics or The Magic Tree House series until I couldn’t hold my eyes open. I was a tomboy for lack of a better word; a shy, reserved kid who had…

these groups of people are depicted by the author John Rollin Ridge, who is half Native American and half white. Thorough this story, Ridge uses the theme of race to convey a hierarchy involving superiority and power by describing the actions and words of these races the way that he does. First, the Chinese within this work seem to be on the lowest rung of the hierarchical depiction of race within this story.…

Things to do in Maple Ridge Maple Ridge’s unique geography and location provide the residents of the city with a wide range of outdoor activities and lifestyle choices. It is precisely these activities that make Maple Ridge such a coveted and great place to call home. Not only does Maple Ridge offer a wide range of outdoor opportunities in close proximity, but the city also provides a great selection of cultural and historical attractions all within the city limits. Here are some of the more…

Picture this: you wake up one morning thinking it’s just going to be a normal day, but then, everything changes. Generals start invading your home and drag you off your front porch and tell you that you can’t live on this land anymore; that it is now for other people to use and have. You can’t grab anything to bring with you. All you have are the clothes and shoes that you have on, nothing more. Think about that. It almost seems too horrible to be true. But this did happen. It was called the…

The Cherokee speak the story of a young man: One day, while out hunting in the forest, the man came across a bear. He fired off arrow after arrow at the beast, but could not bring it down. Eventually the bear stopped running, and stood up, pulling the arrows out of his body and holding them towards the man. The hunter realized he had stumbled across a medicine bear, “protected by magic”. The bear, after promising he would do the man no harmed, led him back to his home. It was a cold winter,…

Essay One: Rough Draft Both Aleksandar Hemon and Eula Biss both argue that having a sense of belongingness to a community is important for people to feel, and I agree with that because having a place to call home can make someone feel like they are a part of something and makes them feel comfortable. On the contrary, if you do not feel as though you belong to a certain community, you lose a sense of uniqueness and having a special emotional tie to where you live. In Aleksandar Hemon's "Lives…

I have fished locations from New England to as far south as the Florida Keys. My best spot for salt water fishing is Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. Atlantic Highlands is a small town located approximately 10 miles south of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. It is easily accessed by taking the Garden State Parkway and then Rte 36. The fishing area consists of not only a fleet of party boats but also several boat rental businesses. Unlike many other similar areas, Atlantic Highlands offers a well kept…