West Jefferson, Who Knew?

Today we woke up to a beautiful day here in the North Carolina Mountains. Since we had no agenda at all Jan and Rex suggested we go to see the town of West Jeffrerson. I have lived in North Carolina for 33 adult years. We won’t count my birth year in NC. In those 33 years I never really heard a thing about West Jefferson.

Having so little advance knowledge I did not expect much, maybe a cafe, or coffee shop, maybe a hardware store and grocery. I asked Jan and Rex about how many people lived in West Jefferson. Rex guessed about 1,400. That made me downgrade my expectations.

So when we pulled into this very cute town full of independent stores with clothing, home goods, mountaineering equipment, as well as multiple breweries, restaurants, a boutique hotel and the giant Ashe County Cheese company I was taken aback.

We spent hours strolling the downtown, shopping, which you know I usually hate, and eating lunch outdoors. Shay made many friends in West Jeff and the hostess at lunch when we inquired about a table said, “Shay could sit anywhere she wanted.” Shay did receive a bowl of ice water long before any asked us humans if we wanted a drink.

After we went back to Jan and Rex’s we hiked a trail to get to a meadow in their neighborhood that had the most glorious panoramic view of many mountains. No photo could ever do it justice. We sat in the Adirondack chairs in the meadow enjoying the view and each other. What a day.