It’s the land of kudzu and real sausage gravy…  western North Carolina.  Valdese is up in the foothills in the middle of nowhere, northwest of Charlotte.  The nearest ‘big’ town is Hickory, which is near where I-77 and I-40 cross, but even Hickory isn’t much.

Grandma Davis has sixteen brothers and sisters, and Grandpa has ten, and a whole passel of them are settled in this region.  Trips to North Carolina tend to center around remeeting random cousins, eating good home-cooked food (fried), and developing a southern accent.

August 23-September 9, 2009