Backyard Tourist

The Backyard Tourist
By Christa Wagner

The following paragraph came from an article written in the Charlotte Viewpoint Metropolitan Ideas and Art. I have extracted an excerpt from the column. To read the full article visit Charlotte Viewpoint’s website , scroll down and click on “Read our most recent issue here.”
Also you can sign up to receive an e-mail notice of the release of each new free issue of Charlotte View Point Magazine and to receive occasional news and notes about their organization.


“Psst. Guess what they’re calling us? We’re the urban bananas. The nickname refers to the arc along I-85 between the Triangle, Triad, and Charlotte. I think it’s kin of cute. But lately, I’ve been peeling away from my downtown Durham apartment and heading southwest to discover North Carolina’s Central Park counties: Randolph to Richmond by way of Montgomery and Moore. The eight counties that make up the cleverly named Central Park have a lot to offer the urban day tripper. In mid-November, for example, I enjoyed the Celebration of Seagrove Potters festival. There were too many beautiful things I wanted to buy, some beyond my student budget, but other pieces were perfect. Who knew there were so many uses for a slab of colorfully glazed pottery the size of my cell phone? (5$ each.) I bought four: one for my keys, two for used tea bags, and a pretty blue one for the odds and ends that always accumulate on the kitchen counter. I was in Seagrove both as a tourist eager to stock up on holiday gifts and as a researcher, so to speak, for my, graduate work in rural entrepreneurship. In addition to famous Seagrove ceramics, I marveled at glass blown at the STARworks Center for Creative Enterprise and ate a perfectly grilled pimento cheese at Blake’s restaurant in Candor, where that day Congressman Larry Kissell was also having lunch. , STARworks Center for Creative Enterprise is fascinating. STAR stands for Small Town Area Revitalization; it's a nonprofit located in the town of Star focused on growing businesses to one day place in the region's downtown areas. These businesses have a lot of appeal for its urban neighbors, in my opinion. And you can check out the whole region on just one tank of gas".........