-Pretty progressive town considering it only has 17,000 people and offers of a fantastic array of "eat local" types, granola heads and Appalachian old school bible belters intermixed/or one with a confluence of blue grassers, pickers and youngsters attending Appy State's fairly/highly noted School of Music. (will have to check it out when Appy State is back in Fall/Winter session)
-Zoning and public works appeared to be above average (always a Dax bullet point).
-The mountains are surrounded by noveau riche Charlotte banking money "I've got a place in the mountains and the beach" types, thus a high population of Land Rovers, BMW SUV's and H2's/Denali's.
-Appy State has a really nice campus. I was impressed; even their old buildings didn't look that old.
-I find true college towns with a high tourist throughput fascinating, and wonder what its like from a student point of view. If you attended school at a university in Kansas, sorry, its not the same.
-Boone offers up a climate more in tune with more Northern regions than the Southeast, albeit it was still hot.
-While well served from commercial chains perspective for a town of 17,00 (obviously a school of 14000 resident students assists in that area), it still seemed slightly undeserved on the bar/local restaurant side given the tourist/medium sized university angle. Particularly in in the arena of true bar establishments. Possibly business opportunity? Local zoning/law? More investigation is needed.
-Appy State sits at 3100 feet, making it the highest elevation 4 year university on the Eastern Seaboard.
