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Kick Back, Cool Off, and Enjoy Dillsboro, North Carolina

© Martine G. Bates

It’s hot in the Southeastern U. S. I know what they say about it not being the heat, but the humidity, but I maintain that it’s the heat AND the humidity. In the South, July and August are sweltering, the kind of heat that makes your clothes stick to you seconds after you step outside, makes plants by the roadside fold up in self-defense, and kicks up a storm of dust behind the lawn mower.

We went to New Orleans last year in July, and, as much as I enjoy the Crescent City most times of the year, I wouldn’t recommend it in the heat of the summer. In the wee hours of the morning, the temperature was in the eighties. We ended up spending all of our time looking for cool places to get a soft drink. You go in, for instance, to Hard Rock Café, drink a Dr. Pepper, get nice and cool, then leave the restaurant. Thirty seconds on the street, and you’re miserable again. Try March or April instead.

Lots of folks go to the beach in July and August, and that’s not a bad thing. If you’re a regular reader of this column, you know that I think a trip to the beach is a good idea anytime. The breezes blowing off the Gulf or the Atlantic moderate the temperature a little, but it’s still HOT.

People who live north of the Mason-Dixon Line usually can’t take our kind of heat in the summertime. It can actually be life-threatening if you’re not used it—or even if you are. If you plan to head south in the next few weeks, though, let me make a suggestion: the mountains of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia are usually several degrees cooler the rest of the Southeast, and can be a lovely place to visit in the summer.

Of course, you can’t visit the whole area on one trip. There is Gatlinburg, probably the best-known of the tourist destinations in the Smokies. I did an article a while back on Helen, Georgia; you might want to check the archives. Cherokee, North Carolina is the home of an Indian reservation and lots of neat places to go, and I plan to do a future story on Biltmore Estate in Ashville, North Carolina. There are so many great places in the mountains that they could keep this column going for years.

If I had to pick one favorite place in the Smokies, I think it would be Dillsboro, North Carolina. It’s a small town nestled in the eastern edge of the Great Smoky Mountains. One of three boarding locations for the Great Smoky Mountain Railway, Dillsboro is built around the railroad and boasts a restored depot with a gift shop that will excite any train lover. Surrounding the depot is an historic arts and crafts community that just begs you to park, walk around, and enjoy yourself.

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