Boone, among US News & World Reports' top 10 places to retire!

Not that I'll ever get Carmen to believe that. Too cold for one thing, too many winding roads to tempt me to drive down too fast. On the other hand, it is the place where we got back together again after 10 years or so, and that led to us getting married, eventually. The mile high bridge and one of those "North Carolina Scenic Highways" had a lot to do with it too.

So what does the magazine see in Boone? You can read the whole article here. Here's a sample:

"Boone has a very southern feel," says Lizzy Scully, managing editor of FindYourSpot.com. "People are incredibly polite." Dick Oehser, 77, experienced this firsthand days after moving to Boone from Jacksonville, Fla. Oehser picked out pastries at a doughnut shop, only to realize he had forgotten his wallet. The clerk told Oehser, "Take 'em, and when you're in town again, come back and pay me."

I'd say after Jax-ville Paris would seem polite but that would be an exaggeration. But an exaggeration would be all that it is.

An even odder commendation is here:

Sanna Gaffney, 85, who moved to Boone from Lake Park, Fla., likes the lower cost of living. "We got a house for a very modest price," says Gaffney, a retired teacher who does genealogy research at the public and Appalachian State University libraries.

Maybe compared to Lake Park in the soon to be uninhabitable Florida, but for us the housing in Boone is crazy high. Our little house here in Wilkesboro would cost at least half again as much in Boone -- some insist it would cost twice or more.

Notice how both these glowing comparisons are from Florida. What's up with that?

And the only thing I have against Boone is its town council: its approval of housing density and traffic patterns have consistently been crimes against humanity. I'd say a trip to the Hague is in order for all of them back to about 1900.