Hays, NC: Hot Dog All the Way
Depending on where you are, it's basically a hot dog with every topping there is. In North Carolina, it'll generally get you one topped with chili and coleslaw, and then whatever else the restaurant has.
Coffee House, located on the corner of Sparta Rd and Jones Dancy St, looks like a typical podunk diner in any smalltown USA, and it's look the same way inside too. But they'll sell you a plate of two footlong hot dogs, all the way, with a mound of french fries for just $4.95. It's about all the nutrition your body will require in a day, and then some.
But don't order the sweet tea there, because it's really damn sweet. Even if you watered it down with 50% sweet tea and 50% regular tea, it's still too damn sweet.
"That's because around here they use beet sugar", said Jack, who Sash and I were still hanging out with the past several days. "It's way more sweet than the cane sugar they use on the west coast."
July in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in the eastern foothills of the Appalachias, where Tyson Foods and Lowes account for 50% of the jobs, a funeral procession winds its way down Mountain View Rd on its way to a memorial park in the heart of downtown.
"You always know who the locals are because they pull over to the side of the road whenever a funeral procession goes by", Jack said.
The humidity level on a Sunday afternoon remained constant at a balmy 95%, with temperatures in the mid-90s, while partly cloudy skies slowly formed into looming grey thunderheads. It's awful to be outside at this time in the tiny hamlet of Hays, but most folks from around here don't seem to be bothered by it.
Located just 10 miles north of North Wilkesboro, in the shadow of Stone Mountain State Park, Hays, NC appears to be a quiet community of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants and Hell-Fire and Brimstone Baptists. The Dollar General Store in the center of town seems to attract townsfolks, and is otherwise the only non-secular gathering place in the sleepy rural community.
Sash's high school friend Jack maintains a modest home on 5 acres in the middle of Hays. From the front, it looks to be a small home with a well-manicured lawn. In the back he has a garage with a lift and every tool known the mankind, along with a couple of vintage pickup trucks and a handful of Lincolns.
In the basement, he built his own speakeasy, stocked with beer and spirits, a few television sets, pinball machines, one-arm bandits, and a pool table from Casesar's Palace. In one corner lies his personal shrine to Evel Knieval, in another corner his wife has her own shrine to X-Files and Diedre Hall.
Jack's home couldn't be more representative of the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina.
His wife Ashley treated us with all the charm and hospitality of a true Southern Belle, fixing up eggs, bacon, potatoes, biscuits and gravy, and "liver mush" each morning. For dinner one night, she manned the grill with porterhouse steaks, and the other night slow-roasted a pork shoulder for a true Carolina-style barbecue. During the day she cleans the house while Jack does his commute to Winston-Salem for work.
"In the summer it rains just about everyday", Jack explained. "The midday heat evaporates the moisture in the ground and sends it up into the sky. By 4:00pm it's reached enough density and height that it rains back down and starts the process over again the next day".
Sure enough, the humidity was so thick, Sash had trouble breathing outdoors.
But you can't question the beauty of north-western North Carolina. The grassy foothills giving way to valleys of wildflowers and riverbanks of tall ash, birch, and elm. It's kind of the place people dream about when moving to the country.
Yet, the choking humidity levels and constant rain pretty much strikes this area off her list of places to live.
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| C H offers two foot-long hot dogs all the way, with fries, for $4.95. |
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| Sash steps out of Coffee House in North Wilkesboro |
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| Mountain View Road, Hays, NC |
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| Bojangles Chicken & Biscuits is the King in North Carolina, with more a spicy chicken breading than KFC. |
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| This is not a gas station, but a work of art. It's a replica of an old Gulf gas station in North Wilkesboro, NC, complete with original pumps and memorabilia inside. |
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| Example of a "Liquor Cycle". Certain states such as North Carolina, do not require small CC scooters to be registered or licensed. Hence when someone loses their drivers license to a DUI, they ride one of these instead. |
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| The constant rains keeps this child's wagon full of water. |
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| Liver mush is a popular breakast dish in North Carolina. It's pork liver mixed with cornmeal and spices, then fried. |
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| Pinball machines in Jack's basement bar. This Evel Knieval pinball machine was famous in the 1970s, each one was hand painted. |
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| We're in Jack's basement bar, drinking beer, eating Bojangles chicken, and watching Talladega Nights |
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| About 4:00pm everyday in the Summer, it rains like this. |
been wanting to see what nws look like, so miss that track.........when NASCAR left, that was the beginning of the end for them. Good riddance... hasn't been the same since.
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