McDowell County

George and I have visited Linville Caverns in McDowell County several times, most recently in October 2009. It's a cool (both literally and figuratively) place to visit, as George and I can attest to by our repeated visits there. (It was the first cavern we visited together, and it prompted us to enjoy visits to some "show" caverns in Virginia as well.) I always enjoy hearing about the bats in the cave, as well as the demo of the lights being turned out inside the cave for total darkness. Linville Caverns is definitely a place to visit.

McDowell County was formed in 1842, and is in the western part of North Carolina. It includes Marion, the county seat and birthplace of current UNC-Chapel Hill basketball coach Roy Williams, and Old Fort, a neat town that George and I have stopped in a couple of times on our way to Asheville. Parts of the 1992 version of "The Last of the Mohicans" were filled by Lake James, which happens to have been named for Duke University benefactor James Buchanan Duke.