I went up to Boone to hike three miles over a mountain and around it. It was supposed to be a two and a half hour drive up but I somehow made good time and arrived in two hours. My friend and I just returned from having brisket and pulled pork for lunch at Pedalin’ Pig in Boone and I was just about to take a nap (because I woke early to leave my house at seven in the morning) when the neighbor sent a text and asked if we would join her for a hike with her two dogs. We went up the hill, down the hill ducking through overhanging Rhododendron branches, and then through an open lush green area in the forest before it opened up to rolling hills and a couple barns in the distance. Here they grew Christmas trees. It was a good hike, less than three miles, and we talked quite a bit. Both of us used a hiking stick that he made with a drawknife and he rustled another from the brush along the way up for her because she had forgotten to bring one. It was about 53° Fahrenheit.