Riding The Rails

CNN.com - Tweetsie Railroad faces uncertain future
One of the fondest childhood memories I can still recall is from the steps of the General Store at Tweetsie Railroad, an amusement park in the sky outside Boone, NC. We met Fred Kirby, road some rides and then Tweetsie took us around the bend to a frontier adventure. We've done the same thing with our kids, and I'm hoping things will get worked out here so that we can go back with grandkids later on.

What bugs me is that "progress" means tearing down some of these older places and making room for new condos or a golf course. Those places might be nice and the view might be incredible, but is the trade-off worth it? Usually not, but in the short-term it'll look like a lucrative deal, I'm sure. I'd like to see something happen to enhance the park - new investors, new rides, new artists for the craftsy crowd. There's plenty of space for concerts and such, and maybe an artist's retreat - something to feed off the mountainside location without too much further domestication.