Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2017 - 30

30 BlueRidgeCountry.com

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Doug Gray. Consider Doug Gray the last of the
singing cowboys. Year after
s
ni
En
year,
Gray takes the highway,
T
JOE
24 hours at a time, as the leader
and lead singer of the Marshall Tucker
Band. This southern rock, jazz and
country band rose to prominence in the
1970s with hits like "Fire on the Mountain" and "Blue Ridge Mountain Skies."
The MTB also scored a rock classic with
1973's "Can't You See" (now used to
promote Gatlinburg, Tennessee on TV
commercials). All the while, the band
has called attention to Gray's hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Gray, 68, now splits his off-road time
between his home at Myrtle Beach and
a mountain residence on the outskirts of
Spartanburg. While in the area, he loves
to ride his motorcycle, venturing into
nearby North Carolina ("don't forget:
North Carolina and South Carolina do
join," he says) to see iconic attractions
like Chimney Rock or the Biltmore.
Where do you like to go?
The Beacon Drive-In, Spartanburg, South Carolina. "It's known
world-wide. People come there, and
they still sell more iced tea than any
other establishment in the world.
It's my favorite greasy spoon restaurant-the atmosphere, the people."
Lee Smith. Known for
her gentle wit and engaging words, much-awarded
author Lee Smith grew up
in Grundy, Virginia, a coal
town in Buchanan County. There, Smith has placed
her latest book, the non-fiction
"Dimestore," which profiles the story of
the store operated by her father for 55
years. Smith's novels include "The Last
Girls" and "Fair and Tender Ladies."
She lives full-time at Hillsborough,
North Carolina. Still, getting away
from it all, she lands in the mountains
of North Carolina-at Ashe County,
where she maintains a vacation home
at Todd.
Where do you like to go? Ashe
County, North Carolina. "Over the
years, I have really relied on it as
a place to get away and write. I do
some gardening up there and do a

Red River Gorge
lot of walking and hiking and so on.
I just love it ... And I love to hike
along the New River, too. We go up
the Big Hill Road a lot of times from
Todd. It's all beautiful walking. We
go up and hike along the Railroad
Grade Road."
Beth Macy. She
was the star reporter at The Roanoke Times in
the 1990s-and
beyond. All total,
Beth Macy spent 25
years in the newspaper
business. Now, this native of Urbana,
Ohio, remains at home in Roanoke with
her husband, Tom Landon, and, at 52,
she's quite busy writing books. Her debut, "Factory Man," landed on best-sellers' lists. Her latest is called "Truevine."
Where do you like to go? Roanoke River in Roanoke, Virginia.
"We have started kayaking like crazy
... If it's just the end of the workday
and it's really nice out, we'll put our
boats in up at Rotary Park in Salem,
and we'll float down to Wasena Park.
And that, depending on how fast the
water is going, is about a two-anda-half-hour float. And that's superfun. You see herons, and you're going through the middle of Roanoke
City. But it just feels like you're out
in the wilderness. It's industrial, but
you get this whole view of Roanoke,
where we've lived forever, that we
have never seen before."

ET
E

Joe Bowen. The always-entertaining Joe Bowen stops strangers on
roadsides or along hiking trails leading
to the stone arches in and around Powell County, Kentucky. He may promote
one of his passions-hosting the Rugged Red, a half-marathon in the mountains of Kentucky's Red River Gorge. Or
Bowen may mention the book he wrote,
"Real Winners Don't Quit," which details the time he stilt-walked across the
United States (that's right: he walked on
stilts!) to raise money for the Muscular
Dystrophy Association in 1980. Now
73, Bowen calls himself "an incurable
optimist." He keeps busy as the owner
of the Bowen Farm Bed & Breakfast in
Bowen, Kentucky. He walks a lot, and
he's an avid cyclist.
Where do you like to go? Red
River Gorge, Kentucky. "My favorite
particular arch is Rock Bridge. And
the reason I love Rock Bridge is because it's not the prettiest bridge; it
is big. But it's the only bridge here-
and one of the very few bridges on
planet Earth-that has a blue stream
running under it."

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Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2017

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