BOONE, N.C. — Freddie Pell helps lift a vintage wooden chair off the sidewalk and back inside his art gallery. It's starting to rain in downtown Boone, and he doesn't want it to get soaked — again.

Perched high in the Blue Ridge Mountains is the quirky college town of Boone, which at only a 3-hour’s drive from us in Raleigh, is the perfect destination for a getaway. Boone isn’t just a mountain ...