I'm on the business beat in Watauga and local leaders have been talking about this weekend for a long time. My customer service friends are all hands on deck. One business leader called it "the perfect storm" when I asked him.

Not only is it Family Weekend versus Coastal, but there's the Valle Country Fair in Valle Crucix that'll have thousands of people and hundreds of vendors and the 40th Woolly Worm Festival in Banner Elk with 15,000 people on Saturday and Sunday.

Add on the peak leaf season that's currently going on (the Blue Ridge Parkway is just stunning right now), there's going to be A. LOT. of people in the High Country this weekend.

Exercise patience in driving, plan an extra few minutes if you're going somewhere and enjoy the leaves (weather pending).

It sure would be nice if the school, conference, and these local towns could coordinate a little better on all this. No reason for all of these events to take place the same week. It seems like the Woolly Worm falls on a game day every year.

JTApps1 wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 16, 2017 11:59 am

It sure would be nice if the school, conference, and these local towns could coordinate a little better on all this. No reason for all of these events to take place the same week. It seems like the Woolly Worm falls on a game day every year.

That's probably no accident. If I was a WWF organizer I would be looking for a weekend that App hosts a game.

Woolly Worm is always the third weekend in October.