Nancy and Dan, your friendly innkeepers

It's a cliche that innkeepers are disaffected corporate exiles, the former mavericks and loose cannons in the offices and cubicles. That was true with Dan, at least.

After 23 years working in newsrooms across the Southeast, he was on the verge of going to an open window like Howard Beale in Network and yelling, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

But this story is about more than running from corporate tedium and politics. It's about returning to what matters.

Nancy was a teacher. She really is still a teacher, though she gave up the classroom in 1999, her second year at Inn on Main Street. Nancy nurtures. She's patient with those who drive some of us to distraction. She taught mentally handicapped children, emotionally disturbed children, and children with all sorts of multiple handicaps for more than 20 years. She knows how blessed most of us are. Beneath the flaws, we're all unique and wonderful people.

When he wasn't a reporter and editor, Dan was an explorer. He takes off after new interests like a puppy following a June bug. That curiosity got him into journalism, but also got him into world travel, into home remodeling, into organic farming, into art, into cooking and eventually into hospitality (where else can you meet more interesting people than the average reporter?). Even now he pursues an arts career, making handmade tiles, including those shown in buttons throughout this site. He's a jack of all trades, a dilettante, a poor man's Renaissance man.

Dan and Nancy each grew up near Chicago and met at Southern Illinois University, but their story is set mainly in North Carolina. They were married on top of Table Rock near Morganton. Their daughters were both born in the North Carolina mountains, in Spruce Pine and Asheville. The first home they owned was a three-room cabin on 13 acres near Old Fort, NC, a tiny farm with dairy goats, chickens, too many dogs and a huge organic garden. That first home and a few soulful friendships were a siren song that kept them looking homeward to the mountains when they moved to Savannah, then Fort Lauderdale, then Charlotte. When it came time to go it alone, there was only one place to move.

Asheville and the Mountains

Even in the '70s, when there was no talk of a cosmic vortex hovering over Asheville, the North Carolina mountains were a magnet for the young, the artistic and the rugged. They hosted hundreds of hippies who didn't panhandle or go shoeless, but who farmed a dozen acres, drank from the spring and heated with wood. These back-to-landers bonded with natives who shared mountain folklore, music, dance and love of the outdoors with them. Dan and Nancy were among them.

Then, as now and before, a large percentage of people lived an artistic life. Dan and Nancy's friends made wind chimes, woodcarvings and pottery. Asheville was a town full of characters and iconoclasts. In that respect it has changed little.

Then, as now and before, Asheville was also a magnet for the well-to-do, mostly in the form of former Floridians in search of three more seasons. Transplants gave Asheville a cosmopolitan feel that was lacking in the rural areas. They demanded more cultural and medical options than a town this size would normally provide, and the result was what one writer in the 1800s presciently called the Paris of the South. The current influx of retirees and professionals has fueled the trend toward a more colorful and diverse cultural scene.

Weaverville, a bed and breakfast town

Weaverville represents another generation, perhaps another century, in the evolution of mountain living.

It's so quiet you can hear the cheering at the Little League games from more than a block away.

When it looks like rain, everybody runs out to roll up the car windows. Few bother locking their cars.

When the town holds the Fourth of July fireworks show, people pull chairs out to the middle of Main Street to watch it. Traffic can wait an hour.

After dinner at the Weaverville Milling Company, North Star Diner, Sunnyside Cafe, Blue Mountain Pizza (in Western North Carolina's oldest commercial building), Mike's Grill, Well-Bred Bakery or Stony Knob Cafe, stroll through our town's galleries and take in some live music. Guests often know more about Weaverville and its residents than they do about people in their own neighborhood. It's a place conducive to meeting new people and chatting.

After an exhausting day of touring the Biltmore Estate, exploring Asheville's shops and experiencing the colorful sidewalk performance that is Asheville, it's a pleasant experience to kick off your shoes on the back porch to enjoy a cool drink and a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

It feels like coming home.

To contact Inn on Main Street:

Dan and Nancy Ward
Inn on Main Street
88 S. Main St.
Weaverville, NC 28787

E-mail: relax@innonmain.com

Call (828) 645-4935 to reach guests,
or (877) 873-6074 toll-free for reservation information.

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