John offered to take me on a day trip of my choosing between his trips to Tennessee and New York. We both decided the first one I mentioned would be saved for a day with our grandsons. That one involved beautiful views of mountains and a hike to a waterfall. We headed for Beech Mountain and Banner Elk. We found out that Beech Mountain is the town at the highest altitude east of the Rockies. The off-season population is 350. It swells considerably during ski season, and probably in the spring and autumn, too. I took one photograph from Beech Mountain that shows mountains in the distance and a restaurant that is for sale.

Banner Elk sits below Beech Mountain and has a population of just over 1,000. I didn’t take any pictures in the town, but the live webcam (http://www.resortcams.com/webcams/banner-elk/) sits atop the restaurant where we ate lunch.

John picked a mountain road to begin our trip home. As we drove, I asked, “Is this the area where we saw the mailbox that was high off the ground?”

Within five minutes, I saw it. By the time I’d commented on it, we were beyond it. John offered to turn around, but I said I’d find the picture I took before. Four years ago, I wrote the following about son John $’s tour:

As we drove down a small road, I exclaimed about a mailbox and insisted $ turn around so he and his dad could see it, too. There with other normal boxes was one way up high in the air. Someone must have installed it as a prank. The photo doesn’t show it, but the box was painted in red, white, and blue, with US Mail clearly written on the side.

Here is the original photo:

I wonder if that mailbox was installed when we still had air mail.