Included, a nice photo of the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway train in front of the main street storefronts (including those nasty power lines that always discourage me from photographing), and a profile of the 1000-resident town that focuses why it's popular for new residents:
Blue Ridge is the first significant mountain destination along the Georgia Mountain Parkway, the four-lane highway running north from Atlanta that opened two decades ago, sparking today’s boom in second-home ownership. Until then, Blue Ridge was mostly a quiet agricultural community, developed on land taken from the Cherokee Indians in the 19th century.
Thus, it’s no surprise that Atlantans are high on the area — it’s close but not too close. “We’re just far away enough to make it a perfect weekend getaway"...
...With the many Floridians in Blue Ridge, the appeal is much the same. Even though the town is not exactly a short drive away — figure at least 10 hours from South Florida — it’s still about the closest mountain destination from the Sunshine State. And after so many years, that Florida populace has taken on a life of its own, a community within a community. “The best-kept secret is all the cops and firemen from Florida,” said Bob Stevens, a fire battalion chief from Boca Raton who visits his second home in Blue Ridge at least four times a year.
