The territory, and what comes with it.

Being a traveling musician has always been a haphazard and often difficult position to hold down, let alone make a financial and professional go at it. The long nights far away from home. Sometimes empty rooms where there may be more folks onstage than off. Vehicles breaking down to and from shows. Those situations when you stand there, looking up at the sky, wondering if this is the exact spot you’re meant to be at — in that moment, in that time, and in that place, either known and unknown.

A $740 grant from the Jim McRae Endowment for the Visual Arts will fuel efforts to create a Women’s History Trail in Macon County, celebrating the lives and accomplishments of Macon County women with a trail to “walk in her steps.”

It was déjà vu all over again in Maggie Valley, where the Board of Aldermen once again passed the controversial Brunch Bill ordinance by a vote of 3-2, just like it was on Dec. 11.

For all of its bluster and bikers and bling in the summertime, Maggie Valley can be one sleepy little town in the winter.

Traditionally, many businesses in the tiny settlement close during the off-season, a habit no doubt acquired during the heyday of Ghost Town in the Sky, the mountaintop amusement park that since 1965 closed every winter as well, until it closed for good a few years ago.

As the town’s former police chief and also as a woman of faith, Maggie Valley Mayor Saralyn Price said last month that she couldn’t support the town’s proposed Brunch Bill ordinance that would allow alcohol sales to begin at 10 a.m. instead of noon on Sundays.

Sunday morning mimosas aren’t yet on the table in Maggie Valley because a proposed ordinance that would allow the sales of alcohol before noon on Sundays is.

Based on recommendations from a consultant, the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority voted to change the makeup of the 1 percent funding subcommittees in Maggie Valley and Waynesville.

Unlike Haywood County’s other contested municipal election — in Maggie Valley — two incumbents are running for reelection and seek to defend their seats from three challengers.

To mark the start of early voting, The Smoky Mountain News will host a pair of free candidate forums in the towns of Canton and Maggie Valley.

Aloha. Aristocrat. Forester. Shasta. Spartan. And of course, Airstream and Winnebago.