Skies are blue and the clouds are far behind me as I slowly navigate the numerous, stomach-churning hairpin turns along Beech Mountain Parkway. I was born five years after the last pair of ruby slippers skipped over the shiny yellow brick road perched high atop Beech Mountain, but this September, I finally got to realize my dream of visiting Land of Oz. As I grew older, I knew, of course, that Oz was not a real place-even in the movie, it’s all ultimately revealed to be an elaborate fever dream.

When I was a kid, I watched The Wizard of Oz so many times that our VHS tape gave out one day due to sheer exhaustion. The Scarecrow walks on the yellow brick road.

Land of Oz, which first opened its emerald gates in 1970 and closed only 10 years later, now reopens several times a year: in early summer for the interactive event Journey with Dorothy, and on September afternoons and evenings for Autumn at Oz and Dining with Dorothy.