NC Mountains and South Carolina

Tuesday, April 05, 2016
Asheville, North Carolina, United States
We departed Charlotte and headed for the North Carolina mountains. We stopped at one of our road trip favorites for breakfast - Cracker Barrel. We love the consistent service and comfortable food. Grace and Lauralee like the store too.

Back on the road we hit some more rural roads as we head for Asheville . The road becomes hilly and windy, with wooded hills. The trees are still mostly bare from winter, although we can see some leaves beginning to sprout. Wild Dogwood trees are in bloom and add beautiful white to the dull woods.

We jump on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few miles and stop at the visitor's center to learn more about the parkway. The parkway is a scenic drive that travels 469 miles from Virginia to North Carolina, along the ridge of the southern Appalachian mountains and links Shenandoah National Park with Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Along the way are opportunities to camp, hike, fish, canoe, and much more. We only drove a few miles of the parkway on this trip but might consider a future trip to drive the entire 469 miles.

We headed into downtown Asheville to find some lunch and get a brief sense of Asheville. Lunch at Farm Burger was good, but the culture of Asheville was a freak show. Lots of shaggy hipsters, dirty street performers begging for money, and some whack-a-doodles too . It was entertaining but not where we wanted to hang out too long. We browsed an general store that had nice outdoor clothing and a candy section, then we headed on to the Biltmore Estate.

At the Biltmore estate we bought tickets and proceeded to find parking. The grounds driving in are absolutely beautiful. Green grass fields, well kept forests with flowering shrubs and trees, paths throughout the property to different gardens and vistas.

As you exit the wooded path you get your first view of the largest privately owned home in America. The home is 178,926 square feet, 250 rooms, 33 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, bowling ally, heated indoor swimming pool, dinning room that seats 64 with a pipe organ, library, Paloma, salons, it goes on and on and on. Oh, and the stairs. We climbed more stairs than when we climbed up the Bunker Hill monument!

The house was built over six years and opened on Christmas Eve, 1895 . George Washington Vanderbilt built the home and it is still privately owned by his descendants today. The estate has 8,000 acres for hunting, hiking, farming and more. The estate includes beautiful gardens, fields, lawns, and a large green house with thousands of plants and flowers. The grounds were designed by Fredrick Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park, many parks in Washington DC as well as others all across America.

We took the self guided tour first and then explored the gardens, views and green house. We returned to the house for a behind the scenes tour of the upper floors. The tour helps to really see the magnitude of the house and the living and work area of the staff. Guests were treated to five star service day and night. The house hosted presidents, royalty, artists, scientists, and celebrities as guests, often for weeks at a time. Elaborate parties were held that lasted several days during the gilded age.

Back on the road we are headed for South Carolina. The road is filled with gentle curves as we descend the "mountains" to Spartanburg, South Carolina. When we arrived at our hotel we realized that the dining options in Spartanburg are pretty limited. So we drove 30 minutes to Greenville and found a very nice city with a beautiful downtown filled with greats shops and restaurants. We ate at Pomegranate on Main, a wonderful Parisian/Mediterranean restaurant. Along the drive home we passed the BMW factory and museum. The factory build the BMW SUVs. Unfortunately the museum is closed until later this year for a major remodel. Maybe we can visit on our next trip to Greenville.

Another great day, tomorrow we fly to Louisiana for the second half of this adventure.

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