Around Asheville

After an uneventful ride from Boone, we arrived at Land of Waterfalls RV Park south of Asheville about 3:00 on Sunday, April 24 and our friend Catherine (who we worked with at Polaroid years ago) arrived about 15 minutes later. After setting up camp, including PUTTING OUT THE SLIDE, we just relaxed watching the women’s golf and visiting – it had been a year since we had seen Catherine. Then we got out the portable propane grill and had BBQ chicken for dinner.

We got a tee time on Monday morning at the Etowah Valley Golf Club. It was about 10 minutes from the RV, but we took a quick trip into Brevard just to see what it was like before our 10:58 tee time. No need to go back there, at least from what we saw. The fairways at Etowah were not in that great shape, but Trish got two pars and broke 50 – I didn’t do either. And Catherine beat us both.

This is where we golfed with Catherine

Power swings

We saw this Eastern Kingbird at the Etowah Valley Golf Club – which, with its not so great fairways, is in the picture on the right.

After the golf we found the Bold Rock Brewery and had cider and sandwiches. Trish and I had both had a flight of cider and decided that their Draft (made with red apples) was the one we liked best – we bought a six-pack.

Trish delivering and enjoying the cider flight at the the Bold Rock cidery.

We were all happy with our choices

After lunch we went for a walk in the DuPont Forest (named because the DuPont Corporation donated the land when they closed their x-ray film manufacturing facility.) We took a 1.2 mile trail that took us to the High Falls waterfall. It was a good way to walk off the cider.

First views of High Falls at DuPont State Forest.

This guy was flying a drone over the waterfall

Catherine and I walked down to the bottom of the falls – that meant we had to walk back up – thank goodness for switchbacks

As we were driving back from the waterfall walk we spotted this little restaurant – mostly because it had an ice cream sign.

Enjoying the fire pit before Trish made us a pasta and salad dinner.

Guess where we were on Tuesday?

Yes, we spent the day at the Biltmore Estate. I didn’t have a great start to the day. We were deciding to walk down to the gardens when I realized I didn’t have my phone. We checked the bathroom, and a few other places and I couldn’t find it. The biggest problem was that the tickets for entry were on the phone. I found a very helpful guest services host, and she printed the tickets for me. Then, while Catherine and Trish went to the gardens, I rode the shuttle back to the parking lot and found my phone in the car. I got back to the “house” and as were were starting to get ourselves together for the noon entry time, I realized I no longer had my ticket. It was back to the guest services person to get the tickets printed again, and after that the day proceeded without incident.

Scenery from the terrace at the Biltmore. When Vanderbilt bought the property, it was mostly all farmed out fields. He hired Frederick Law Olmsted to do the landscaping – and now you drive through a forest to get up to the mansion.

Mockingbird in the garden

More garden scenes

George Vanderbilt wanted an 8,000 square foot house. When Richard Morris Hunt, the architect, saw the property he said no, he needed something that fit the enormity of the land – which at the time was 125,000 acres – now they “only” have 8,000 acres. The Gilded Age mansion ended up being over 135k square feet of living space. Our tour started at noon.

The entry hall

The banquet hall is the largest room in the house and has a 70 ft ceiling.. The table could seat 64 guests, that’s a triple fireplace at the end you can see, and there is a organ gallery at the other end of the room

There were beautiful fresh flowers everywhere – you will see them in almost every shot that I took in the house

I believe that’s a John Singer Sargent portrait of George’s wife Edith in the breakfast room.

Mirror selfie

Views of the two story library that houses over 10,000 volumes in 8 languages – all chosen by George Vanderbilt. I loved the “step stool” to reach the upper shelves.

Ceiling in the library

Views of the 4 story chandelier that is surrounded by the grand staircase that leads to the 2nd floor.

This portrait gallery is off the grand staircase and has family portraits, as well as John Singer Sargent portraits of architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscaper Frederick Law Olmsted that were commissioned by Vanderbilt and displayed at the far end of the room..

The portrait on the left is of William Vanderbilt family. A young George is in the chair at the table. The 1991 portrait on the right is of the William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil family – he’s the one in the suit. Behind him to the left and right are his son and daughter (George’s great grandchildren), who currently live on the property and run the estate and the other businesses that support it. Not sure you can tell, but the portrait on the left is in the background of the portrait on the right.

George and Edith’s bedrooms

View from the second floor and looking down at the chandelier and grand stairway.

Views of several of the guest bedrooms

Walking through the tunnels in the basement – showing some of the supports of the mansion – and the bowling alleys

There was a pool but they don’t put any water in it now as it leaks (which I guess they found out the had way.) And a small gymnasium – with a rowing machine.

One of the servants rooms – they were much bigger than I expected them to be – and it looked like it was just one person per room.

The roasting room – yes, I guess there was always something spinning on that spit. And the main kitchen – I think maybe our whole house could fit in this kitchen

This was the view from the kitchen – not quite as expansive as the upstairs view, but not bad.

This does not look like the laundry that my parents owned. Here they didn’t wash clothes, but mostly linens. On the right that’s a drying chamber where they could hang the table linens while they sent hot air through the chamber.

The vase room – I guess this is where they used to put together all the beautiful floral displays – not sure where they do that now.

Trish and I checking out the dumbwaiter while listening to the tour. Then there is the servants dining hall – there was a strict seating policy based on your position in the household staff

After finishing the house tour – we stopped at the dairy bar – they serve their own ice cream, and we needed something to tide us over until dinner.

Panorama of the full facade of the Chateauesque style mansion

Taken from the car window as we drove by after the house tour – on the way to the wine tasting. The house tour is pretty expensive, so you get a “complimentary” wine tasting.

View of the conservatory, the road through the 8,000 acres (yes, that’s bamboo growing along the road) and some azalea’s in bloom.

Water flowing over a small dam on the property.

Looking down from the bridge over the dam.

There is a small museum explaining the history of the Biltmore – one of the prize possessions is this chess set, that was owned by Napoleon and given to George on his 21st birthday.

This is the Vanderbilt/Cecil Family Tree. The folks that own and run the estate now are the ones at the top of the red portion of the tree. If you look over to the left top, you will find Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper.

Waiting in line for the wine tasting, and then getting a little pour

Wine tasting aftermath – we liked the sweeter wines, but had our fill of beer and cider so didn’t get any to bring home.

After the wine tasting we stayed on the property and ate at Cedric’s Tavern. Cedric was Cornelia Vanderbilt’s Saint Bernard – the statue is of them playing when she was about 10 years old.

After dinner, we ended our day at the Biltmore Estate and headed to the car to go back to the RV.

Wednesday was a drizzly, sometimes rainy day. We decided on an itinerary that would mostly keep us in the car. We started out by heading to Henderson. It’s got a great main street, and we managed to get out and walk a bit through the drizzle. There were galleries, small shops, and some good looking restaurants – but it wasn’t time to eat yet.

Scenes from the streets of Hendersonville. They have many painted bears in the downtown – this one was outside the Kilwin’s ice cream shop – but this time we didn’t start. There was also the old-timey soda shop, but not time for lunch yet.

After doing a little shopping, we headed up to Asheville to a chocolate shop that we had found. Trish said the hot chocolate was wonderful – she gave me a taste, and even though I’m not a hot chocolate fan, I have to agree.

The chocolate shop was next to the Asheville Museum of Art and this thing in the lobby caught our eye enough to go into the lobby. It’s a replica of a Dymaxian car designed by Buckminster Fuller and displayed at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. It was meant to demonstrate the ability to mass-produce lightweight, efficient and affordable transportation. But an accident with one of the 3 that were made stopped any additional development.

Across the street there were these statues of pigs and turkeys – I had no idea why so I later looked it up – it’s a stop on the Asheville Urban History Trail. Their animal tracks are seen in a concrete base representing the Buncombe Turnpike – the route for drovers from Tennessee taking their turkeys, pigs and cattle to southern markets. Who knew.

Then we went to Luella’s BBQ for some lunch. We had some very good brisket and enough left for a sandwich lunch a few days later. The Southern Highland Craft Guild, Folk Art Center up on the Blue Ridge Parkway was our next stop. This houses the Allanstand Craft Center which is the oldest continuously running craft shop in America. It was founded in the late 1890’s as a way to financially support the local Appalachian families through their local crafts. Lots of great fabric, ceramic, wooden and more crafts to enjoy.