Sunday, November 1, 2015

Ain't in No Hurry

Well, we are over here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.  Before the trip, I asked my FB peepers for suggestions on points of interest, and thang to do and such.  To my surprise, some of the peepers left a threw a few suggestions my way!

We looked them up, and thought "good deal"!  Once all the party arrived, we made out list.  The first day of excursions was in the surrounding area, visiting lakes and waterfalls.

Next on our list was a trip to Ashville, North Carolina to tour the Biltmore Estate.  Estimated duration of the trip over was an hour.  It hasn't taken the locals long to spot us on their roadways, with us taking the curves at 20-30 mph.  Hell, I normally take the Interstate exit ramps at over 40, but the Interstate doesn't have a granite gully on one side and a sheer dropoff on the other.  One of my passengers has left a lasting grip of the door handle of the car!  Finally, we were out of the mountains!

Our roadie trip took us thru Brevard, NC.  As you approached the town, the road was marked "temporarily closed for special event".  Okee dokee.  At this point I'm  hoping that "Dora the Explorer" (gps) will be able to find the straightest path back to our original route.  Apparently the community takes over the downtown area and puts on a harvest festival.  To the right of us was a farmers market.  I think one feller was confused and ended up at the wrong venue, as he was wearing a pig costume, including nose!  I started to look for a butcher among the market merchants!  Further up the road we saw a little boy dressed up as a lamb.  I figured he must be related to that fella in the pig costume!

At another intersection I spotted a water feature, and I yelled "cameras ready!  Water feature on your left!"  I didn't  get any takers for a pull over!

Our trip that was supposed to take an hour, almost took two.  We arrived at the Biltmore Estate ticket gate to pick up our will call tickets.  We had five minutes to spare for our tour time.  To our surprise, the house was several miles within the 8,000 acre estate!  Thank goodness that we paid for valet parking!

The drive through the estate and the approach to the house reminded us all of the PBS show Downton Abbey.  What a grand place Biltmore Estate is!  No pictures are allowed to be taken on the inside of the house, which is dimly lit, as it would be from its heyday in the early 1900s.  We did the walking tour, but I highly suggest that you upgrade to the narrated version to get a mental picture of the sights that you are taking in.  You can also upgrade to a guided tour.  I will opt for at least the hand held headset on my next visit.

The stables section of the estate provides you plenty of opportunities to spent your money, and lunch was a nice break for us before going to the basement level.

Somehow, I always seem to be in the right place at the wrong time.  I walked over to the recyclable  trash cans, and there was a nicely dressed woman leaning over the can.  I thought, surely not!  Yep, barfed dead center through the hole.  A few minute I turned and saw her complaining about her head, thinking she must have run into a door or something.  It wasn't  long before I spotted her again with the estate staff tending to her, now plopped into a wheel chair with an ice bag on her head.  The medical attendant reached into his bag and pulled out a red bad, that I thought might be a blood pressure cuff.  Nope.  It was a medical waste hazzard bag, that was now big put into service as barf bag Number 2!  We never saw or heard an ambulance so I guess the woman survived!

The exit is twice as long a ride as the entrance, taking you past several more opportunities to spend your money.  These is an Inn on the Estate than you can stay at.  It is built to resemble the Biltmore House.

On the trip home we made a side stop at Ingles grocery store to pick up a few supplies.  Nice store!
One cell phone went off giving us the alert that it was $.50 corndog day at Sonic, and I'll be dang if we didn't spot one along the way!

Our trip to Ashville ended up where we started, back on Sapphire Mountain.  There is much more to do in Ashville, but some in our party needed a break from all the "dead man's curves"  along the way!

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