Smoky Mountains & The Biltmore Estate

From Tamsin: It was a longer drive than usual to get to Asheville from Frankfort, about 5.5 hours and we had a longer than usual stop at the Bucees along the way.  That made Tuesday really just a travel day.  We were about 13 miles outside of Asheville in a KOA.  They were affected by Hurricane Helene but are putting things back together.  I am very thankful for Apple Watches because that night Myra went for a run at dusk.  When I called to see what was going on, she was lost!  Luckily with the phone and the watch I was able to find her (she hadn’t left the campground but there were lots of trails and trees).

We basically had two things on the itinerary for Asheville, see the Biltmore Estate and the Smoky Mountains.  Wednesday we headed out to see the Biltmore Estate. It is supposedly the biggest house in America, built by George Vanderbuilt during the gilded age at the turn of the 19th century.  It took over 90 minutes to see the whole house with an audio guide.  George was a collector and there were things like 15th century tapestries, his bed frame that was also from the 15th century–hand carved from some place in Europe, and a library ceiling with the original painting of The Chariot of Aurora by Pellegrini that was dismantled in Italy and reformed in his library.  It would be hard to describe all the amazing things there were to see in the house.  In this case I am using the word “amazing” to mean incredulous and not necessarily things I was thrilled about seeing.  I don’t know if that makes sense but when we finished the tour we pretty much agreed that for all its opulence, it is not a place we would have liked to live and not a livestyle we would enjoy.  David said the best thing would be just to have our house connected to the WSU Rec Center.  It would be about the same size but a lot more fun!  It was in an incredibly beautiful setting.  I wish I had been more careful about planning.  We paid extra to see their King Tut exhibition because Zina was very interested but it closed at 3:30pm and we finished our hour tour about 3:10.  It was nice to have a very relaxed evening.

Thursday we got away early so we could catch the Smoky Mountain Railway for a 4.5 hour excursion to the Nantahala Gorge.  Our train car had a server/guide who provided interesting commentary for most of the trip.  The Smoky Mountains are beautiful but a much different forest than we are used to, almost all deciduous trees.  It is pretty rough terrain and our guide told us that Eric Rudolph, the Atlanta Olympic bomber was able to hide out in the mountains there (specifically in some caves we saw) for 5 years.  The story was that none of the locals liked the FBI because they interfered with their moonshine production so they wouldn’t rat out Rudolph!  There was a stop on the excursion that allowed us to check out part of the Appalachian Trail (an east coast version of the Pacific Rim trail).  Myra still thinks she would like to hike one of those someday.  The kids put their feet in the Nantahala river and we got to see them doing some training for the Olympic canoeing event.  The Cherokee tribe story was also part of the tour as the land was originally in the hands of the Cherokee and the white settlers wanted it so it led to the trail of tears.

*The man-made lake was created when the government wanted more electricity. The displace people were not very happy so the government told them they could put a floating house on the lake with a 100 year free parking for their dingy and car. Six years ago they won a court case for that free parking to be forever.

I think when I first started planning this sabbatical I thought we could really “do it all”.  It is becoming very obvious that even if one lives in an area for a lengthy time, it is not possible to “do it all”.  Over time I am becoming more at peace with enjoying what we are able to do.

From Will:

Asheville was a rather lackluster stop compared to the likes of the Keys, Nashville, and Tucson. The campground had some good activities but was entirely overrun with a mix of spiders, fat wasps and other insects that caused Zina a panic attack. On our first full day here, we toured the Biltmore estate, the largest house in the USA. It was a literal castle. (pictures below) It had 33 guest rooms and a whole library. I wonder what classifies something as a castle and not a house… George Washington Vanderbilt inherited his father’s fortune and chose to build this. With the transportation businesses running smoothly, his family had it pretty good. As time went on and George and his wife Edith had passed on, the husband of their only daughter, Cornelia, opened the Biltmore estate for tourist use. He said “We don’t keep Biltmore to make a profit, we make a profit to keep Biltmore.” They have succeeded in that right for almost 100 years. After the tour wrapped up I ate the best ice cream/sorbet that I have ever had, and then we went back to the trailer and relaxed for the rest of the day. On the following day, we had to be ready on time in order to get on a train tour to learn about the Nantahala National Forest. Our tour guide was very well-informed on the indigenous history of the area. He told us some of the stories that the Cherokee passed down through generations. We got out at a layover for 20 minutes, and Myra and I iced our feet in the freezing  river. We then got back on the train and headed back to the start of the ride. We thanked our guide and headed back to the car and went back to the trailer, where we stayed for the remainder of the day. I don’t usually talk about what we eat at home, but we had my favorite food, fried rice. After dinner, we got ready for bed but then stayed up late AGAIN talking. Thank you for reading this segment of the blog. Next: Outer Banks, NC. Overall Rating: 7.8/10