Asheville, North Carolina

Jul 24, 2014, 9:13 AM

Ok, let's see, what have we been up to the last couple days. . . 

Tuesday we went over to the Biltmore Estate to get our tickets. TOURIST ALERT: A visit to the Biltmore Estate has become an expensive day. If you just drive up and buy a ticket for that day you are going to plunk down $59.00 each for the day. On-line I found that you could buy tickets in advance and get up to $15.00 off. I wanted to ask a couple questions so instead of ordering on-line we went to the estate to ask our questions. I was really surprised when we got there there was no posted information about any discounts. The ticket lady was very nice and gave us as much information as she had, but she wasn't overly versed on the discounts either. She had to put the dates in the computer and see what the price came up for that day. I was really surprised. I guess it was just happy circumstance that I found information on the discounts, cause you won't find that information at the estate itself. Then on top of the $44.00 we spent per ticket there are additional tours you can take and of course they cost more. Since we'd visited the estate before I was really hoping to do a tour we hadn't done before, but last time I don't remember we had to pay just to get on the property. I remember we stood there and we had to choose from an "ala carte menu", do we want to tour the house and garden or the gardens and butler tour or the back rooms tours, etc. oh well, things change. We have our tickets and we are going to visit the estate next Wednesday. 

After the Biltmore we wanted to go to the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor's Center. We got Spanky a pin, of course. We watched a movie about the parkway and then we drove up to the Craggy Gardens picnic area. We hiked the .8 miles to the Craggy Gardens Visitor's Center, or so we thought. Oh my gosh! Let's remember Steve and I are typically sea level dwellers, this freaking trail went straight UP and we were at 5,000'. We doggedly kept going though. I had visions of fields of flowers or patches of wild flowers among rocks and boulders. We didn't find anything like that. The trail wasn't too bad, but it did make a steady uphill trek. It was pretty well canopied by trees so it was cool. There were lots of rocky outcroppings that were interesting to see and lots of trees that must have been struck by lightening because they were twisted and split and very compelling to study. We kept on, of course huffing and puffing the entire way. We passed another hiker coming down and asked him how close we were to the Visitor's Center. He said we only had about a half mile to go. Oh come on, we'd already been at it long enough that I was starting to be drawn to the light at the end of the dark tunnel. It was ok, I could feel the love and warmth of family members that had gone on before and were beckoning to me, but I resisted and kept going and going and going. Now we'd gone much more then the .8 miles we aren't THAT out of shape and we had definitely gone more than the distance and finally we came to a building/structure. We could see the roof, WE WERE THERE! As we came to the top of the small rise the structure we saw was just an open sided shelter. There was nothing there and no one tending it. False advertising!!!!!!!! That was a mean trick, oh and by the way, there was one field of some purple wild flowers, but I'd hardly call that "gardens". There were lots of rhododendron around and I'm sure at the right time when the rhododendron was blooming it would be beautiful, but of course we weren't there at the right time. 

As we were walking back down a man and his daughter were coming up behind us and we stepped aside to let them pass. Steve asked the guy about the Visitor's Center. He chatted with us a few minutes and told us we could have driven to the Visitor's Center. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! I was having an out of body near death experience and we could have DRIVEN. Life can be cruel sometimes. 

Wednesday after a grueling Tuesday we decided to play it cool and not do to much. There was an Amish Market & Deli we'd heard a commercial for and we wanted to check it out. Steve also saw a notice for a tailgate fresh fruit and vegetable market that we wanted to check out so we set off. The Amish market wasn't really much at all. About the size of a convenience store and no deli, there was a deli case but it was empty. Not very impressive. The tailgate market that was a nice little find. We got some nice peaches, tomatoes, and there was a woman selling jellies that we really fell in love with. She had sweet and hot jellies. We picked up a jar of the Strawberry Sizzle, and next week Steve wants to go back to get the Scorched Woman. That one I wouldn't even try. The lady said it was really hot, that was enough for me, the Strawberry Sizzle had a nice bite to it I didn't want to get scorched. 

Today we are driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway some more. We made it to the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center (by car), we stopped at every overlook we came to. It was fun to watch the clouds sweep right past us as we stood at the overlooks. It was another cloudy day for the most part, but that made for some cool views of the mountains with clouds blowing in. We also stopped at Mt. Mitchell State Park. Spanky got another photo or two and a new pin. My goodness he is a well travelled monkey. 

I'm not quite sure what we have in store for the next few days so I'm not sure when I'll have another blog.  You know me though, it won't be long!! Oh and I almost forgot to mention, we have been hanging around with a new group of friends. They wait for us to get home and we have been enjoying their company. They don't say a whole lot, but still we like them.