We have been having a wonderful time. We made a trek over to the Chimney Rock/Lake Lure area one day to walk through the Flowering Bridge. It's very cool and the last time we were in North Carolina we found this bridge well after the flowers were done blooming, so there really wasn’t anything to see. This time we made sure to get there early in our trip so that we could see the bridge when the flowers were in bloom. The bridge was closed to traffic in 2011, and after that a group was started to create gardens on the 155' long bridge. They emphasize native plants and their mission is to create a “Gateway to Somewhere Beautiful” for the enjoyment of the public.
After walking on the bridge and taking plenty of photos we stopped at the Burnt Shirt Winery for a wine tasting and lunch. Steve fell in love with the Rock Bottom Red wine they have and lunch was exceptional.
We have fallen into our typical routine while in North Carolina, dulcimer practice, happy hour on Wednesday’s and nickel bingo, sightseeing trips and excursions in the area. Sadly I’m out of practice with my dulcimer but I’m working on it. We were able to attend a dulcimer performance given by a local artist/instructor at the Hendersonville Library. An Evening of Dulcimer Music presented by Katie Waldren. Katie presented music on both the hammered and mountain dulcimer.
On one outing we went to the Grovewood Village in Asheville. This is set up as an artist sanctuary, museum, and gallery. There is a tour you can take that takes you through the Biltmore Industries Homespun cloth manufacturing. It was truly fascinating. There was a lecture given on the history of the textile industry in the area and its effect on the area, a movie of the history of the Biltmore Industries, and then we got to walk around the old dye house. The dye house is where they are warehousing all the old equipment that was used in the making of the Biltmore Homespun fabric. Of course we had a sightseeing mishap, I FORGOT TO BRING THE CAMERA! Ugh!!!!! I was so upset because this was my kind of cool stuff to photograph. There were huge lightbulbs, piles of spools of yarn, machinery, and just all sorts of things. We will be going back so that I can get photos. So have no fear friends, there will be photos forthcoming, eventually.
Today we headed up the Blue Ridge Parkway north. We were going to visit Grandfather Mountain, instead we drove around seeing all sorts of things, we ate at the Daniel Boone Inn, which is a favorite of ours and no summer in North Carolina would be complete without at least one visit there. Oh it’s so good! After that some more driving on the parkway and getting photos at the overlooks.
