Asheville, NC – a nice place to do a vacation

When I was in the navy, I was stationed in Charleston, SC.?On my leave I would drive from Green Bay, WI to Charleston, SC – sometimes foolishly in a single day.?Part of my route to Charleston included switching from I-40E to I-26E in the Asheville, NC area.?I was always curious what Asheville was all about.?Later, I drove my family from Green Bay, WI to Cape Hatteras, NC and once again passed through Asheville and marveled about all the sites being advertised on the billboards.?Well, I finally satisfied my curiosity and was pleasantly surprised.

My wife has a nephew who lived in Chicago, IL and was transferred to Charlotte, NC.?He brought his fiancé there and it was decided they would hold their wedding in Asheville.?This was going to be my first destination wedding I have attended.?I booked my flights and rental car several months in advance so I missed out on the latest current inflation fiasco.?My sister-in-law and her husband got a?Vacation Rentals by Owner or VBRO in the nearby town of Horse Shoe, NC.?The VBRO was only 15 minutes from the airport and was situated on a wooded mountainside. The home easily accommodated three families (mine and my 2 sister-in-law’s) with the comforts of a man cave that?had a ping pong table and poker table.?Leaving spring season that finally arrived in Wisconsin, I was surprised at the slightly cooler temperatures in Asheville as it was in the 60’s and 70s for early May.

The airport in Asheville is small and I thought the Avis car rental would be a typical walk to the car and dry-off scenario since I was Preferred customer.?However, you still need to go to the counter and get processed for the keys.?This reminded me to not rush about like normal but take it easy.?As my wife and I left the airport, we noted the countryside dotted with horse farms and rolling pastures, woods, and beautiful homes.?The scenery was beautiful.?For the first night, my wife and I went to a local Tex-Mex restaurant and I was happy at how reasonable the food prices were.?I ordered a steak meal for $13 and it tasted very good.

The next several days the families on my wife’s side did touristy trips together.?One day my wife and I went to an antique store and were inundated with so much old items to look at that we needed to take a break to rest our eyes.?You could be in there for hours.?I found a book to read for the trip at the store and was able to finish that in my spare time during the trip.?We went to the Little Pigs NC BBQ restaurant and I had some delicious BBQ ribs.?I was later told Little Pigs is the 2nd?best BBQ in NC (I forgot what the first one was).?The next day we bought day passes for the trolleys that run through a circuit of twelve stops and one comes by every half hour.?As you ride the trolley you hear about the history of Asheville.?We walked around downtown Asheville and marveled at the artistic sites set-up and enjoyed the local cuisine and shops.?At another stop, we walked through the River Arts District which are old warehouses that housed painters, photographers, ceramicists, and many other types of artists – approximately 240 of them there.?My wife is a potter and was in heaven.?Fortunately, there were microbreweries there too so I could enjoy that.

We spent an entire day at the Biltmore Estates.?George Vanderbilt was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt and was an art patron and philanthropist.?He built a large mansion called the Biltmore in the late 1800’s and it sits on 8,000 acre site which was even larger years ago.?You need to buy tickets in advance and they are pricey as I believe I paid about $80 per ticket.?This money goes towards the preservation of this historical estate.?When you arrive, you are issued a handset telephone-like device where you punch in numbers for the location you are walking through and get the story.?I cannot fathom in today’s standards the amount or wealth it would take to replicate this site.?After the tour, my wife and I drove around the huge estate.?We had also purchased tickets for a Monet art exhibit.?The exhibit educated me on the French art impressionists in the late 1800’s as Vanderbilt purchased a couple of Monet’s pieces we saw inside the Biltmore.?There was also a video montage inside a small studio where these impressionists paintings were broadcasted simultaneously throughout the room piped along with classical music.?I have to admit I was moved.?On the Biltmore estate we also went to the winery and walked around the farm learning about the equipment used to do agriculture there in the late 1800s.?Again, very interesting and I was glad I went.

Another day the family hopped in our rental cars and drove south along the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is a US National Parkway where you drive up over 6,000 feet elevation into the Appalachian Mountains.?There are many scenic breath-taking sites and I took many pictures.?The temperature was much cooler at this altitude so I recommend bringing something warm to wear.?We drove 80 miles on the parkway till we got to Cherokee, NC.?There we headed west on US 441 and drove through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.?This was yet another scenic ride and we stopped halfway to walk around the Appalachian Trail that straddles the Tennessee and North Carolina border.?At the other end of the park, we exited into a very touristy town named Gatlinburg, TN.?It had arcades, restaurants, souvenir stores, rides, Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum and many other commercial attractions that seemed very polar opposite of the serene outdoors we just drove through.?Regardless, it was fun to walk around Gatlinburg and look at the sites and other tourists.

On the remaining days, we did plenty of hiking in the mountainous areas south west of Asheville and observed the beauties of waterfalls and covered bridges.?There are so many trails to explore and we were hiking on only the easy trails.?If you are into hiking or mountain biking - you would never be bored here!

Our vacation finally came to an end.?Oh – by the way – we also attended my wife’s nephew’s wedding at it was held at Highland Brewing Company microbrewery in Asheville.?That was much fun as well.?There were several other things we could have done in Asheville but did not have enough time: ziplining, horseback riding, rafting, inner tubing down a river, riding around on ATVs, mountain biking, and much more.?I highly recommend adding Asheville, NC to a travel bucket list if you have one or need a travel place to go to.