Meg's & Lon's Magnificent Adventure: Asheville and the Biltmore Estate

ASHEVILLE – NORTH CAROLINA

We departed DC with the plan of a lovely drive through the Blue Ridge Parkway. This starts at Shenandoah and winds down through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and ends just before the Tennessee boarder. We had booked accommodation in Asheville (thank you Lonely Planet – after our dodgy DC pick, we felt that we needed to accept any guidance that was available to us) in North Carolina.

Leaving Washington was a little more challenging than one would expect and after a couple of loops around DuPont Circle we eventually left DC behind us and headed in the direction of Virginia.

Ice sliding off the cars and trucks and smashing on the highway did provide us with some amusement and could prove a little scary if heading straight towards our windscreen. We have noticed in our driving adventures that the speed limit is often used as a guide or should I say guestament of the actually speed. Most drivers seem only content with 20 to 30 miles over the speed lime and the air patrol (helicopters flying over with speed guns) seem fairly non-existent.

Crossing the Shenandoah River in next to no time at all, where is the turn off to the parkway? Crossing the Shenandoah again – did you see the sign??? Guess what? We just crossed the Shenandoah again!! The whole John Denver song thing can be a little annoying once you've crossed it more than twice!

We found the turn-off for the sky-line drive through the Shenandoah National Park, we are so excited, John Denver here we come.

That’s right it's winter – the sky-line drive is closed due to the ice that fell the night before. Okay next the Blue Ridge Parkway. And we were off again. Country roads take me home ....la la la la la

Time was passing quickly at this point and I still have difficulty judging distance verse time to travel. 218 on the sign post is NOT 218km (approx. 2hours) but 218 miles and therefore nearly 4 hours. We decide to push on and get to our accommodation which is at this time going to be about 3 hours later than expected. Oooops

After some fancy navigating we arrive and the Pinecrest B and B is in darkness. We ring the doorbell and pray that they will allow us to check-in at this late hour. Waiting Waiting Waiting Waiting – do we ring the doorbell again? Oh crap how uncomfortable would it be to sleep in the car do you think????? Hhhhhhmmmm??

No wait, someone is coming. Apologising profusely we checked in and were shown our room. OMG – see the photos - is all we can say. The room was very cosy and after a long day, the room was exactly what we needed.

Breakfast was at 9am and we were greeted to a wonderfully set table and met the other guests who were staying at Pinecrest. Four others in all, we had a leisurely many course breakfast where the six of us chatted away for the next two hours. The result of breakfast was our plans had changed completely!

Blue Ridge Parkway was closed for the most part with only a few miles here and there open for travel. Kate; one of the ladies staying at Pinecrest invited us to stay with her and her husband in Nashville - our next stop. Such a wonderful invitation that we graciously accepted. We decided to book in for another night and investigate the local surrounds of Asheville.

Asheville is known for being a hippie hideaway. We visited the local art galleries, took a quick drive (20 mins all up) on the Blue Ridge Parkway, had lunch at the 'Early Girl' and tasted real "fried green tomatoes" FABULOUS!!

One of the marvellous things about travelling is the interesting people you meet. Kate and her mum Linda took us down to the Biltmore Estate the following day, after breakfast. We spent an amazing few hours touring the ground and visiting the vineyard, enjoying a fabulous lunch and then we set off to meet Kate in Nashville.

Photos