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| To Pigeon Forge, back to MB and the north to Martinsville Virginia |
Chapter One-Ashville North Carolina
What started out as a short trip to
Ashville North Carolina turned into a small adventure. Nearby Pigeon
Forge, Hurricane Mathew, plus a death in the family turned our plan
for a four day ride into a two week odyssey.
Tuesday September 27
Today we drove from our home in Myrtle
Beach to Ashville North Carolina, a distance of about 300 miles. It
was an interstate drive, we picked up I-20 in Florence and I-26 in
Columbia, taking it all the way to our destination. We camped at
Rutledge Lake RV Park which is just on the southern outskirts of
Ashville.
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The Bus at Rutledge Lake RV Park, Ashville NC
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When we pulled into the campground I
was struck with that feeling of DejaVu and said, I've been here
before. I stayed here when I was traveling alone trying to decide in
what direction my new life would go. Eventually I was able reinvent
myself, although my goal of being a beach bum became being a southern
gentleman who lives at the beach. That last part came about after
meeting Millie, the southern bell who would capture my heart.
Earlier this summer we had to cut our
planned three month road trip about a month short. So I guess I was
harboring some unsatisfied wanderlust, and when Millie told me she
had never been to the Biltmore Estate I made a plan to take her to
the Vanderbilt home.
Because she had wanted to see the
estate for a long time I decided to make the visit a special one. I
studied the many different tours offered at various times throughout
the day and the more I added, the longer and more detailed the plan
was becoming. The more I thought of following a time schedule to
catch each individual special tour, the less appealing this plan
became. I decided the original idea was to do something special for
my wife so that's what I was going to do.
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The Biltmore
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Chapter Two-The Biltmore
Wednesday September 28
I booked a private tour of the mansion
which consisted of Millie, myself and our guide Tom. We mostly relied
on Tom's expertise to guide us through the mansion and we saw all the
highlights of the house tour, but we also got to go behind the ropes
to see and touch things that others only viewed from the designated
pathways.
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Millie meeting our Biltmore guide Tom
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Tom took us anywhere we wanted to go.
We ventured from the lowest basement level to touching the underside
of the slate shingles from inside an attic peak. We went outside on a
narrow walkway at the top of the house walls. Some 80 feet above the
ground, we could touch the hand carved gargoyles that guard the
property.
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The attic
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Gargoles on the roof
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More than just seeing the house our
guide had many stories to tell. There was not a question asked that
he did not know the answer. He was a walking Google app of knowledge
about the estate and the Vanderbilt family.
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In the Banquet hall
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Banquet hall
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In the basement
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Millie and Tom in the Butlers Pantry looking over Mrs Vanderbilt's daily menu
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Larry and Millie in the Winter Garden
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After our tour it felt good to sit down
in the Stable Cafe for a meal before winding up the day with a drive
around the estate. Both of us had done enough walking today, not to
mention climbing hundreds of steps, so decided not to walk the paths
thru the gardens adjacent to the mansion. They were lackluster
anyhow as it was between seasons. We drove around the garden and then
continued thru the forest and pastures to the exit.
I'm not going to ramble on about
details of the Biltmore, but will leave you with a couple interesting
facts I thought noteworthy. The Biltmore was not the home of the
family patriarch, Cornelius Vanderbilt. It was built by his youngest
son, George Vanderbilt. The house has no structural lumber, it is
built of iron and brick, covered with limestone. Because they didn't
have filtering systems back then, every time someone used the 70,000 gallon indoor
swimming pool, it was drained, cleaned and refilled, a process that
took two days
My final thoughts on visiting the
estate. I don't think I would have enjoyed it years ago when my life
was centered on work and leisure time was fleeting. Now that I have
the time and curiosity I found it very interesting. Being a
mechanical guy I found the structure and it's advanced use of
technology fascinating, the family history interesting and largely
due to Downten Abbey, I even enjoyed the period living and working
area's for both the Vanderbilts and their staff. The tourist entrance
fee is rather expensive, but the estate isn't going anywhere, so wait
until you're ready to appreciate it and then go.
Chapter Three-Mount Mitchell
Thursday September 29
Today we went on a road trip in the
jeep on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It runs right through Ashville and
the Highest point of land east of the Mississippi is 35 miles up that
scenic drive. The elevation in Ashville is just over 2000 feet and we
were several weeks early for peak falls colors so all the vegetation
was still green.
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On of the scenic pull offs on the Blue Ridge Parkway
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The parkway climbed it's way thru the
mountains and at around 4000 feet elevation we started to see the
colors of fall and feel the crispness of clear nights and frosty
mornings.
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At about 4000 along the Parkway
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At 6683 feet Mount Mitchell is the
highest peak of the Appalachian Mountains and the highest peak in
mainland eastern North America. As you can see in the picture the
mountain top was in a cloud this day and with a temperature that had
to be in the forties, we didn't stay up there too long.
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Highest point east of the Mississippi
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A few feet below the summit, close enough for us in this weather.
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Chapter Four-Pigeon Forge
Friday September 30
If you have a wife like mine you can't
be this close to a music mecca without stopping to see a show. Pigeon
Forge is a multi-faceted vacation resort with about a half dozen
theaters so we figured we'd scoot on over and catch a show or two.
What's a hundred mile trip when there's music in them there hills!
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Pigeon Forge Tennessee
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Driving Note: From Ashville take I-40
to exit 443. Take the Foothills Parkway (rt 339) to left turn on rt
321, take 321 to Gatlinburg and go north on 441/321 to Pigeon Forge.
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Millie in Riveredge Campground
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We stayed in the Riveredge Campground
which is on the lower part of town. All the theaters are grouped on
the upper side, which meant we had to allow a half hour driving time
for any shows we attended. That's OK, driving the Pigeon Forge
Parkway is kind of like cruising Ocean Blvd at home which we do all
the time. It's a constantly changing Kaleidoscope of people and
flashing lights, there's always something interesting to see.
We picked up some coupons for a show
that only performs on Friday night, so on our first day in town we
went to the Country Tonight Theater. The show, called American
Oldies, is a Rock and Roll revue. It was entertaining and we did
enjoy it, but we considered it on par with performers who travel the
campground circuit in Florida.
Saturday October 1
We spent the whole morning at the Great
Smokies Flea Market, located up where Pigeon Forge Parkway ends at
I-40. The flea market has 200,000 square feet under roof, over 1000
vendors and I didn't buy anything. Millie bought a heating pad,
probably due to the many miles we walked. On the way home we ate
lunch at the Apple Barn, a perennial favorite in Pigeon Forge, it is
legendary for it's home cooking.
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Waiting for a table at the Apple Barn
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In the evening we ventured back uptown
to see a show called “Soul of Motown” at the Grand Majestic
Theater. This is a polished performance equal to the No Name shows in
Branson Missouri. No Name shows is a moniker I invented for music
venues featuring working musicians with no nationally known star as
headliner. It's not meant to be degrading, in fact most of the time
they are very good and always reasonably priced.
Sunday October 2
We went for a drive in the country on
the west side of town, stopping to tour any campgrounds that looked
interesting. Eventually we came back into town at it's north end and
turned south on the Parkway to head back to our campground. Along the
way we stopped at Floyd Garrett's Muscle Car Museum which houses one
of the largest collections of American muscle cars in the nation.
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I know which of these beauties I am taking home!
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After touring the museum we went to
Pizza Hut where our meal became a smorgasbord of pizza. Arriving a
little before two we had a choice of a pizza buffet or menu items. We
opted for the menu because we usually get the 2 med pizza special,
best bang for the bucks and leftovers for several meals at home. As
we waited for our order, our waitress asked if we wanted a couple
slices from the buffet, as it was past 2pm and they were getting
ready to close it. She brought each of us a plate with several
slices. As she cleared the buffet she brought us another plate full
of pizza. About then our order came out and we literally had the
whole table covered in Pizza. None of it was wasted, we ate leftover
pie for many days afterwards. Our hard working and friendly waitress
made our day and I hope we brightened hers.
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Pizza Pa Loosa
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I have one more story about our
campground. We were parked on the very last row of the campground and
there was a high bank behind us. While walking Maggie I noticed there
was a spring coming out of the bank, it looked for all the world like
a clear mountain spring. The following morning Maggie and I walked up
the road adjacent to the campground. It was a very steep climb up the
hill. Cresting the top I was surprised to find the area above the
“spring” was a water run off retention pond! Made me wonder how
many people drank from the spring!
Chapter Five-The storm approaches
Monday October 3
As this trip progressed I kept thinking
of ways to expand it. I was planning of returning on I-40 through
North Carolina and stopping to visit the Airborne Museum at Ft Bragg.
From there we would continue east to Atlantic Beach before running
the coast south to our home. But, as you know Hurricane Mathew was
bearing down on the US coast. Before we left home I checked the
Hurricane center website and there were no storms in the Atlantic. So
we left without securing the furniture on our balcony. Mathew spawned
and flew across the ocean in just a few days and now that the storm
was targeting South Carolina we would have to go straight home.
We had another unplanned occurrence,
Millie's late sister's husband died. Our new plan became, go home,
secure the condo, get funeral clothes and head to Martinsville
Virginia. We would be there to personally express our condolences to
her nieces and nephew and we would ride out the hurricane 200 miles
in from the coast.
We had a little time before the storm
and several people had told us we should visit Maggie Valley. The
nearby mountain vacation community was on our way home so we decided
to spend one day there. We drove the short distance and booked a site
at Cross Creek RV Park, which is right in the small village. The
campground had good WiFi and cable TV, but on the morning of our
departure I noticed my auto-transformer was boosting. That means the
campground electric service had dropped below 110 volts.
After setting up we did a driving tour
of the town and the nearby community of Waynesville. Granted my
opinion is based solely on a drive thru, but I think Maggie Valley is
more of a place you'd want to own a mountain cabin and less of a
place you'd go for a typical vacation.
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Maggie Valley NC
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The nearby town of Waynesville has done
what many towns, large and small, try but fail to do. That is keeping
the downtown main street vibrant after Walmart comes to town. I guess
it's where all the cabin owners of Maggie Valley go when they get
tired of watching squirrels.
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Waynesville NC
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I know my critique isn't fair after my
admittedly short visit, but I've traveled around some and I think I'm
pretty good at quick assessments.
Chapter Six-Heading towards Mathew
Tuesday October 4
We drove home today, a reversal of our
straight shot on the interstates. We refueled at the Flying J in
Columbia SC and arrived back in Myrtle beach in early afternoon.
There was excited anticipation in the
air, all the neighbors were asking, who's going and who's staying.
The Governor is evacuating the low country down Charleston way and is
saying to be prepared for an evac order for our neck of the woods
tomorrow.
I also have this note on my calendar,
“We finally finished drinking the awful Canadian bottled water.”
This may sound surprising, I know I had this preconceived notion that
water in Canada bubbled up from crystal mountain springs and tasted
like an elixir from the gods, but we found the locally bottled water
to be very heavily mineral laced.
Also from my calendar: Refueled Motor
home, all service stations have lines of cars at the pumps, imagine
the hardware and grocery stores are busy.
Wednesday October 5
We spent the day putting all the
balcony furniture in the spare bedroom and packing the motorhome for
the funeral trip to Virginia. I also took down the three ceiling fans
on the balcony, both as a precaution and to refurbish them. I need
to paint some rust spots and replace the remote controls when I hang
them back up. The buttons on the remotes have succumbed to the
humidity and only work intermittently. I am going to replace them
with a different brand and hope they hold up better outside.
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Preparing for the storm
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Governor is warning of an evac order
for Zone A (That's us) tomorrow.
Chapter Seven-The evacuation
Thursday October 6
Governor called for evacuation of Zone
A (areas closest to the beach) this afternoon. We decided to beat the
rush and left home at 6:30am this morning. We drove straight through
arriving at Indian Heritage Campground in Martinsville Virginia at
noon. We are 200 miles due west of the coast and 250 miles northwest
of Myrtle Beach where the hurricane is forecast to make landfall.
Took the jeep to the car wash, can't go
to a funeral with a dirty car!
Friday October 7
Rainy day, no wind, mid 60's, damp.
That's my calendar notes for the day. We did go out and visit Ernest
and Nancy for a bit. On the way home we stopped at Capt Tom's Seafood
Restaurant for dinner.
Saturday October 8
Today was Sam Moore's Funeral and it
poured rain all day. They had the service at the funeral home but
canceled the grave site interment because of the weather.
When we got back to the motorhome
Maggie was ready to go out and play in her pool so we put it under
the awning to get it out of the rain and put warm water in it. She's
a happy dog!
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Maggie's pool
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The hurricane is hitting Myrtle Beach
today, power went out at the condo at 5:38pm. It would remain out for
24 hours.
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SpringMaid pier in Myrtle Beach
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Sunday October 9
Today we visited with Millie's sister
Lucille at her new home in Greensboro North Carolina. It's only about
45 miles from the campground, Greensboro is just south of the border
and Martinsville is just north in Virginia. We also visited with
Jimmy and Brenda Self (Lucille's son) in their new home, also in
Greensboro.
Chapter Eight-Aftermath
Monday October 10
The power and internet service was
restored at our condo yesterday afternoon. I have a directors meeting
scheduled for Tuesday so we drove home this day. We had no storm
related road closures, detours, slow downs, nothing, it was a pretty
uneventful ride.
We did see the occasional tree down in
North Carolina but didn't see any significant damage until we got to
the area between Marion and Conway South Carolina. Mostly we saw many
trees down and some rivers out of their banks, but nothing blocking
any roads. Myrtle Beach was the same, mostly tree damage but here
some of the trees fell on the power lines.
In the days that followed all the rain
from Mathew started draining down from North Carolina and all the low
lying areas along the rivers suffered devastating flooding. The water
was as much as 18 feet above the normal height.
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Along the Wacamaw River in Conway SC
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As for our building, the Cane Patch
survived with no major damage. On the high ground here on the island,
we had no flooding. The biggest concern was one of the electrical
transformers in the building malfunctioned and we had four units with
only single phase current. It took the power company several days to
correct this. The only tragic event for the Cane Patch was one of our
residents died during the hurricane from a heart attack.
We would be many days cleaning up,
helping neighbors and doing some repairs, but life at the Cane Patch
goes on. The ocean will smooth out the beach, the sun will dry the
rain and soon in Myrtle Beach my daily acclamation will ring true
once again, “Every day's a holiday!”
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Every day really is a holiday when you live at the beach.
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