Blog Summer Hiatus

 

We are now at that point of the year where we stop in Knoxville for a couple of months which means the blog posts will take a break.  I really don’t want to give you reruns!

BUT, before I take a break with my blog let me get you caught up with our last two stops.  In my last blog I told you we had arrived at Helen, Georgia where we spent a week.  It is a nice little town in the mountains of North Georgia.  What they did about 40 years ago was reinvent themselves as an alpine town to attract tourists, which they have succeeded at.  The buildings in the main part of the small town are all done in the alpine/Bavarian style and the signs, foods and some shops have a German influence.  Besides walking the shops of the town it appears the big draw is tubing down the little river that runs through the town  For $3 to $5 you can take a 2 hour tube ride down a slow moving river (really a small stream).  We viewed this activity while having lunch overlooking the stream and I could see the potential problems for adults, the stream is very low and there are a lot of rocks.  We decided to take the trip the next day and I was right, it is difficult for a larger person.  I kept getting stuck and it was very difficult to try and get out of the tube!  In some places the stream does not move very fast and a traffic jam quickly ensues as there are many people on the river.  If the stream was a little deeper all over it would have been more enjoyable, for me.  Fran enjoyed it, except for my constant complaining!!!

Here are some pictures from the town.

They built this mini-waterfalls along the walkway going to the shops.

  You can make out a tuber in the stream, and can see the big rocks.

The RV park was quite interesting.  There are two parks just about next to each other.  One charges over $50 per night, which is way over priced for the area.  The other one, where we stayed charges $22 per night.  The both got about the same reviews except that the more expensive one had concrete slabs for their RV spaces.  The interesting thing about our RV park, in talking with the owner, is that it appears he does not really care about getting customers.  The park is dated and a little run down but the space we had was a huge pull through with trees but still allowed me to use our satellite dish.  After a weekly discount and camping club discount it worked out to $17 per night for full hook ups.  He does have about half the park occupied with permanent residents.  While we were there for the week he got 4 other campers like us. 

From Helen, Georgia we drove to Asheville, North Carolina staying just outside in Candler.  We are here for a week, leaving tomorrow (Tuesday).  The highlight was our two daughters, who live in Knoxville drove over the weekend to go sightseeing with us.  Our middle daughter, Kelly, turned 30 last week so this was somewhat of a birthday celebration.  She enjoys beer, as opposed to the rest of the family who enjoy wine, so since Asheville has a large number of craft breweries we figured it was a good place for her.  We took a van tour of 3 breweries on Saturday afternoon which was very fun.  They explain the brewing process and then let you taste (actually drink as much as you want while there!) 3 to 4 of their beers.  Following the tour we visited another brew pub that was next door to where we were dropped off.  From there we finished the day by having some wine, and beer, on the patio at the Grove Park Inn watching the sunset.

One of the tasting rooms we visited.

On the patio at the Grove Park Inn

Sunset view from our table.

On Sunday we visited the Biltmore Estate which is a huge attraction for the town.  Not sure if it still is, but at one time it was the largest home in the United States.  It was built back in the early 1900’s by one the heirs to the Vanderbilt fortune.  It is an amazing tour to take of the house and the grounds, which also includes free wine tasting at their estate winery.

Prior to the arrival of our daughters, Fran and I took a trip to nearby Chimney Rock State Park, which was privately owned until just a few years ago.  It is a large granite formation that gives you a fantastic view of the area.  Fortunately they have installed an elevator to take you to the top, otherwise you have to climb something like 500 steps.

  Chimney Rock from the parking lot.

  This is a view of the top of Chimney Rock and you can see the view in the background.

Also on the grounds is a 444 foot waterfall that is a short hike away.

The next day we took a trolley tour of the town which gave us a great overview of the city. 

  Part of the tour takes you through the historic part of town where there are many restored homes.

  This is a picture of the original part of the Grove Park Inn.

We had a great week and enjoyed the visit with our daughters.

Route:  From Helen,, Georgia we took US 23 north to Interstate 40 east into Candler, North Carolina.  From Candler we took Interstate 40 west to US 321 into Lenoir City, Tennessee.

North Carolina, South Carolina and now Georgia

When I last wrote we were just arriving in Marston, North Carolina, which is near Pinehurst and where we were meeting up with Fran’s former boss and a couple of co-workers for the July 4th weekend.
We had a great time visiting with our friends and lounging around their pool.  The highlight of the weekend for me was playing one of the Pinehurst golf courses.  If you are a golf fan then you know that the U.S. Open men’s and women’s tournament was just held here on course number 2.  As my skills are not up to that level, and number 2 is closed for repairs, we played number 3.  This is a much shorter course and more in line with how I play.  I have not played in many months, and generally do not play 18 holes, so this was a challenge for me.  Although I did not shoot below 100, I did play the entire 18 holes on one ball, so I take that as a major accomplishment.  It was a beautiful day for golf and I had a great time.  Following golf we met up with the rest of our group for lunch on the patio of the Pinehurst clubhouse, which overlooks the 18th green of course number 2.
Here are some pictures of our visit with our friends:
  It is 5 o’clock somewhere!
Fran and her former co-workers
  The whole group.

While in the area we took a drive to Fayetteville, where Fort Bragg is located, to see the Airborne and Special Forces Museum.  We actually visited two museums as there is an 82nd Airborne museum on the base and a much nicer, and larger, Airborne museum in downtown Fayetteville.  While at the 82nd museum we ran into “Larry the Cable Guy” who was visiting.  Not sure what his visit was all about but he had a large entourage which included local TV news crews.
Here are pictures from the nicer Airborne museum in downtown Fayetteville:
Entrance area
  Vietnam helicopter exhibit.
This museum is free and the exhibits are just fantastic as they are life size visuals of equipment and events.


We had a great visit with our friends.  After Pinehurst we moved on to Roebuck, South Carolina, which is just outside of Spartanburg.  While here we caught up on our chores but did take a drive into nearby Greenville, South Carolina.  What a beautiful city.  It has a very nice restored Main Street that is tree lined with many shops and restaurants.  They also have a small historic district and a beautiful park, Falls Park, in the downtown area  We stopped to walk through the park and then have lunch at a French bistro that overlooks the falls.
The falls at Falls Park
They have a walking bridge, Liberty Bridge, in the park that is a curved suspension bridge.  Pretty cool!
Lunch at the bistro,
We have now moved to Helen, Georgia, which is in the mountains of north Georgia.  We will be here for a week.
Route: From Marston we picked up US 1 to US 74 to Interstate 485 to Interstate 85 into Roebuck, South Carolina.  From Roebuck we took Interstate 85 to highway 17 into Helen, Georgia.

Yoder, Yoder and Yoder!

 

From Michigan we headed into the Amish country, Holmes County, of Ohio.  According to what I read this area has the highest concentration of Amish.  It did not seem as touristy as Lancaster County in Pennsylvania which we visited last year, but the area is just as busy.  Forget trying to drive around on Friday or Saturday as the roads are clogged.  All the roads are two lanes and are shared with Amish buggies so it can be slow going.  We strolled through Berlin, Ohio which has shops and a couple of restaurants.  We drove the countryside to see Lehman’s Hardware and Heini’s Cheese Shop.  I highly recommend Heini’s to just “graze” the aisles to sample all the cheeses!

It was nice place to visit but it was very rainy during our stay.  In fact the county was under a flood warning the entire time we were there.  It has been a long time since we have seen rain come down so heavy. 

From Ohio we moved to Max Meadows, Virginia, which is near Wytheville.  This was just a weekend stop over on our way to Pinehurst, North Carolina.  The funny thing was that in planning the route I was just looking for something decent in between our stop in Ohio and our destination in North Carolina.  I found this RV park that had good reviews in Max Meadows.  When we got off the interstate to get to the park it was déjà vu.  I immediately told Fran this all looks familiar and as we approached the park she and I both said we recognized it and had been here before.  Sure enough I checked our calendar and we had stopped here about a year ago, just for one night, on our way to Knoxville after our east coast swing last year. 

We have now arrived in Marston, North Carolina which is about 20 miles from Pinehurst where we are meeting with Fran’s old boss and some of her former co-workers for the July 4th weekend.

 

Route:  From Millersburg, Ohio we took Highway 39 east to Interstate 77 south into Max Meadows, Virginia (near Wytheville).  From Max Meadows we took Interstate 77 south to Interstate 74 to Highway 211 to Highway 15/501 to Marston, North Carolina.