It ended up being three guys and myself chatting and hanging
out; one worked at a tire store, another worked for a utility company, and
another was retired, I think. The tire
store guy was a regular and it was funny because I had a roll and silverware
while he was being ignored. The utility
guy who we ended up calling Mr. Glitters, because he came in with glitter on
his face from being in the toy section of Kmart (ahh-haa!), and myself were
giving the tire guy all kinds of a hard time about the pitfalls and pluses of
being a regular. Meanwhile, the retired
guy was talking about feeding his kids and grandkids, which happen to be living
with him. The retired guy was buying all
of us rounds of drinks and they were all telling me about the Asheville area
and North Carolina. They were also all
razing me about if Utah would allowed plural husbands for me because they
wouldn’t mind be a candidate. It was a
fun time. Mr. Tire guy told me to come
back and spend more than just one day.
He would be here for me to find when I came back this way.
 |
| Photo- Biltmore Village. |
The next morning, I was on my way to the Biltmore Village
and hoping to take a peek at the Biltmore.
The Biltmore was the largest privately owned home and was built by the
George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895. It’s still owned by the Vanderbilt family and
is quite the tourist attraction in the area.
It’s also about a $50 fee just to walk in the door and then you can shop
or walk through parts of the gilded house and HUGE garden area. It sounded like it could take hours and
sounded very expensive which wasn’t on my agenda for the day. I put this on my list of come back and see
later.
I did however take a bit of time to visit the nearby
Biltmore Village which is a quaint little shopping upscale shopping village
near the Biltmore. In fact, the village
was built by the Vanderbilt’s for the employees of the Biltmore Estate. The village covers about a five block city
area. There’s little cottage like houses
which contain various shops and restaurants.
There are cute little street lamps, brick sidewalks, trolley tourist
cars, and horse drawn carriages too.
There’s also a Catholic Church that takes up a large corner area. I wandered around the area with plenty of
free parking (something Helen, GA could learn here). The place was packed with all kinds of holiday
shoppers.
 |
| Photo- The outside of the glass art shop in Biltmore Village. |
There were some wonderful shops. My favorite was a shop that had blown glass
art. Some of the round glass balls
looked like they had flower blossoms inside.
Another shop that I thought was fun was a Christmas Store with all kinds
of thing Christmas. In fact, I got a
kick out of a tree that was self-flocking with little white pebble-like beads that would
shoot out from the top of the tree and be caught on the tree or by a round
green saucer at the bottom of the tree.
Sorry, I didn’t venture a look on the price tag on this one. I know all of you want one of these for
Christmas. J
 |
| Photo- In the River Arts Area of Asheville, NC. |
Next, I drove over to the River Arts area in Asheville and
on the way I tried to take a peek at the Biltmore but the trees surrounding it
are like a full forest. I drove along
the river and down by the railroad tracks for a bit. Then off to the side there is an area that
has old brick warehouse buildings. This
is the river Arts area of Asheville. I
guess I was hoping for more. It was just
one large warehouse row with artists’ studios inside and a large graveled
parking lot out front. I explored a few
studio areas and there was some wonderful art but there wasn’t much else out
that way. They needed a restaurant or a
coffee shop or something out there. At
one end of the warehouse row, there was a large antique store. I drove back to the interstate and headed
west towards the Great Smokey Mountains National Park which I had planned to
visit for most of the day.
 |
| Photo- The Blue Ridge Parkway. |
From Asheville I headed west and then south to Maggie
Valley. I stopped for a quick lunch at a
fast food chain restaurant called Bojangles which is a bit like a KFC but very
southern type touches. You could order
dirty rice as a side and it appeared that everything on the menu had a Cajun
version to it. Next, I headed west to Soco
Gap and turned onto the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The Blue Ridge Parkway runs along the spine of the Smokey Mountains and
there are some amazing views but I will warn you there are some steep and curvy
areas of road. But with these views it
very worth it. Thankfully, there was no
snow yet or this section would have been closed. The elevation of the road runs between 5000
to 6000 ft. and closes in the winter quite often.
 |
| Photo- One of several views along the Blue Ridge Highway. |
Next, I took a right hand turn onto Hwy 441 and was at the
Oconaluftee Visitor’s Center for the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. I turned in and went into the center. It was packed and there were tons of people
sitting listening to some live Christmas music being played by local people. People were singing along with the
music. I talked to a parks employee and every
Saturday before Christmas they have this event.
All of the musicians are locals and it’s like what they call a “front
porch” session. They all just show up
and they go around and have each musician pick a Christmas song that they would
like to play. One of the guys on a banjo
played “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” which had everyone laughing by the
end of the tune. I sat down and enjoyed
singing along for a while. It was a very
festive atmosphere. People and musicians
would come and go.
 |
| Photo- Some southern Christmas FUN at the visitor's center. |
After a while, I got up to go see the park but first I went
through the museum part of the visitor’s center. It told the history of the park and how it
was finally made a national park in 1934.
The museum told the story of how the roads were built for the park with
the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp.) during the Great Depression. The museum talked about the culture and the
life in the area but what got me most was there was a HUGE fake pig hanging in
an area. It was a strange site to see at
a National Park Visitor’s Center.
 |
| Photos- The Great Smokey Mountains! |
Next, I drove through the park and stopped here and there to
take pictures. It was rather cold and
very windy day. I was a bit disappointed
that the road to Clingman’s Dome was closed for the season. At 6643 ft., Clingman’s
Dome is the highest point east of the Mississippi. There were quite a few roads to trail heads
that were closed in the park. I just
stopped here and there; deciding not to do any hiking today. Eventually, I got to the other side of the
park and the Sugarlands Visitor’s Center where I stopped to use the
restrooms. I also got a bumper sticker
and a couple of postcards too.
Then, I was off heading north through the crowded town of
Gatlinburg. It was stop and go traffic
coming out of the park and I was so glad that I decided to drive into the park
from the south. From there, I took some
back roads and worked my way up to I-40.
On I-40, I headed west to Knoxville, TN where I would stay the
night. The sun was going down and it was
starting to rain so I slowed down and took my time. It was dark when I finally got checked into
my hotel for the night.
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