Friday, November 15, 2019

Asheville NC 2018


October 20, 2018

Asheville Trip

     We left Geneva and drove to the Kentucky Horse Park. They only had Primitive sites. Signed up for two nights at $58.00 and stayed in the open field to the south. We left the Jeep hooked up and ran the Generator to keep warm as the temperature dropped to 27 degrees and the wind was terrible. Thankfully we were able to move to a full hook up site the next morning with only a slight increase in cost.

October 21, Sunny 48 degrees

          Decided to use the 300 best drives from the National Geographic book and drove the Red River Gorge. This is a beautiful winding road through the eastern mountains of Tennessee and had a very narrow tunnel. We stopped at the Glade visitor center, they had a barn loom on display. Then we stopped at the Sky Bridge and walked the ¼ mile jaunt to the top of the arch.

 Skyway Bridge
 Red River Gorge tunnel

Red River Gorge East Tennessee
October 22

          We drove to Asheville East KOA and as soon as we were set up we headed to My Fathers restaurant in Black Mountain where we enjoyed the Pizza. We have stopped here before and it is one of our favorite restaurants.
Swannanoa River through KOA campground
October 23

          Went to Black Mountain to the stores and looked around, Jay enjoyed the old hardware store downtown. For lunch we went to Veranda CafĂ© and enjoyed their fare.

October 24

          Drove to the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway and looked at the local artist’s works. We then ventured further up the Blue Ridge to Greybeard Mountain view. Leaves were turning but not as beautiful as they were in 2017.
 Folk Art Center
 Blue Ridge Parkway
 Blue Ridge Parkway
Blue Ridge Parkway tunnel

October 25, Sunny

          Chimney Rock SP was the destination for the day with a great winding road from Black Mountain to the park. After you enter the park and pay your entry fee you continue a couple of miles to the parking lot and take a elevator to the Visitor center and then it is a short walk and stairway to the viewing platform at the top of the chimney. It was very windy or super windy as Sherry says. We returned to the town of Chimney Rock and feasted on hamburgers at River Watch Bar and Grille. This sets right on the river that travels through town.
 Chimney Rock State Park
 Chimney Rock State Park
 Chimney Rock State Park
Chimney Rock State Park

          We went to see “Avenue Q” at the Asheville Playhouse in the evening and really enjoyed the performance.

October 26

          SAFF or Southern Appalachian Fiber Festival was our destination for the day and was the main reason we come to Asheville this time of year. Sherry really enjoys all the fiber goodness. She makes several purchases to weave into her beautiful scarves.  We then headed over to Sierra Nevada Brewery for supper and enjoyed the walk around self-guided tour before supper.

October 27

          Downtown Asheville to Appalachian yarns for some more yarn then we ran into an artist show. Hotworks.com had booths set up downtown and we enjoyed the crafts and artwork.

          We had lunch at Farm Burger restaurant which was super busy but worth the wait. We went into a Chocolate shop before but the line was so long people were backed clear out the door and onto the street. A waitress came where we were just inside the door and told the people there not to block the door as it was a fire exit. So we just left and then searched until we found Farm Burger.

October 28

          Travel day back to Kentucky Horse Park for an overnight before returning to Geneva the next day.