Tripping to Western North Carolina
Old Mast General store in Valle Crucis established in 1883
Along the way on Blue Ridge Parkway
On Our way to Linville Falls
On November 1st (Monday) 2021 Sharon and I along with Mike and Paula Virlee after getting our booster shots for Covid decided it was time to venture out after nealy 2 years of playing it safe. We only live 12 miles from the Punta Gorda airport where Allegiant Air flies out of. We boarded our flight early in the morning and flew to Asheville North Carolina. Upon arrival we picked up our rent car a set out on our first destination, finding some place to eat. We then begin a 2 hour drive north to our time share in Banner Elk (North West North Carolina). where we would be staying for 6 days.
Some of our goals while on the trip was to visit as many natural water
falls as possible, some on our own and some by a professional guide. Our
friends the Virlees likes on tap draft beer and believe me Breweries
are everywhere in this part of the country. Other highlights of the trip
was to visit Galleries, Small College Campuses, Old General and
Hardware stores., as well as many unique eating places as possible. As I have traveled around the world I have always been intrigued with OLD CHURCH BUILDING, and of course I had to grab a few camera shots of old churches along the way.
The 2nd day (Tuesday) we went to Grandfather Mountain and spend a bigger part of the day their with the high light of the day walking across the swinging bridge at an altitude of 5280 ft. and he beautiful Mountain scenery. We did experience a little rain and mixed snow while on the Mountain but we were prepared for what ever mother nature through at us. It was funny because the leaves turning usually would have been over by now but for some reason it was running a week to 2 weeks late. As a result we got to experience a couple of days when it was in its glory. The Oak, Hemlock, Maples and many other native trees were mind blowing, that in its self made the trip a success.
From there we went to "The Blowing Rock Park" a small park just outside of the town of Blowing Rock. Looking across the Blue Ridge mountain range the leaves were absolutely an amazing array of colors.
On the 3rd day (Wednesday) we woke up to a light snow that stuck to the trees and was absolutely beautiful. This day and for the next few days we spend at places like Valle Crucis where we visited an original General store by the name of Mast General Store established in 1883 and it is the original store. From there we went to Boone to the Turchin Center for Visual Arts on the campus of Appalachian State University. After leaving there we went to BooneShine Brewery for lunch. Then we went to cheap Joes art supply where our 2 lady artist bought some art supplies.
On the 4th day (Thursday) we went to Mose Cone Memorial park, and Blue Ridge Parkway viaduct where we explored the trail under the amazing articular bridge or road way that goes around the beautiful rock formations. Unique in that instead of going through the rock formation and destroying them the road way was built around the rock formation and landscape. From there we went back to Blowing Rock to explore down town where we ate at the "Speckle Trout". By then the fog begin to set in and we headed home.
Day 5 (Friday) we started our day at Newland where we explored the "Bobby Mclean Memorial Waterfalls park". From there we went to Linville River Falls park and hiked back around a mile up and over some pretty rough terrain and saw some pretty incredible waterfalls (Linville Falls).
On the 6th of November we packed up and started the 2nd part of our adventure were we traveled back South to the town of Cashier to another time share called Lodges of Trilium (a Golf Course Community). On the way to Cashiers we would be going through a small town that my dad was born in called Leicester. When he was 6 his dad lost his wife (dads mother) and decided to start anew by moving to southern Missouri where he spend the rest of his life.
Leicester is not much of a town now days (actually a bedroom area for Asheville) but it does have a street called Hawkins Drive. I had not been to this area since 1976 when I went with my 2 brothers to a Hawkins reunion. So nothing looked familiar. After locating and driving Hawkins Drive we stopped to take a picture of the Hawkins Drive road sign. While taking that picture a mother and her older daughter was driving by and stopped to inquire as to what was going on. We told then we had the same name as the sign and was intrigued and was doing some exploring. We ask if their were any Hawkins's now living on this road. They told us that they were the only Hawkins's that lived on this street any more. After a short discussion the younger lady did not think their ancestor line was of the same as mine. I assumed she thought this mainly because I didn't recognize any of her ancestors first names nor did she recognize any of my side of the family. She said her linage indicated that a couple of her ancestors were instrumental in setting up the original Asheville township. She took our contact information and indicated she would do some exploring to see if we had any connection and would get back to me. We then clicked on Apply maps and started on down the road toward Cashiers.
Old Methodist Church in Highland a town just South of Cashiers
On Sunday Nov 7th the next day after our arrival in Cashiers NC we ate at the Ugly Dog Pub and later visited the White side art Gallery where we saw some very unusual Art.
On Monday the 8th we ventured farther South to a Highlands NC. We were very impressed with this small quaint town. It is a place I could spend a lot of time in the future especially both in and around the town and the area. We liked it so well we stopped by the next day on the 9th on our way to mark off one of our bucket list events, Highlands Ziplines. We had never did a Zipline even though we had tried once in Jamaica on a cruise. We had scheduled to do one ahead of time in Jamaica but a few days before we got there a Hurriciane came through and rearranged a lot of the terrain so it was not open.
The first day in Highlands we ate at the Bridge Restaurant. A good variety of offering and good meal for the money. On the second day we decided to eat a a Mexican Restaurant called Los Vaqueros. It was a good change from the meals we had along the way while we were in the Mountains in North Carolina.
Shoal Creek and old mill
On November 10 we had arranged for a private guide to take us around the area to seven different Water Falls. We did a lot of hiking and certainly went to areas that most would not know about or want to go to on their own. Some was pretty challenging for us but extremely beautiful. Very glad we hired the guide and would do it again. After the tour we went to Brevard NC and ate at the Restaurant called Square Root. Afterwards we visited a couple great Galleries. One in particular we enjoyed was called Lucy Clark Gallery.
The next day on the November 11th we checked out of our time share and started moving back toward Asheville where we were to catch our Alligiant Airplane flight the next morning on the 12th. back to Punta Gorda.
While heading back to Asheville we had to go through Brevard. While there we stopped at others places of interest. The first was 3 Oak Handcrafted furniture. Their furniture was all hand made right their in the facility we visited. In 2019 and 20 three young talented guys decided to start their own business building special furniture out of wood from the area. Wood that they (or someone local) harvested that was being cut down or destroyed for some reason. One was in charge of harvesting, another was in charge of sawing and the 3rd one was in charge of running the retail part. All three come together and built the unique furniture. It eventually was displayed in an Old car garage where the front was set up to sell the product and the back behind large glass walls was the place where they made the finished product.
We later ate at a very unusual dining facility called Marco Trattori. After Lunch we visit another Old Hardware store called Harris Hardware and Farm Supply. It has been in business for several generation. We had hear of this old business from a neighbor in our community here in Deep Creek, Punta Gorda Fl. He had just moved here and was looking to borrow a tiller which he had indicated on a post in our Nextdoor communication foam. We had one so we offered to loan it to him. In our general conversation we mentioned we would be traveling to the Asheville NC area. He said that is near where he use to live. He told us his family owned and old story in Brevard NC and has for many generations. The more he told us the more interesting it seemed. It became a must visit if nothing else to tell the now owner (cousin) that he said to say Hi.
From there we traveled on to Asheville and settled in to our hotel after we returned our Enterprise car. The next morning on November 11 we would take a shuttle to the Airport an catch a 747 back to Punta Gorda.
Comments