Biltmore to Boone – Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Weather clear – Temp 62°
Morning on the French Broad River had a slight chill in the air but the sun warmed things up nicely. The short drive across the river to the Biltmore Estate was quick with little to no traffic and we found our way to the RV parking lot C and grabbed the shuttle to the main house.
Biltmore House is one of my favorite places to visit in the past hitting it during all four seasons with a different motif decorated for each season. My favorite times are during the Christmas or fall times of the year, it’s beautiful. Biltmore is a large (6950.4 acre or 10.86 square miles) 250 room private estate and now a tourist attraction near Asheville, North Carolina. Biltmore House, the main residence, is a Châteauesque-style mansion built by then 25 year old, George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately owned house in the United States, at 178,926 square feet of floor space (135,280 square feet of living area (4 acres under roof). Vanderbilt's decision to locate his mountain mansion near Asheville, NC, led to his purchase of a total of 125,000 acres surrounding the site. Today, Biltmore Estate encompasses approximately 8,000 acres, including formal and informal gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape architecture in America. Vanderbilt also wanted his mountain home to provide family and friends with recreational pleasures: an indoor swimming pool, bowling alley and gymnasium are located downstairs. I believe it was the first indoor plumbing home in the nation with running water and sewage lines installed in the many bathrooms and kitchens.
The gardens around the house are in bloom from April through November’s first frost with a wide variety of plants, flowers, and shrubs around the grounds. The winery is about five miles west of the main house in Antler Hill Village with wine tasting and tours included in the admission price. There are two places to spend the night on the grounds at the Inn at Biltmore Estate and the Village Hotel which is located near the winery.
Today the house was abuzz with people and school groups touring the house and grounds. We started with a cup of coffee and sweet treat to get ready for the tour inside the house. One of the added attractions this visit was the Titanic collection of costumes from the movie on display in the different rooms. The exhibit included photos from the movie with the explanation of the costume piece worn by the different actors and actresses.
The house tour wound its way around the main floor then up to the second and third floors then down to the basement level showing the different bedrooms, dining rooms, bowling alley, swimming pool and servant’s quarters and kitchens. It is always a fun and informative tour seeing the art and books on display.
Making our way outside and down the hill to the gardens it was walking into a sea of colors and the tulips were in bloom and covered several acres in varying colors. The paths winding around the different greenhouses were filled with many species of plants and flowers. The tour stated over 3 million plants were planted around the estate not including all the grafted plants done on the grounds.
It was a fun day seeing everything in bloom and I cannot wait until the exhibit Chihuly at Biltmore starts in May through October 7. I will have to make another trip up to see it after this adventure.
The road north out of Asheville started the Blue Ridge Parkway climbing up the mountains and running the ridge lines across the mountain range. The scenery was great but the trees and flowers were not in bloom yet as the elevation still had its winter coat on things. There had been snow all along the Parkway last Saturday so the normal summer greens seen along the roadway were not there.
We drove along seeing the rural farm lands and houses scattered along the route and made it to Grandfather Mountain when the road once again was closed off making for another change in our route along Hwy 221. This stopped just before the Linville viaduct so driving 221 from Linville to Blowing Rock was one dangerous curve after another. I had forgotten how bad the road was back in my youth I visited Linville, North Carolina and Grandfather Mountain every year flying in the Masters of Hang Gliding Championship tournament. It is a beautiful area with the mountain elevation at 5,939 feet. I came here for six years flying with some of the best hang glider pilots in the world as this competition was by invitation only. Hugh Morton owned the mountain and hosted the Masters tournament every year and also had an exhibition team flying. We landed down by the lake on a helipad and I remember there were several water landings each year. Hugh passed on several years ago and his family keeps the mountain going with tourists and the golf and country club
This meant the campground I had wanted to stop was inaccessible on the closed road so now as the sun was setting it was time to find somewhere else to spend the night. Boone, NC had a Walmart I could boondock in but there was a nice campground along a steam just outside town so Traveling Life’s Highways took another slight detour along the way.
I didn’t really talk with anyone today who I wanted to write about but the shuttle bus driver from the RV parking lot to the house and back was a hoot spouting off little known facts of information about Biltmore which you had to take with a grain of salt because he may have stretched the stories a bit along our way.