Chapel Hill, NC

We spent a few days in Chapel hill,NC on our way to the coast. Chapel Hill is home to the University of North Carolina. Walking around, the town reminded us of Ann Arbor-home of the University of Michigan. There are lots of young people, restaurants, coffee shops, book stores and bars. The campus looks a bit like colonial Williamsburg. It also have has one of our favorite stores, Trader Joe’s, where we managed to stock up on our favorite items.

Not too far away is the historic site-Stagville-that has a number of original buildings from the colonial plantation of the same name. This plantation was founded before the Revolutionary War and continued until the 1950’s. Before the Civil War, it was the largest plantation in North Carolina with over 30, 000 acres and 900 slaves. The plantation survived the war and continued on using share croppers, including many former slaves that returned to the plantation as free workers/share croppers.

The slaves built all the buildings with local materials including making the bricks. In the slave quarters, where the buildings were put up quickly, the bricks did not have time to dry properly. You can see where thumb prints and even the toe prints of a small child are visible still in the bricks.

Today, there remains 71 acres and a number of original buildings, including the largest barn in North Carolina when it was build just before the Civil War- slave designed and built. Also some slave quarters and the original plantation home, and the family grave plots.

http://www.stagville.org/

North Carolina Transportation Museum

Before leaving the Salisbury area, we visited the nearby town of Spencer and the North Carolina Transportation Museum. It has a number of displays of aircraft and automobiles, but it is really about trains and railroad history. The museum is on the site of the Southern Railways locomotive repair facility which was established in 1896. The railroad business became a key to the economy of the area for many years.

At its peak the facility employed around 3, 000 people and has one of the largest roundhouses in the United States and one of the few still in existence. There are interactive displays throughout the exhibits and dozens of locomotives and other train units to explore. These include private coaches, mail, and hospital cars.

Flat Stanley particularly enjoyed the story about the stray dog-Owney- who found his way onto train mail cars and became a good luck charm for the trains he rode on, since those trains never experienced an accident and finally became an unofficial mascot for the mail service. Finally, in 1895, Owney made a round the world trip through Asia and Europe with the mail bags on trains and steamships, safely returning to the United States.

http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/2c1f_owney.html

It was a fun visit for us and a must see for the train enthusiast.

http://www.nctrans.org/

Mt. Airy, NC AKA Mayberry

North of Salisbury, NC is the town of Mt. Airy, NC, which has become a tourist Mecca of sorts. But before I get any farther, I want to announce that we have a new member in our traveling team. Flat Stanley has joined us and will be traveling with us on our adventure. He comes to us from Mrs. Baxter’s third grade class in Fort Walton Beach, FL. Mrs. Baxter is our daughter-Heather. If you are unfamiliar with him, the below link will explain all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Stanley

MT. Airy is the hometown of Andy Griffith, a well known TV and movie actor, whose most famous role is that of Andy Taylor, Sherriff of Mayberry, NC- in the Andy Griffith Show. Despite the fact this show aired nearly 50 years ago; most TV viewers today are familiar with the show via many reruns. It is on satellite nearly every day and I confess to watching it often. The town of Mayberry was modeled after his home town and Mt. Airy has enjoyed a steady stream of tourists visiting Griffith’s home town. I am told that they get around 300 visitors every day. In two festivals based on the show, they get nearly 500, 000 visitors in two weekends. No town could plan on such good fortune.

We had lunch is Andy’s favorite diner-Snappy Lunch and had the famous pork chop sandwich, which was ok.

http://www.thesnappylunch.com/

Mt. Airy has gone out of its way to mimic the TV show in its downtown area. It includes the diner, barbershop, courthouse and other features that appeared in the TV show. The barber shop named after the one in the TV show has been operated by the same person for 60 years. Everyone is welcome inside and often he takes the tourist’s picture for his wall, which is covered with photos.

Needless to say there are also lots TV show related gifts for sale around town.
It is a pleasant place to visit and even more fun if you enjoyed the TV show.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Griffith

We also made a short trip north of town to see the world’s largest open pit granite mine. Looks like lots of counter tops are still left in the ground there.

Salisbury, NC

We have camped in the hills surrounding Salisbury, NC for a week exploring the city and the surrounding area. The campground was very friendly and full for the Halloween celebration. Salisbury has been an important city since colonial times, being the largest city in western North Carolina and perhaps seen its peak just before the start of the Civil War.

In the early years, Daniel Boone, among others was dispatched from here to explore the wilderness called Kentucky. Andrew Jackson studied law here and was admitted to the bar in Rowan County in 1785. Later President Washington would spend two days here during his southern tour after his election.

The Civil War disrupted the economy and life of this city and left it to find a new identity. During the Civil War, the confederacy purchased a failed business complex near the downtown area and established a prisoner of war camp. This camp, designed to hold 2,500 prisoners, eventually held over 11,000. The conditions here were extremely difficult and the prisoners suffered greatly. Depending on the version you care to believe, between 3,500 and 7,500 prisoners died in this camp. General Stoneman raided the area during the same period as Sherman’s march to the sea and burned the prison complex to the ground and destroyed all of the Confederate army supplies that have been removed to the area for safe keeping from Sherman. Unlike Sherman, he did not destroy the civilian structures.

We visited the site, but nothing is left but one building. The area on and around the site today is depressing in its appearance. Perhaps it is only a reflection of its sad history.

Besides the large number of antebellum homes remaining, the other interesting site is a national cemetery that holds the graves of the fallen from all wars since the beginning of this country.

Happy Halloween

Crossing paths

As we travel around the country, we do try to have a plan of some sort that is altered on a regular basis based on weather and newly discovered opportunities to explore. We also try and keep track of others who wander the country in RV’s, sometimes via their blogs. A week or so ago we found that our friends Dan and Corrie Ryan were slowly heading down the east coast and would generally be in the same area as ourselves in the same time frame.

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/

So while we were driving to our current location near Asheville, North Carolina, we gave them a call and managed to come up with a plan to meet. They arrived a few days ago and parked next door. It has been a great opportunity to catch up on what has been going on and to have some fun. We all headed into downtown Asheville to explore the city. The downtown area was very busy on Saturday with a number of events. The architecture was largely from the 1920/30’s with an art deco appeal. Music and the arts are a big part of the local scene. We did our best to fit in.

http://www.exploreasheville.com/index.aspx

After the downtown area, we visited the national famous Grove Park Inn, which has provided accommodation and leisure activities for locals and visitors alike for nearly one hundred years.

http://www.groveparkinn.com/Leisure/TheResort/History/

Dan is really into accomplishing a number of mile stones along the road. One of these was completing a journey along the whole Blue Ridge Parkway; we drove those areas of the parkway that he missed when he diverted to visit with us. On the way to the parkway we managed to visit the Stompin grounds hall of fame during the world competition and got a quick idea of what that is all about.

http://discovermaggievalley.com/_attrac/stomgrou.htm

This also allowed us to hit the shops in Cherokee, NC just before turning into the Parkway.

http://www.cherokeesmokies.com/

As before, the parkway was beautiful in its fall colors and we ended up taking even more pictures.

http://www.blueridgeparkway.org/

Between all these travels, we managed to get in a few games to keep the spirit of competition alive. Two nights of playing Mexican Train dominoes with a poorly written rule book, led to multiple versions of the rules being applied, but in the end Corrie and I tied as the big winners. Today, to break the tie, we all played a round of miniature golf, and despite the ladies getting in some lucky holes in one, with, in my mind, some excessive celebrations, I modestly must report that I took the day.

It has been a great visit and tomorrow we again hit the road on our journeys.

Cataloochee Valley

Cataloochee Valley is located in The Great Smokey Mountain National Park. It is in a remote and rugged mountain valley with limited access that includes narrow winding unpaved roads. In the second half of the 1800’s this was the site of a well developed settlement which was centered on farming. A number of buildings from this period have been preserved in the national park.

We traveled the mountain roads primarily to see the beautiful country in full fall colors and to hopefully see some of the elk that have been reintroduced into the area. The road trip was exciting but certainly not dangerous and the views of the mountains and valleys were alone worth the trip. There are many streams to fish in and trails to hike. Some of these trails are not for the faint of heart.

We were also lucky to catch a large portion of the elk herd grazing in an open meadow while enroute to see some of the old settlement buildings.

It was a great way to spend a sunny fall day in North Carolina.

http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/cataloochee.htm

Biltmore Estate

A visit to this area would not be complete without a visit to the Biltmore Estate. The Biltmore House was built by George W. Vanderbilt and was officially opened in 1895. The estate originally included 125, 000 acres. After his death in 1914, his widow Edith and only child Cornelia continued to live in the house. They began opening the house to the public in 1930, to help local tourist business and obtain funding to support the estate.

Today the property remains in the family and consists of the house, winery, farmland, the Biltmore Inn and 8000 acres. The house is huge with 175, 000 square feet and 250 rooms. Also on site are gift shops, restaurants, and other related attractions.

We visited mid-week, but still found it very busy, with a well controlled system for pushing every one thru the house. No photography is allowed inside, but there are numerous web sites with interior photos. It took over two hours to walk the four floors plus basement. It was indeed impressive, but made me wonder what of ego led to its building for a family of three and guests. The term robber baron comes to mind. It was an interesting place to visit, but not a very warm place to live, in my opinion. It was more like a upscale hotel then a home.

The gardens and grounds are also on a grand scale and there is a lot to do besides the house tour. It is indeed a must see, despite the rather high entry fee for the tour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biltmore_Estate

http://www.biltmore.com/

Great Smoky Mountains

North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountain region is centered on the National park. We are camped just east of the park in Waynesville, NC. We are fortunate to be here during the fall color changes in the mountain forest areas. The Blue Ridge Parkway passes thru some of the area and enters into the national park and is an excellent scenic drive. We saw one group of local wildlife in the form of turkeys that are common in the area.

http://www.blueridgeparkway.org/

http://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm

Our first day trip is a drive along a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway to enjoy the fall colors and natural beauty of the area. We also crossed into the National Park and stopped at the visitor’s center and the Mountain Farm Museum. The drive along the parkway reminded me a great deal of the drive along the Colonial Parkway in Virginia during the fall. We traveled this route a number of times while visiting Williamsburg, VA.

As I have noted before, there is nothing like an important national treasure to attract the gaudy tourist industry and this area is no exception. As we descended out of the national park we were caught up in a large area of tourist traps including those inside the Cherokee Indian Reservation, where a huge addition to the Casino is underway. We did stop at an older section along the road to pick up some fresh fruit and perused the other wares for sale.