Our RV Adventures

We left Asheville about 10 am this morning heading about 210 miles east to Graham, NC to visit my cousin and her family.

Jan started panicking early because this was the same route we had take to Grandfather Mountain and she was worried about a fairly steep grade that we had to go down, or at least, fairly steep for around here.

It was a 6% grade and had 3 runaway truck ramps along the downgrade, but I kept it slow and used the exhaust brake to keep our speed under 45 mph.

We had done 10% grades in Canada so I knew we wouldn’t have any problems here. 

But Jan has to have something to worry about.  If she doesn’t have anything to worry about, she worries about that.

We got into Graham about 2 pm and park the coach at a local WalMart, so we could unhook the toad and drive it out to my cousin’s house.

They wanted us to park at their house and I wanted to check it out the driveway first.  I’m glad I did it that way because I found out I didn’t know where her house was.

I had the address, but I found out later that there had been some street name changes and her place was now hard to find.  Even UPS had problems.

But some cell phone directions got us there, and after checking out the driveway and talking for a while,  Jan and I went back to get the coach, which was about 6 miles away.

We weren’t going to hook the toad back up. Jan would just follow me in it.

I had a little problem getting into the driveway because a guy was trying to pass me on the left as I was trying to swing wide left to turn right into the driveway.

I dropped the outside right dual rear wheel into the ditch which made the coach lean over, but I powered it on thru with no problems.

Jan, of course, just knew the coach was going to turn over when she saw it happen.  But then, that gave her something new to worry about for a few minutes, so it all worked out.

We’re plugged into their garage for power and using our internal tanks for drinking water and waste water.  So we’re doing just fine.

I finally got around to scanning the picture we had take at the Biltmore, so here it is.

Jan And Greg At The Biltmore

More tomorrow…

Today was our last full day in Asheville and we had one more ‘touristy’ place we wanted to visit.

But before we headed down the road we stopped for lunch at our new favorite restaurant, the Moose Cafe. 

There is kind of an interesting story about the large moose that greets you as you walk in the door.

Moose Cafe Moose

They don’t really know who gave it to them.  One day a stranger just showed up and asked them if they wanted it.  Of course, they said ‘Yes’!

When we first walked in the door and saw the giant moose, I just looked over at Jan and said “No, you can’t have it”!   I’d probably have to cut it in half to get it in the coach, and Jan already has her large moose footstool.

And another great meal was had.  Jan had the Chicken Pot Pie with green beans and baby carrots, and I had the Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and sliced cantaloupe.

After lunch we traveled about 75 miles northeast to Grandfather Mountain.  This is another one of those high, scary places that Jan really doesn’t like,  but I drag her to anyway, usually by telling her there’s a gift shop involved.

But the scenery on the way there was great too.  There are a lot of Christmas tree farms in the this area.  In fact, pretty much around every curve is another hillside covered with trees.

Christmas Tree Farm 1

Christmas Tree Farm 2

But before I could Jan to the top of the mountain, I had to deliver on the gift shop.  And I did it one better by also delivering…wild animals.

It was a twofer!

Along with the nature museum/gift shop about half way up the mountain, they also have a small animal habitat area, with bears, bald eagles, otters, cougars, and deer.

The bears were neat because you could buy bear food (Purina makes Bear Chow?) and feed the bears in their enclosures.  And they seem to love it.

Bear 1

If you look closely in this next shot, you can see he’s almost got the pellet in his mouth.

Bear 2

Feed Me!!!!!

Bear 3

 Here are some other pics.

Bald Eagle

River Otter

Cougar

Deer

After dragging Jan away from the animals and the gift shop, we headed another 1000 feet up the mountain to the top.

Grandfather Mountain is 5282 feet high with a 228 foot long swinging bridge crossing an 80 foot chasm between the two peaks.

It looks like this.

Mile High Swinging Bridge

 This next picture shows the overall view of the bridge on the far left that leads to the peak toward the right.

Mountain Overview

This picture shows what it looks like back toward the bridge from the cliff edge.

Cliff Edge

There is not really a path from the bridge.  You just walk/climb over the rocks.

And now for the amazing part.  I got Jan across the bridge!!

I was really proud of her.  I didn’t expect her to go the edge, so what she did do was great.

That’s Jan in green just to the right of the left hand vertical support.

Jan on the Bridge

And here’s a closeup.

Jan on the Bridge Closeup

And here we both are, thanks to a kind passerby.

Mile High Bridge

Before we headed back to Asheville we stopped at local produce stand and bought some fresh peaches and tomatoes.  As we left the stand Jan said she wanted to buy some day lilies as a gift and wanted to stop at a place nearby that we’d seen a sign for.

It turned out to be a private home surrounded by day lily beds. They even had their own bee hives for pollination.

They had 40 – 50 different varieties, including some rare ones that went for $30 – $40 a plant.  They had so many it was hard to pick.

And here are some pictures.

Day Lily 1

Day Lily 2

Day Lily 3

Day Lily 4

Day Lily 5

Day Lily 6

 By the time we drove the 75 miles back to our coach, it was almost 6:30 pm.  And since we had to drive right by the Moose Cafe,  it wasn’t a hard decision to also have supper there.

So we did.