Toccoa Falls, GA

Our intention for the next two weeks is to relax and enjoy the colors of nature starting to change.  Today started with a casual drive in the Jeep to Toccoa Falls, GA.  Toccoa Falls is a beautiful 186-foot-high waterfall, one of the tallest free-falling waterfalls east of the Mississippi River. It is located on the wooded campus of Toccoa Falls College. The short 100-yard path to the falls was easy to stroll along while enjoying the stream rushing over the rocks down.. 

Toccoa Falls is accessed through the gift shop which is open from 8:30 a.m. until sundown. A nominal admission fee to see the falls is collected in the gift shop. The Gate Cottage Gift Shop is worth walking through. it offers souvenirs of Toccoa Falls, furniture made in the area, crafts from local craftsmen, and other gift items. 

Bonus: Toccoa Falls College has an old Sears Catalog home on the campus! Sears Catalog homes were sold in the early 1900's, they were ready-to-assemble kit houses sold through Sears, Roebuck and Company. More than 70,000 of these were sold in North America between 1908 and 1940, shipped via railroad boxcars, these kits included all the materials needed to build the house. A lady in the gift shop said it was used as the college president's home back in the day, but now it is used for storage.

Unicoi Springs Camp Resort, Helen, GA

 We drove the RV from Bristol Tenn to Unicoi Springs Camp Resort in Helen, GA.  Most of the trip was on interstate highways, but when they ended the drive became interesting with some sharp mountain turns.  I joked with John that on a couple of curves I could see the rear of our coach going by us.

Unicoi Springs Camp Resort is nestled in the northeast Georgia mountains. The member-only resort was established in 1983. We won the $5,000 one-time membership-buy-in fee when we entered our name at the 2016 FMCA RV rally at Perry GA. Someone from the park called us a month after the rally to tell us we were the winners! We quickly paid the annual maintenance fee of $410 (which gives each owner up to 14 days of camping per month year 'round) and scheduled a two night stay to check it out. This is our second visit here and this time we are staying for 14 days.

We love this place! Unicoi Springs Camp Resort is rated a Five Star Resort by the Coast to Coast system and is right next to Unicoi Springs State Park. It has 300 sites with full hookups, cable tv, wi-fi, the resort has 2 well maintained pools, a play ground, a big rustic 2-story log clubhouse with two pool tables and lots of rocking chairs on the wrap-around porch, there is even a lovely chapel and full time resort security.   The very best part is it is just a short drive to downtown Helen GA. 

Blowing Rock, NC

On our drive to Blowing Rock, NC we passed “Off the Grid Adventures” in Elizabethtown, TN. It looked like a fun place to check out - they have ATVs, zip-lines and lots more! That will be a must-do the next time we are in this area.

The small charming town of Blowing Rock is home to a little over 1,000 residents, the main street is lined with art galleries, small craft shops and restaurants. We ate at a little BBQ place and then went out exploring.

There is a “Blowing Rock”, it sits 4,000 ft. above sea level, dangling over Johns River Gorge which is at 3,000 ft. We had to give the blowing rock a try - we climbed up on the rock and stood at the edge and released a handful of small dried leaves and watched as most of them rode the stream of air up and a couple of them floated directly back up to us - a cool sight to see. 

There is an old legend about Blowing Rock:

The legend of the Chickasaw Chieftain's daughter is:  The Chief moved his daughter to the remote location high on the mountain for her protection. One day, the daughter saw a brave Cherokee hunting - she shot an arrow at him as a form of flirtation and it worked; the two met and fell in love. One day, the sky grew red and the maiden and her brave love worried trouble was to come. She begged him not to leave - but duty calls, he had to leave to fight along side the other braves and he leaped from the rock into the woods. Heartbroken, she prayed daily to the Great Spirit, until one day, the sky reddened and from the bottoms of the gorge she could see her love float up  - a gust of wind blew him back onto the rock and into her arms. The legends says from that day, a strong wind has blown upwards from the Blowing Rock.

We were told that local scientist studied the rock and said that the up-draft is caused by the rocky walls of the gorge creating a flume when the wind blows.

Leaving Blowing Rock we decided to get in one more visit with John's brother and sister-in-law and they live along a fabulous road that is fun to drive. Sports car, Jeep and motorcycle drivers all love the challenge of "The Snake", it is 33 miles, 489 curves; it runs right by Eddie's and Arleen's home in Shady Valley, TN. "The Snake" consists of 3 mountains and 1 valley and we always enjoy driving it. After a nice drive and a great visit with family we called it a day.

Visiting Family in Tennesee

On Thursday, we drove the coach to Shadrack RV Park in Bristol just outside the huge speedway track. When we pulled in there was a sharp, steep turn on a gravel descent - a bit of a challenge for our 45 ft RV, good thing John is talented at moving her around. The RVs are parked pretty close to each other - almost like rally parking. I'm sure it is because this is one of the closest RV packs to the racetrack and is in high demand by race enthusiast.

On Friday we had the pleasure of meeting up with John's brother, Eddie, and sister-in-law, Arleen, at the Texas Roadhouse in Johnson City, TN.  We love Eddie and Arlene so much, always a treat to get together with them. We had yummy lunch and then they joined us at the RV. We sat back and talked until the sun started to go down. A wonderful relaxing day.

The Biltmore Estate

George Vanderbilt II commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design the Biltmore home, using a French Renaissance chateaus that Vanderbilt and Hunt had visited earlier as inspiration. The Biltmore Home, sometimes referred to as America's Castle, was built starting in late 1889 and it was completed in 1895. It is the largest privately owned house in the United States, at 178,926 sq ft and 135,280 sq ft of living area. Still owned by George Vanderbilt's descendants, it stands today as one of the most prominent remaining examples of the Gilded Age.

We arrived at the estate early and parked the jeep. We took a bus to the main residence, you can walk up from the parking lot if you prefer. We had plenty of time to explore the front lawn area before our scheduled tour time.

Biltmore has a total of 250 rooms in the house including 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces and three kitchens. It also has electric elevators, forced-air heating and centrally controlled clocks (all the wall clocks always show the exact same time), fire alarms, and a call-bell system.  Sorry, no inside photos of this marvelous home - the Estate prohibits guests from sharing photos of the inside of the home. You enter the marbled Entrance Hall and are handed a head-set to wear. No one rushes you through the rooms, you can go at your own pace. If one room is too crowded, don't move on - just relax and stay back to walk around the room and take it all in.

Moving though the Entrance Hall, to the right you will find the amazing sunken (step-down), octagon Winter Garden which is surrounded by stone archways with a ceiling of sculptured wood and multifaceted windows. In the center of this glass enclosed garden is a marble and bronze fountain sculpture titled Boy Stealing Geese created by Karl Bitter. The next room is the Banquet Hall, the largest room in the house, measuring 42 ft wide and 72 ft long, with a 70-ft-high barrel-vaulted ceiling. The massive dinner table can seat 64 guests. A huge triple fireplace fills one wall of the room, while a gorgeous 1916 Skinner pipe organ fills the opposite wall. I could go on and on, but instead I will just tell you that the tour is well worth it. 

We took our time touring the home and especially enjoyed sitting back and relaxing on the terrace-balcony looking over the backyard. After spending a few hours on the tour of the home, we walked through the beautiful gardens and greenhouse. Then we wandered around the estate down to the Bass Lake. We decided to eat dinner at the Biltmore Inn. The view was amazing, we watched the sunset before saying good-bye to the Biltmore Estate.

Antler Hill Village at The Biltmore Estate

We woke up early and after a stroll along the stream in the RV park we headed out to experience the Catawba Falls. These falls are a series of waterfalls on the headwaters of the Catawba River, in McDowell County, near Old Fort, North Carolina. The Catawba River flows over 2 major waterfalls in a short distance - lovely sight. 

From the falls we drove to the Biltmore Estate.  We've pre-purchased tickets to the Estate for tomorrow.

Here is a little know travel tip: you may enter the grounds at 4PM on the afternoon before your Estate tour date (the date stated on your ticket). There is so much to see, you don't want to miss the opportunity of having extra time on site. Today at 4PM we arrived at will call to pick up our tickets for tomorrow's tour and drove on to the beautiful grounds, this was a gorgeous curvy ride through the artfully designed landscapes.

George Vanderbilt employed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to design the original 125,000 acres grounds. You may have heard his name before, he co-designed New York's Central Park. Olmsted designed a huge park-like setting surrounding the Biltmore home and established farms along the property's river. Then he replanted much of the rest of the land as a commercial timber forest. Gifford Pinchot and later Carl Schenck were hired to manage the forests, with Schenck establishing the first forestry education program in the U.S., the Biltmore Forest School, on the estate grounds in 1898.

The estate today covers approximately 8,000 acres, overseen by The Biltmore Company, a trust set up by the family. The company is one of the largest employers in the Asheville area. Restaurants were opened in 1979 and 1987 as well as gift shops in 1993. The former dairy barn was converted into the Biltmore Winery in 1985. The beautiful 210-room Inn on Biltmore Estate opened in 2001, and in 2010, the estate debuted Antler Hill Village.

I was surprised that we could drive in front of The Biltmore! It was wonderful! We stopped the jeep and took a few pictures of the front lawn. We drove by the gardens and continued on down the road to the village. We enjoyed walking around Antler Village, then we did a little wine tasting - we enjoyed it so much we bought a few bottles.  We had a drink at Cedric’s Tavern (named after the Biltmore's dog) which had a nice pub atmosphere. We decided to stay and have dinner at Cedric's, good food.  We strolled through the village, partaking in an ice-cream cone and sat at the park as we listened to music. We enjoyed the grounds until it was dark and time for us to return to the RV.

Pride RV Park in Maggie, NC

When we started to plan a visit to the Biltmore Estate, we had a difficult time finding an RV park we could stay at in the Ashville, NC area; everything was booked-up.  We were able to reserve a spot at the Pride RV Resort in Maggie, North Carolina. This was as close as we could get, approximately 20 miles from the Biltmore Estate. This is a pleasant park with friendly people. After we setup the coach we enjoyed walking by the stream that runs along the back of the park.