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.

New Orleans' French Market

Sometimes we come across cemeteries that are interesting to visit. Today, we started the day at the Lafayette Cemetery #1. The main entrance gates were locked when we first walked up, but a custodian arrived before we walked away and told us they were about to have a movie filming crew there and that we could visit the cemetery until they arrived. Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 is one of the city's oldest cemeteries. Originally this location was part of the Livaudais Plantation. In 1833 this area became the City of Lafayette, that is when the cemetery was originally established. Lafayette was incorporated into the city of New Orleans in 1852 and dubbed the "Garden District." We walked around, reading the history on rows and rows of tombs/graves, coming in all sorts of different shapes, sizes, dates and conditions. The cemetery is well maintained and laid out decently well.  It was an interesting walk.

 

From there we headed to New Orleans' French Market and the famous Café Du Monde for our first taste of the world famous Beignets. Beignets are square French style doughnuts, lavishly covered with powdered sugar. I loved them! The original Cafe Du Monde Coffee stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. Today, the Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on Christmas Day.

 

We wandered around for a while walking down and around Decatur St. We heard a band playing some wonderful jazz music and decided that would be a good place to get something to eat. It was a wide open café with overhead cover, a small band and some great food. We stayed there for a couple of hours enjoying the food, a bottle of wine and the amazing music. We walked along the river before heading back to the Naval Base. This was a perfect day; lovely walks, fabulous food, good wine and awesome jazz. 

The Big Easy, New Orleans

Yesterday, the weather man said Hurricane Irma may visit  the Ozark area. We decided it was time to get moving again. We packed up the RV and drove further north-west hoping to avoid the effects of the storm. We drove through Alabama and ended the day at a Flying J Travel Center in Pearl, Mississippi. Enjoyed a quick dinner at Denny's; it was an easy travel day. 

 

Today, we drove to the Aviation Arbor RV Park in Belle Chasse, LA. The base is a Naval Aviation base about 15 minutes from New Orleans, LA. The RV Park is well maintained. The staff is friendly and they handed us a welcome package with lots of information about the park and the area when we checked in.
 

We were really looking forward to visiting the city and enjoying the sights and food; so we didn't waste any time. After setting the RV up we drove into New Orleans and parked the Jeep. This is my first trip to the ‘Big Easy”. We walked the length of Bourbon Street popping into the different establishments. We ate some cajun food and stopped at a couple of bars to enjoy the entertainment and the beer.

 

Ft Rucker and Good Ol' Friends

Another good morning of enjoying the campgrounds by Lake Tholocco and after lunch John took me on another tour - this time we covered more of Ozark, Enterprise and Ft Rucker. Lots of Army aviation history; John showed me many of his old haunts and stomping grounds and I enjoyed the stories about his time here. He has many fond memories; one of his favorites: his son, J.J., was born at Ft Rucker in the Lyster Army Hospital in the early 1970's.

 

Later, we had a wonderful evening out with our good friends Harvey and Sandy who live in the area. Harvey and John attended Flight School together and were assigned to the same unit in Vietnam during their first tour. We had diner at the McLin’s Catfish Restaurant in Daleville Alabama. Harvey and Sandy took us there the last time we were visiting and I fell in love with the Catfish diner they serve. Good stuff!

Very nice evening with Harvey and Sandy. Meeting up with friends on our travels is the best part of the RV lifestyle.

Golf and Visiting an Ol' Friend

We were up early this morning playing golf on the Ft Rucker Golf Course. It has been a while since we've played, felt good to swing the clubs again, we both enjoyed the course and the beautiful Alabama weather.

Later in the afternoon, we visited a friend from John’s past. Rodney and John went to Infantry Officer Candidate School at Ft Benning together. It was a pleasure to visiting with Rodney and his lovely family in their Ozark home, a beautiful southern estate with wooded acres on a lake. I enjoyed listening to the stories of times gone by. We look forward to visiting again in the future.

Engineer Beach RV Park, Ft Rucker, AL

Engineer Beach RV Park, Ft Rucker, AL is a wonderful woodsy place. The park is beautiful, sitting on the edge of a beautiful 640 acre lake, Lake Tholocco. The Outdoor Recreation Office has a variety of boats and other equipment for rent. John spent many years in this area as an Army pilot; he was a superb tour guide, knowing this area like the back of his hand.