Plan C is to visit Black Mountain which is off I-40 about 10 miles east of Asheville and touted as a scaled down version of Asheville with a historic downtown area full of galleries, studios, antique shops, bookstores, boutiques and restaurants. We find a place to park along one of the streets joining many other tourists walking up and down the streets poking in the different shops.
Black Mountain is said to be "the Little Town that Rocks" and that is because along the sidewalks here and there are rocking chairs for you to relax in. I think they are there for the many men (like Ron) who hate to shop and need a place to wait for their wives and girlfriends. Unfortunately, we did not think about taking a picture of some of the rockers. The backs of the rockers have pictures painted on them by local artists and we are told that later in the summer they will auction them off. Unfortunately, we did not find out what the money is used for.
As usual we stopd for lunch at a local restaurant and are very pleased with our choice. The Veranda Cafe is located on Cherry Street and sits among a number of other shops in old building. The south wall of the cafe is exposed red brick and the ceilings are probably 15 feet high. I have a daily special which is a Greek Gyro Plate and Ron has a turkey sandwich served with cranberry chutney on fresh cranberry/walnut bread with a cup of creamy potato soup. Both are delicious.
Our last stop in Black Mountain is at the Town Hardware and General Store which is listed as an old fashioned hardware and general store which has a little bit of everything from hardware and general store items to gardening, toys, gifts and practical houseware items. Quite an assortment. The store has its original brick facade with high arched windows, tin ceilings and wood floors and has been in this same location since 1928.
It is late in the afternoon when we leave deciding we will take another part of the Blue Ridge back to our campground. The Blue Ridge Parkway actually begins at the edge of the Smoky Mountains about 50 miles west of where we enter just outside Asheville. Stopping at the Visitor Center and Headquarters, we watch a 15 minute video about the parkway and how it was built. The skies are still partly cloudy and partly sunny as we begin our drive. Along this portion, we find the French Broad River, which winds through the rugged North Carolina mountains and was once used to transport good, as well as at least 10 tunnels, some long and windy and others short and straight.
We stop at many overlooks and wish we could be here to see the autumn colors along this road. They will be gorgeous. Here we also climb to a height of about 4,000 + feet with temperature about 10 degrees cooler than at lower levels.
At one point we can see we truly are on a ridge as we see the valleys and mountains on both sides of the ridge road.
Leaving the Parkway we take Highway 276 to Waynesville (aabout 22 miles) which is a long, long windy descent through dense forest and finally through a couple of mountain towns.
A nice day.
No comments:
Post a Comment