Visiting Dixie – Days 3 & 4

The sun peeked out for a bit on Sunday afternoon and since rain was in the forecast, I figured I’d better snap a few shots of the Blue Ridge Assembly campus before it hit.

This is the main building where the teachers met and we had our meals…

The original buildings built in 1909…

 

 

 

 

 

We slept in Asheville House, and the trail to the house crossed this lovely little creek that we could hear from our room. One of the best sounds ever! I wish you could hear it…

The building had one of those big stately columned porches with rocking chairs. But then every porch in the south seemed to have rocking chairs… :o)

 

It rained overnight but stopped by the time we left for breakfast on Monday morning. So after the teacher’s retreat was over, we headed south into the woods for some hiking around some gorgeous trails to famous waterfalls thanks to “The Hunger Games”.

First stop: Hooker Falls. All of the flat rocks were brought in and placed to stop the erosion of the bank and make a better swimming area. Wouldn’t see that in the PNW…

  Triple Falls, was absolutely stunning! I can totally see why they chose this spot for a movie!

 

 

Oh look, more stairs… LOL

Then we went to the trailhead at High and Bridal Veil Falls. They had a gorgeous visitor’s center, very nice bathrooms and roads that had been closed for hiking/biking trails. I’m guessing they’ve had quite a bit more tourists since the movie came out??? And what did they charge us to park here??? Nothing! They also didn’t have any garbage cans there because studies show that parks with them aren’t any cleaner than those without. Did we see garbage everywhere? Nope! Again, not something you would see in the PNW…

notice the rocking chairs???

 

this compass rose on the floor was made out of local woods

The trail to High Falls…

See the covered bridge above the falls on the right…

Then we hiked to the covered bridge on our way to Bridal Veil Falls…

 

We took a bit of a breather before hiking the 2.2 miles back to the trailhead…

 

Unfortunately the last two waterfalls we wanted to see were in Pisgah National Forest. They didn’t close off the viewpoint to Looking Glass Falls but Sliding Rock was a no-go… :o(

We ended the day with supper at Mayberry restaurant in Brevard (the best German potato salad and apple kraut ever!) and a drive to Knoxville, TN for the night (the curviest road ever and I wasn’t driving…)

Visiting Dixie – Day One

Chris teaches on-line chemistry/forensic anatomy/creation apologetics for a school based in North Carolina. Every October they have a teacher’s retreat and this year we decided to go.

The plane left bright and early on Friday morning, meaning our day got its start at 3:30am! While the early hour stinks, it makes sleeping on the plane much easier!

After a layover in Dallas/Fort Worth, and a stop at Dunkin Donuts for brunch, we got on the next plane for Charlotte, North Carolina.

Our second flight was on a fancy new plane with our own private tv’s. A flight goes by pretty fast when you get to watch mindless television… :o)

   With our rental car all taken care of, we hit the road west towards Black Mountain and the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly. But we had to have a quick bite to eat, so we stopped at a CookOut on the way.

Not only was the food cheap and delicious but how could you not love a place that serves bacon wraps, chicken nuggets and corn dogs as sides??? Oh, and we had Cheerwine floats, too! :o)

 

After a very long day and a not long enough sleep (but great conversations), I decided I needed to take advantage of the last sunny day before Karen hit the coast and brought in the clouds to the area. So I ditched Chris and went with one of the other teacher’s moms to do a bit of shopping in Black Mountain (right near Montreat where Billy Graham lives) and hike Chimney Rock. The shopping was fun but the Rock was amazing!

I was so thankful I drove because I can’t even imagine how carsick I would have been on the drive up to the park! It took about 45 minutes to drive less than 20 miles! Ugh!

That steep of a hike means a whole lot of stairs! But we peeked inside a “nice” (sorry about the pun) cave before we headed up…

 

and up… and up… and up…

    

They say that you can see for 75 miles on a clear day. I believe it! They filmed “The Last of the Mohicans” here and the lake you can see is where they filmed “Dirty Dancing”. They make a lot of movies in North Carolina!

  Upon arrival at the Chimney Rock level, one discovers that there is yet another viewpoint further up. And I just had to see it!

First there was the Opera Box and Devil’s Head…

from Chimney Rock

 

 

the view from the “box”

 

Of course the walk up to Exclamation Point had to have stairs… LOTS of stairs!

  Once again, the view proved to be worth the climb!

    

Not bad for a picture I took of myself… :o)

 

 

 

Needless to say, Chris was jealous and I slept GOOD that night!