We left Beckley early this morning, 7.45 a.m. to be precise, as we had a long drive to Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania. We anticipated a seven-hour drive and that’s exactly what it took to get here. There were a few roadworks along the way but none of them delayed our journey.

Once again, most of the 470 miles was driven through beautiful scenery of mountains and lovely green trees. We were surprised at how little traffic there was.

It’s been hot again, rising from 59ºF (15ºC) to 85ºF (29ºC) and we are assured it should be lovely and warm for the next couple of days. 🌞

As usual, on long trips, we listen and sing along to music. Today of course, as we were partly in West Virgina it seemed appropriate to include John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home Country Roads’:

A river on our trip today

I was going to say it was an uneventful journey today but we did have some excitement!

First of all, we were about thirty minutes down the road and I remembered that I had left a whole bag of mini Twix in the fridge at our last hotel! I hope whoever found them appreciated the treats! 😔

Also, one of the first things we saw just as we left were deer on the side of the road, but we flew by so quickly I couldn’t get a photo. Likewise, near the end of our trip, right in the middle of the Interstate, a mummy duck and goslings were walking right across the middle of the road. 😱We don’t know their fate! The van behind us slowed down but we didn’t see what happened to them. 🦆

Partway into our trip a car just ahead of us shed its tyre! Rubber was flying everywhere and we were lucky to avoid it. Thankfully, the person driving the car was able to pull off onto the grass at the side of the road. 😥

Photos to make you smile!

Go Chicken!

The largest tin of Egg Shell paint in the world!

The most hilarious thing that happened today has happened to me!

After dinner we came back up to our ‘suite’ …………… did I mention that we are staying at the Hilton for three nights and we have a two-room suite, it’s very nice!

Anyway, I digress! I’m sat in bed writing this blog and suddenly remembered I needed to charge my Apple watch. I lent over with the watch in my hand to plug it in and as I did so, I knocked my cup of Cappuccino, ☕️ the drink flew everywhere, including all over the Hilton’s lovely white sheets and duvet. 😱

I leapt out of bed shouting for Si to bring towels, 😳 whilst trying to find the precious watch but was unable to find it anywhere! Eventually, after cleaning up the mess we both set about looking for it and it was just nowhere to be seen. 🤔 It was a complete mystery until 💡……………….. something told me to look in the coffee cup. It was still half full and sure enough, there’s my watch drowning in coffee! Lucky they are waterproof! I rinsed it off and touch wood, it seems to be working okay. 🤞That will teach me not to be so lazy. I should have gotten out of bed to put it on charge. Still, I’m doing a penance …………….. I’m now going to be sleeping on partially wet sheets! 😔

We had dinner this evening here in the hotel. I had the most wonderful beets and goat’s cheese salad to start followed by a crab cake. Si had crab cake to start and then the Cowboy Burger and fries. It was all very delicious. No pictures unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view!) as we were both very hungry as we hadn’t eaten anything all day and forgot to take any! 🤷‍♀️

Tomorrow we will be visiting Ricketts Glen State Park and undertaking a four-mile hike so that Si can photograph all the waterfalls. There are approximately 20, so it may take us a while! 🤷‍♀️

Thanks for reading.

Back tomorrow!

The day dawned sunny and hot and after another wonderful breakfast we set off for our day at the Biltmore Gardens.

Today’s Breakfast complete with delicious ginger bread

Biltmore’s 8,000 acres are comprised of six formal and informal gardens, a Conservatory, and nature trails connecting them to the French Broad River, the estate’s Deer Park, Lagoon, Farmyard, and woodlands.

Sadly, the tulips, daffodils and most of the azaleas had been and gone but there was still plenty to admire in the beautifully kept gardens and grounds.

As it’s been a walking/seeing day, not much has happened so here are some photos from the gardens and the conservatory for you to enjoy! Just click on the photo to make it larger.

The Lake

Can you see me waving from the bridge?

The Conservatory

Sand in the Italian Garden

???

The Conservatory

Again …. ???

Here’s a short video of the Bass Pond waterfall.

It was quite a tiring day, as the temperature reached 80ºF (27ºC) and we had forgotten how humid it can be here! 🥵

Tonight we went into Asheville for dinner at the Chestnut. Sadly, the good old satnav (Margaret) took us in the wrong direction so we were late, but got there in the end. The food was excellent, Si had ribs and I had my usual fillet, and the staff very friendly. I wanted an amoretto sour but they had run out of amoretto so the barman devised an alternative and it was excellent. It’s all about customer service, right! 👍

Same cannot be said for the parking charges …………… $25 (£20) for 90 minutes parking!! 😱

Tomorrow, we leave our lovely B&B and head in the direction of Beckley, West Virginia to visit the Glade Creek Grist Mill in Babcock State Park.

Hope you’ll join us there. 😀

We woke to a lovely sunny day and a temperature of 57ºF (14ºC) this morning. A big change from yesterday. I forgot to mention that when we had the car trouble, it had also started to rain very heavily. As they say, it never rains but it pours! ☔️

Dean, one of the owners of the B&B, very kindly arranged for us to have an early breakfast this morning as we had early entry tickets into Biltmore House. Our breakfast was delicious and very filling, but it set us up for the day. He had even arranged for our favourite teas to be available. Nothing like a good cup of tea to set you up for the day. 🫖

We started with yoghurt, fresh fruit and granola and then a Croissant filled with cream cheese, pecan nuts and maple syrup with two link sausages.

Feeling very happy and full, we set out for the Biltmore Estate. It was only a short drive from the B&B, so we arrived in good time. We were advised to allow for a 45 minute drive once we arrived to allow for parking and getting to the house. We were still amazed when we passed through the entrance to see a sign that said it was 2.5 miles to go to the parking area and then an eight-minute walk to the house!

The Biltmore Mansion

The house is huge and the contents quite magnificent. It took us approximately two hours to see everything and we felt quite overwhelmed by it all.

The Atrium

The Biltmore Estate is a historic house museum spanning 175,000 square feet, which is more than four acres of floor space. The 250-room, four-storey, French Renaissance chateau includes 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces and was built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately-owned house in the United States. It is still  owned by George Vanderbilt’s descendants.

The Dining Room

In the 1880s, George Vanderbilt began to make regular visits with his mother, Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt, to the Asheville area. He loved the scenery and climate so much that he decided to build a summer house in the area, which he called his “little mountain escape”.

He eventually bought 125,000 acres (506 km²) of land, comprising nearly 700 parcels, including over 50 farms and at least five cemeteries. Upon his death in 1914 at the age of 51, at his request, Edith sold some of the land to the federal government to create Pisgah National Forest, one of the first national forests east of the Mississippi leaving approximately 8,000 acres today.

Where Cornelia, his daughter was born

Construction of the house began in 1889 and took six years to complete. In order to facilitate such a large project, a woodworking factory and brick kiln, which produced 32,000 bricks a day, were built onsite. A 3-mile (5 km) railroad spur was constructed to bring materials to the building site. 

Construction on the main house required the labour of about 1,000 workers and 60 stonemasons working seven days a week.

The Bowling Alley

He made extensive trips overseas during construction to purchase decor. He returned to North Carolina with thousands of furnishings for his newly built home, including tapestries, hundreds of carpets, prints, linens, and decorative objects, dating from the 15th century to the late 19th century. Among the few American-made items were a more practical oak drop-front desk, rocking chairs, a walnut grand piano, bronze candlesticks, and a wicker wastebasket.

The Kitchen

The 1991 Vanderbilt Cecil Family Portrait

He opened his opulent estate, on Christmas Eve of 1895 to family and friends from across the country who were encouraged to enjoy leisure and country pursuits. The mansion reportedly cost £5 million (equivalent to $180 million today) to construct.

After completing the tour, it was time to purchase a few souvenirs of course! There was a wonderful selection of goodies to buy and I think it’s fair to say I made a jolly good job of it! 😂

When we left the temperature had reached 75ºF (24ºC). It was just like a summer’s day! 🌞 It was a 4.5 mile drive to actually leave the estate. 😱

We shall be returning tomorrow to see the wonderful gardens.

For dinner this evening we went to a local restaurant called Tall John’s, just a short walk from the B&B. The staff were very friendly and the food excellent.

Si’s Steak Diane

Sand’s Ricotta Cavatelli

We spent the rest of the evening enjoying ‘happy hour’ with some of the lovely guests here at the B&B, swopping some very interesting stories! 😉

The funniest event of the day was when we drove away from the B&B this morning and suddenly there was a car approaching us head-on ………………….. Si was driving on the wrong side of the road! 🚗😂 Hey ho!

See you tomorrow!

We had an excellent night’s sleep at the Marriott, Atlanta Airport and are now refreshed and raring to go, go, go!

Just a couple of things I forgot to put in yesterday’s blog ………… well, it had been a long day!

All Virgin’s planes have names and yesterday, we flew on an Airbus 350-1000 called Red Velvet. What a wonderful thing to do, name a plane after a delicious cake!

There were only 195 passengers, so, plenty of room for everyone. I believe they can usually take between 350-400.

With our meal we were given salt and pepper shakers and usually these are silver coloured but yesterday, they were gold. Of course, they went straight into my bag to go with the silver ones I’ve collected in the past! I wasn’t being naughty by taking them. On the feet of the shakers it says ‘Pinched from Virgin Atlantic’. 😂 Lots of passengers take them home and Si did clear it with one of the cabin crew first. No bail money necessary on this occasion! 😂

Today was scheduled to be a driving day as we were due to make our way from Atlanta, Georgia to Asheville in North Carolina, ready for our visit to the Biltmore Estate, so the first thing we did was to collect our hire car from Hertz.

We are Gold members, so that means we should be able to just walk in, look for our name on the information board and that tells us which bay our car is in. We hop in and off we drive receiving our paperwork at the exit gate, very simple and very quick, ………………………….. or that’s what should happen!! But alas, things don’t always go to plan do they? 😔

We arrived at the relevant bay and found that instead of the SUV we had ordered, we had been given a larger alternative. It was huge! It seats six people and has running boards that come out when the doors open. Good job in my case, because being only 5 feet tall, there was no way I was going to be able to climb in from ground level! 😂 Regular readers of the blog will remember an occasion, some years back now, when a similar thing happened and I ended up falling out of the car because it was so high off the ground I couldn’t climb out in one go!

Anyway, we open the door and there’s no key. After searching all through the car we went back and asked where it was, but to no avail. Eventually, a man appeared with a small plastic box and produced the missing key! By now we had been waiting an hour to get away! So much for the benefits of being a Gold member! 🤷‍♀️

The funniest thing was when we said we were unable to open the boot (trunk) and were told that that was because we were trying to open it by pressing the rear camera! We can be so stupid at times! 😂

So, after familiarising ourselves with all the bells and whistles, believe me, that took some time, we set off towards Asheville and to the bed and breakfast we are staying in.

Another reason never to fly to Atlanta is the traffic. It was horrendous this morning, so slow due to sheer volume, road works and accidents, but hey, the sun was shining and it was a barmy 75ºF (24ºC) so we just went with the flow.

It was going to be a four-drive but the car was very comfortable so we settled and off we went. The drive was very uneventful until the last quarter of the journey, when a man pulled up alongside and told us there was a problem with the car and that the oil pan cover was hanging off. We pulled over and sure enough, it was. Luckily, a policeman was stopped on the side of the road too and he told us there was a Hertz facility just around the corner.

Unfortunately for us, it wasn’t a full Hertz facility but a franchise and they didn’t have an equivalent vehicle that we could swop ours for. All they had, was what they call at sedan, a Toyota Corolla that seats four people and would probably not have room for all our luggage. Well, as you can imagine, Si had steam coming out of his ears! 🤬

We thought we were going to have to make a three-hour round trip to another Hertz facility in the Corolla to do a second swop for a larger vehicle but our luck turned and we were told their mechanic had just returned from lunch and he felt he would be able to fix the problem, which he duly did and so we were able to continue our onward journey and arrive at the B&B at the scheduled time. 👏

Fingers crossed, that will be all the drama for this holiday, thank you! 🤞🙏

We are staying at the Abbington Green Bed and Breakfast and Spa in the Montford Historic District in Asheville, North Carolina and it’s wonderful. The history of the house dates back to 1907. It has seven gardens, all of which have been laid out in the style of designer/artist Gertrude Jekyll, who over 100 years ago in Surrey, England, was influential in setting the style that we think of today as “the quintessential English garden”.

We have just enjoyed ‘happy hour’ of drinks and cheese with the other guests staying here and a great bunch they are too! 🧀🍷🍇

Tomorrow our holiday really begins, as we are visiting the largest privately owned house in the USA, Biltmore House, built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and where the gardens we are lead to believe, are just spectacular. Fingers crossed the sun will shine and we will not be disappointed.

Thank you for reading.

More tomorrow!

The day has arrived at last and here we are at London Heathrow. ✈️

Dave, our driver, arrived on time and we had a straight run through to the airport. We know Dave as he’s driven us a few times now. He has ten grown-up children, who he’s obviously very proud of, and one of the girls ran the Marathon last Sunday and did a very respectable time. 🏃‍♀️

As always, Si and Security turned out to be interesting! Long-time followers of the blog will know that Si and Security are not a match made in heaven!! 😂

We usually have a dedicated Virgin security channel to go through but as it’s being refurbished we had to use Fastrack instead. That wasn’t a problem as it’s only a two-minute walk from our check-in area and they are now using the new 3D scanners which means you do not have to take laptops out of bags and are no longer restricted to 100ml of liquids, you can take through up to two litres in your bag.

Well, I sailed through but when I turned round there was no sign of Si!! Oh, oh I thought, here we go again! 🤷‍♀️ Sure enough, although we were told to keep everything in our bags, they failed to mention it was still necessary to empty pockets and of course, Si still had his wallet in his pocket so the alarm went off and he had to go to the back of the queue to go through again. Luckily, the guy called him forward to jump the queue. Unfortunately, the alarm went off again, this time because he had his earbuds still in his pocket and so this time the man said he would run through the machine and Si could come on through although he had to be ‘paddled’

By this time I’m through collected everything and are waiting patiently wondering what on earth is going on! 🤷‍♀️He eventually arrives and thinking we have everything, move out onto the concourse do go to Duty Free. Oh no you don’t you two! Suddenly Si asks me if he could have his belt! Belt, what belt? Well, I hadn’t seen that when I was collecting everything else. Luckily, we were able to walk back into security and sure enough, there was his belt hanging up just waiting to be retrieved! 😅

Next was Duty Free, perfume purchased and of course, a couple of extra goodies for on the plane and we were off to the Virgin Lounge and breakfast.

We started with the champagne, well who wouldn’t and although I’m not vegetarian I decided to have the vegetarian breakfast. It was delicious and just the right size for me. Si decided on the trout and scrambled eggs on toast and he enjoyed it so much he asked for a second one!! 😱

I like to think I’m a very organised person and most of the time I think I am but today I’ve missed a step. We’ve just discovered that we left Si’s cap at home! Not good for someone with a bald head. Guess our first purchase when we get to Atlanta will be to buy him one! 🧢

Our flight was 30 minutes late departing but the trip was shorter than we were originally told as it took just 8 hours 15 minutes. The staff were all very friendly and we loved the Upper Class seating ‘pods’.

There was plenty of room to stretch out, the seats were large and even had lumbar support. The touch TV was the largest we’ve ever seen on a plane. The food was delicious. Once again, we were too full to partake of the afternoon delights but we did have the ice-cream. The headphones were noise-cancelling and very comfy.

We had quite a lot of turbulence en-route and the landing was not the best we’ve ever had! At one point it sounded as though we were going to take off again and it was a very bumping landing.

We won’t be flying into Atlanta again! Going through Security took one hour!! There were hundreds of people and where we had to queue there were only two officers checking all the passports!

The USA have a special scheme called ‘Global Entry‘. That basically means there’s no queuing when you arrive at Security, you more or less march straight through. That’s one thing I will definitely be checking out when we get home!

Atlanta Airport is the world’s busiest apparently and we confirmed that today!

We’ve made it to our overnight hotel at the airport and tomorrow we will be up bright and early to collect our hire car and start making our way towards Asheville, North Carolina and the B&B we shall be staying at over the weekend.

Catch you there! 😀