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 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 find 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!