If you are in Texas in August, you are doing one of two things, hiding away in the air conditioning wishing you were someplace cooler or leaving Texas as fast as you can to seek cooler weather! In our previous post, Summer of 2024: Nailbiters Mixed with Fun Times, we indicated that we didn’t have the opportunity to go our on our planned road trip. So we decided, with the limited time we had left in the States, to fly to a cooler location, North Carolina. Boy did we choose wisely. The weather was wonderful and the scenery amazing.
However, we had one last nailbiter for the summer, as we tried to dodge COVID. Both Cuz John and our friends, Kathy and Larry ended up having COVID while we were visiting NC. To our knowledge we have not yet experience this virus and really didn’t want to start now! Luckily John had a wonderful Air BnB where we could stay until he got well, and somehow, we left our friends prior to catching it from them. Whew that was a blessing for us, at least!
John also lent us a car to use. So we took advantage by exploring parts of North Carolina we had not explored before. On our way to Flat Rock to see Kathy and Larry, we left the highway for country roads to discover a small waterfall, Moravian Falls.
As most of you know by now, I’m a sucker for a waterfall. Thus, Ben was not too surprised when I navigated us to second waterfalls outside Marion, Toms Falls Creek. The hike to the falls was beautiful beside a babbling brook. It was nice to get out and walk for a bit and enjoy the NC weather and crisp air.
Later in the day we arrived at Kathy and Larry’s charming new house. It was nice to catch up with these friends as it had been several years since we had seen them both. The next day, much to my pleasure, they took us to a popular waterfall in the Pisgah National Forest, Looking Glass Falls. It was very majestic plunging from the rock formation to the pool below.
The following day Ben and I left Flat Rock and headed to Asheville to tour the Biltmore Estate and see the Chihuly exhibit. The history of the Vanderbilts, Biltmore House and surrounding grounds were very interesting. In 1914 Edith Biltmore sold off 86,700 acres of the estate to the federal government which was now the Pisgah National Forest. The rest of the grounds continued to be owned by the Vanderbilt family and still were a working farm and vineyard. The fairytale inspired French Renaissance mansion was ahead of its time in many ways. It was beautiful without being too gaudy as some other mansions I have toured.
While the Chihuly exhibit was small, it was outstanding with some extremely interesting pieces.
After our long day wandering the Biltmore Estates, we traveled back to John’s Air BnB in Winston-Salem and crashed!
While John was starting to feel better and over the worst of the virus, he was not up for galivanting around. So Ben and I drove out to Hanging Rock State Park to for a hike. We found another waterfall while we were there—imagine that?
All in all, except hoping and praying we didn’t get COVID, we had a really nice trip to North Carolina as we enjoyed the beauty and cooler weather immensely and visiting with family and friends!
Now it was time to reacclimate to the heat as in a week or so we would be flying back to hot, humid Grenada and our home Daggers Down. We are excited to get back and begin another cruising season in the Caribbean. Stayed tuned for what the next season brings!
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