Travels with Edna and Papi: "THERE AIN'T NO MOEN HERE", EASTER IN THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS, BIKER FRIENDS, THE BILTMORE AND PISGAH VIEW RANCH!

SPRING IN THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS and THE DEEP SOUTH SOUTHERN ACCENTS
April 2017

Needing to make reservations in the Blue Ridge Mountains over Easter, we had done so a couple months earlier. Perry had a list of three different RV parks and asked me to call while we were on the road. At the top of the list (based on ratings) was a place I first called to inquire about openings. The gentleman owner of the park with his strongest southern accent I could barely understand, said "Don't come until check-in time cause the road is narrow and windy! Not for flatlanders going up but I'd be happy to help you back in to your site." He continued, "The campsite is 12 years old and my wife cleans the bathroom everyday with bleach, so dun't wear dark colors…..and we have real hot water that you can run for a long time cause my wife's got long hair so she uses a lot of water. We don't have MOEN or nothin'." Through his accent I tried to decipher what he had said, so I repeated "mowing?" He said, "you know M-O-E-N like the nice faucets". We were in for a treat and couldn't wait to meet Jason.

Well, that all changed as we arrived at the place where we thought we'd made reservations in Stony Fork. As we pulled into our spot we were greeted by a nice, older man but his name wasn't "Jason" that should have been our first clue, and there wasn't a bathroom. It had a few open RV spots along the Pisgah highway and the nice gentleman was happy to have us. We were NOT on level ground and our auto levelers showed us just that. We were at a slant and would be this way for the next week. Soon we were greeted by younger guy named Chris and his girlfriend, Jinx. They were not the type of couple we would typically "hang-out" with, they were quite a bit younger, bikers, tattoo artists, piercings, but somehow the four of us hit it off and we were making plans for Easter dinner the next day.

Easter is a very important holiday for me and not having it with our family, I thought would be more difficult than it was. I missed them all so much but Perry and I made the best of it. We went to St. Joan of Arc, a church nestled in the Pisgah mountains. It was a beautiful mass and we were greeted by friendly people. Perry and I were preparing the ham and for the first time I tried my hand at collard greens and key lime pie. We enjoyed our new friends well into the evening.

Our North Carolina adventures continued as we hiked part of Mount Pisgah (2nd highest mountain in N. Carolina) and drove part of the beautiful Great Smokey Mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We hiked up the mountain with the dogs off their leashes but didn't get too far before dark clouds started to roll in. The next day we boarded the dogs to go to the famous Biltmore mansion built by George Vanderbilt in the late 1800's. It was impossible to tour the 175,000 square foot mansion in a day. The house was elegant, inviting and not overly pretentious and the grounds had beautiful expansive gardens with azaleas in bloom. Many wine grapes grow on the property and they have a large restaurant and wine tasting room as well.

We heard that Asheville was a great city with many craft breweries and we were not disappointed! Perry did most of the beer tasting (I'm more wine) so the few I did try….I enjoyed especially at Wicked Weed and Funkatoriam. A funny name with great beer that recently was bought out by a larger corporation. Asheville reminded my of a small San Francisco……eclectic and artsy but fun!

More hiking and scenic drives along the Blue Ridge Parkway we took in more small mountain towns, wildlife, wildflowers and waterfalls. We were really loving our stay in the Blue Ridge mountains where we immersed ourselves in local culture.

An important day on this adventure is to make sure I get my hair done! In the town of Candler, my cute hairdresser with her strong southern accent told me to try "ramps" because they were in season and to go to "Pisgah View Ranch" for lunch. Perry was told by a local to try local "livermush"! On our way to Asheville, we found a local farm stand. We were greeted by two bearded elderly gentlemen in overalls holding a slice of cantaloupe for us to try. One of them told us "the digs war drivin' and yor from Califania…..we hear thar are labrals thar" These were the sweetest men but didn’t have a clue as to what they were saying…..the second attempt from what we gathered was "the dogs were driving and you are from California. We hear there are liberals there!" Okay, now we got it and our dogs were sitting in the front seat as we shopped. We found our ramps (a strong onion grown along the riverbanks) and Perry found boiled peanuts, a southern "must"! The local grocery store also carried -yes…..liver mush! I remember eating liver and onions as a kid and I did not want to try it. Livermush, later I found is made of pig liver, cornmeal and other parts of the pig. I am NOT a fan!

On a rainy day, the owner of our RV park paid us a visit and confessed he couldn't find our reservation anywhere. He offered us a good rate knowing we made reservations two months earlier at a different location. We loved it here enjoying our backyard of goats and horses which Perry befriended by giving them carrots. We took the recommendation to eat at Pisgah View Ranch, only a couple miles from our fifth-wheel. It was raining all day but it didn't stop us from the beautiful, scenic drive on a narrow road spotted with farms and horses. The ranch was further back against the mountains with flowers in bloom and a stream running through it. We were greeted by descendants of the original owners of the century old farm and their dogs. The guests staying at the ranch were in the lobby and all of us waited for the dinner bell to ring so we could be seated at the table for a family style meal . We were served a salad, homemade biscuits, fried chicken, ham, green beans, sweet potato casserole, sweet tea and homemade strawberry shortcake for dessert. We like the south….and their cooking! Couldn't even imagine how many miles it would take to burn off the calories. I would think about that later and for the time being we enjoyed the feast!

Not only did we miss out on Easter with our kids, but we missed Kaylyn's birthday as well. We would celebrate soon enough as she was flying out to meet us for the Kentucky Derby!