Week Four
This is a blog of my five-week exploration of culinary experiences in North Carolina. Baaswell Sheep is accompanying me and offering his own commentary on the trip, although he refuses to go into any place that serves lamb chops.
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Please note that all restaurant names are used simply for referential purposes and links provided as a courtesy. Reviews are the sole opinions of the reviewer: no restaurant has paid to be listed here, and no restaurant is being explicitly endorsed. In other words, go out there, try them all, and form your own opinions!
Hard to believe we are on the fourth week of our journey – time really does fly when you're having fun, and even when you're just trying to have fun. Well, we still have two weeks left, and we aim to make the most of them.
Okay, so Subway is not exactly the height of culinary excellence, but when we drove through downtown Blowing Rock, the town was jammed packed with people and we couldn't find a parking space anywhere. We exited the south side of town and came back up US 321 and spotted a nice looking Subway and decided that would work for lunch. Nothing fancy - just a BMT with cookies, but it hit the spot nicely.
We'd stopped here on a couple of other Blue Ridge Parkway trips, but never explored much if any of the grounds, always seeming to want to get on to other attractions on the parkway. With so much of the North Carolina part of the parkway closed this time, there was little else to hurry on to, so we just spent the whole afternoon at the manor and were greatly rewarded. After looking over the craft center in the old manor house, we walked down a carriage path a couple of miles to Bass Lake and enjoyed the wonderful views there for a couple of hours. A whole flock of Canada geese were gathered on one side, and they were the tamest ones we'd ever seen, letting us get the great close-up shot below. We finally walked the two miles back up to the parking lot, and just as we got to the carriage house, the heavens let out pouring down on us. We took shelter under the front porch of the carriage house, only we quickly discovered that the roof had leaks, but we found a dry spot to wait out the rain, and then we got to see a rainbow. Do note that in the picture of the manor house, there's a deer there in the front left corner that just adds a great rustic touch to the photo.
We spotted this place while going up US 321 and decided to go back to it. On the upside, it is a local restaurant with two Boone locations, plus two in South Carolina. On the downside, it's more or less one of these modern no-contact restaurants: you order on your phone, on a tablet they'll provide, or on one of their two kiosks. They then text you when the food is ready and you pick it up off a set of shelves. You still have an indoor and outdoor dining area, nicely themed, and there are people wandering around if you need to ask a question, but to me it's a bit too impersonal for my tastes. As far as the food goes, my companion got an Ahi Tuna sandwich for himself and a coleslaw for me, and again he got the better end of the bargain: he said the sandwich was wonderful, but the slaw had very little flavor to it.
You never know what's going to happen when you hit the road. Had another morning of driving a long ways without seeing anything interesting after we left the area we'd been in (Boone), so we pulled into the parking lot of another Subway. Went to the door and opened it, and it was immediately clear that the place was closed for renovations. Would have been nice if they'd maybe put up a sign or two and locked the front door! We spotted a Hardee's down the street and went there. My companion wanted to try the new BBQ Pulled Pork Frisco, but they were out of the pork! So, he settled for a traditional Frisco meal. I do wish he'd consider vegetarian a little more often, but at least he got fed and I nibbled on the french fries.
Sometimes I think my companion is completely loco. He wanted to visit the Catawba Falls a little ways east of Asheville, so we went down to the parking area and found it rather full, but we located a parking space. I bid him farewell as he started up the trail, warning him that the weather didn't look all that good. He made his way up to the lower falls and said that they were a bit crowded with people, so he went up the 580 steps (including navigating three stories of steps in a metal tower) to the upper falls. Just as he got there, the heavens let out once again with a good twenty minutes of heavy rain. I'd have been freaked out, but he said that he was there and there was no way to get anywhere else, so he just enjoyed the views while waiting it out. I guess that is a pretty impressive waterfall, and that's just the upper one. His pictures (below) of some of the lower sections are pretty nice, too. He then took the ridge trail back down, and says there were some nice mountain views along the way. He was still rather damp when he got back to the car, and I didn't want to let him in, but, well, he has a way of winning out with these kinds of disagreements.
Okay, I'm stretching this one a little bit, but what choice do I have when my companion buys dinner at a grocery store. But, we had a suite room for the night, and he didn't want to fool with going out for dinner. And, Ingles is a North Carolina grocery chain, based in Black Mountain, which is just east of Asheville (we actually went through the town on the way to Asheville from Catawba Falls). What you see is a chicken tikka masala with vegetarian based chicken, plus green beans, fruit cocktail, a roll, and lemonade. Honestly, it's a better meal than a number of our lesser restaurant finds, and I understand his wanting to wind down early when he has to be at an IT conference early tomorrow.
This was an unusual day, as my companion attended an all-day IT conference while I enjoyed the amenities of our hotel. So, very few pictures today, but my companion did snap some pictures of his dinner at a nice local Italian restaurant.
My companion discovered this place when we were in Asheville a few years ago and wanted to go back to it this year. It's a poplar semi-upscale Italian restaurant that's cozy with good food. Last time, he got a spaghetti carbonara, but this time he went for a penne bolognase with a Greek salad. He said it was all very good, the bolognase rich and flavorful, the salad just the right size, and the bread and olive oil dipping sauce a perfect compliment to the meal. The only thing missing was a good iced tea, but he didn't want the caffeine, so he made do with a lemonade instead.
Hard to believe we've been through twenty-days of this trip. That's twenty-five posts and 352 pictures so far, and we still have ten days to go. Today, we had lunch in the suite and then headed out to our destination de jour.
We were supposed to meet up with some of the other attendees of the IT conference to hike at the Arboretum, but my companion was kind of worn out after the conference and his hike at Catawba Falls the previous day, so he didn't get away from the hotel in time to meet the group, but still spent the afternoon at the Arboretum. In short, this place is a large gardens, loosely similar to Callaway Gardens in south western Georgia. The Arboretum has the planned gardens more centrally grouped, and then has long walking and biking trails running through the woods around the central gardens, whereas Callaway has planned features scattered throughout the property, all interconnected with driving, biking, and walking paths. We started out wandering through the planned gardens, but it was rather hot by this point. Still, the bonsai exhibit was more than worth the heat. I don't think either of us had ever seen bonsai trees in person before – certainly not this many in one place. We then grabbed our hiking gear and hit the Carolina Wilderness trail, following it out to a large creek and then taking the Creekside trail back to just north of the central gardens. With all the rain lately, the creek was running nicely providing great views along the way. We watched a dragonfly drinking from a large puddle in the trail, but it darted around so swiftly that we couldn't get a decent picture. By the time we got back to the central garden, it was raining and the buildings had all closed for the day, so we went out and explored the Blue Ridge Parkway between there and the Folk Art Center on the east end of Asheville.
One of our favorites in Asheville, this place has a downtown location and this satellite location south of the city in a shopping center. (EDIT: I just learned that while Tupelo Honey was founded in Asheville, it's grown into a chain with locations in fifteen states – we had no idea.) We got their famous fried chicken with a side salad and blueberry lemonade. Let's just say this was many steps up from Bojangles, but then again they're in a completely different kind of market. Unfortunately, we let Savannah the Fox come in with us, and she swiped one of the two chicken legs before we could take the picture. Shame on her. Well, I guess I can't blame her: my companion said the chicken really was delicious, and I definitely enjoyed grazing on the side salad with a honey infused vinaigrette.
FYI, we went past the Biltmore Village today, but the vast majority of it is still closed due to damage from hurricane Helene. Even ten months later, there's still a lot of rebuilding to be done because of that storm, and the evidence is notable as you travel through this part of western North Carolina. It's not just the Blue Ridge Parkway closed: coming into Asheville we went over three temporary bridges put in place because the original bridges had been washed out or damaged beyond repair. We've seen multiple hiking trails closed, including some in the Arboretum today, not to mention seeing just the footings of what used to be a viewing platform at the top of Catawba falls. We've seen other businesses near rivers that are still closed, the buildings recognizable but standing in derelict shape. But, the worst concentration of damage we've seen so far was in the Biltmore Village area. Hopefully they will recover – the village website lists six businesses open again, but that's a tiny fraction of the village, and unfortunately it's likely some will never reopen for one reason or another. If you're in the area, please try to support the ones that are open so that they can have a chance to put down roots and survive until the rest of the area better recovers.
We went down into downtown Asheville today to explore the arts and crafts shops. My companion hasn't spent much time in downtown since the early 2000s, so it was interesting to see the city again after so many years. We found our way around without too much trouble, but it is a busy city and we had our challenges now and then with the hilly streets that aren't exactly on a nice, simple, grid pattern. And, of course, a few things have moved or closed over the years, too. All in all, we spent about six hours in downtown, including lunch at the Early Girl Eatery, then headed back to the hotel to take the rest of the day off, having dinner in our room.
This place advertises being around "since 2001" and has three locations in and around Asheville. We found the downtown location while exploring the city and decided to give it a try. My companion got the BBQ sandwich and ordered cinnamon apples for me. He said the sandwich was pretty good but could have used a little more sauce. The apples were middle of the road, and we both thought the iced tea had an odd flavor in it that we couldn't identify. But, that's what you get when you take chances with restaurants: some will be great, some will be middle of the road, and some will be disappointments. I'll rate this one as middle of the road, as the server was very nice and friendly and the space was clean and inviting.
We checked out of our nice suite in Asheville and stopped by the Blue Ridge Parkway Folk Art Center before leaving town. The center is a combination of several art galleries and a large crafts shop, the works coming from local craft guild members. There's also an interesting exhibit about the creation of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Lots of interesting arts and crafts, but nothing much in our price range (I particularly liked this one large vase with a gorgeous turtle sculpture and flowers made into the front, and then my companion pointed out that it was marked at $30,000!) There were more afordable options – options in the double-digit range, but the things we liked were still a bit more than what my companion was willing to pay.
We stopped here on the way out of town and my companion ordered a gyro and a Greek salad. Well, I refused to speak to him after that – gyros are made with lamb meat for crying out loud! He swears he forgot about that, but I don't believe him. I'll admit, I was hungry, so I just grazed on the salad and tried not to look at him if I could avoid it. EDIT: I was digging in my companion's archives, and to our surprise he had eaten at this restaurant back in 2009 when he first drove the Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina. He didn't remember that at all. Talk about déjà vu!
While the Appalachian Trail parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway in central Virginia, it turns off north of Roanoke and takes a more northern route before heading south into North Carolina and on down to north Georgia. But, on the southern end of the parkway, parts of it are paralleled by the Mountain-to-Sea trail. After getting to the Pisgah Inn, my companion took a two hour hike on the trail westward while I relaxed in the lodge room (I still wasn't speaking to him). He got his just desserts, as the trail was not that well maintained, leaving him to wade through lots of foliage (see main post picture to the right). He said he turned back at a point where the trail had suffered some washout damage, for while the area was sort-of crossable, it looked too dangerous in his opinion (see last two pictures below).
To make things up to me, my companion took me to dinner at the upscale Pisgah Inn Dining Room and got me a completely vegetarian dinner: pasta with mushrooms and spinach, green beans and carrots, and a cherry cobbler for dessert. Okay, I guess I'll forgive him … this time.
After a grab-and-go lunch in the lodge room, we headed off to the Cradle of Forestry, but first a few pictures of the Pisgah Inn, where we spent last night and will spend tonight. It's a nice place, though a little pricey for what you get. I'm guessing the price comes more from the demand than from the quality of the room. That is, it's definitely a step up from the Peaks of Otter Lodge, but not so sure it's worth the extra $85 a night they charge over the Peaks of Otter rate. Interestingly, they don't have air conditioners in the rooms – just baseboard heaters. At this time of the year, it got a little bit stuffy in our upstairs room, but we left the sliding door open with the screen closed, and that seemed to work well enough for us. Of course, the lack of air conditioners made for peacefully quiet nights. The last picture below is the view from our room – gorgeous, isn't it?
It's probably not well known that the art and science of forestry in the United States got its start a few miles west of Asheville, all thanks to George Vanderbilt. When he built his colossal estate south of Asheville, he bought thousands of acres of woodlands to the west and employed experts of the time to preserve and manage them in ways that were both beneficial to people and ecologically sound. Those experts created a school of forestry, which is now the site of the Cradle of Forestry, a museum with outdoor walking trails that celebrates the school and forestry in general. One of the three trails takes you through the school "grounds", letting you see some of the buildings they used and the way of life of the instructors and students. A second trail celebrates more modern aspects of forestry, and the third serves as a serene contemplative walk through the woods. The museum combines more history with hands-on activities for the little ones to enjoy. It's a great way to spend an afternoon enjoying nature and learning about how to help preserve and manage it. Fun note: the sapling in the main post picture to the right is a "moon tree": the seed was one of many that went into orbit around the moon a couple years ago, and those seeds have now been distributed to be planted and grown into trees. The Cradle of Forestry already had one moon tree grown from a seed that went on one of the Apollo missions – now it has a second one.
When we got back up to the Parkway, my companion decided to see how far west he could go before reaching the closure. He'd thought it was right after US 276, but it was actually seven miles further, just west of the Graveyard Fields. We stopped there and he decided to go for a stroll on the Graveyard Fields Loop Trail, not appreciating just how long or how challenging it would be. I was wondering if I'd ever see him again, but he finally turned up, and in time to get us back to the inn for dinner. He saw the upper falls, but didn't get to the upper falls, citing a huge pond-like puddle in the middle of that trail followed immediately by a broken down bridge that he in no way trusted. The main post image to the right is of Looking Glass Rock, a large pluton of granite located a few miles from the Graveyard fields. When it gets wet or icy becomes brilliantly shiny.
We returned to the upscale dining room at the inn and I let my companion have a chicken pot pie while I grazed on some stringed squash (yes, strange, and not my favorite way of cooking squash, but it was edible). We had the same very nice waitress we'd had the previous night, and my companion said the pot pie was very good. We were too stuffed for dessert, though, so we had to miss out on trying the French silk chocolate pie. Maybe next time …
