Art, Glorious Art

Although we were sad to leave the captivating Blue Ridge Mountains, we enjoyed the picturesque path south through the Virginia valley, across the skinny bit of Tennessee, and on to Asheville, North Carolina.  We arrived in the dark at the Taps RV campground which turned out to be a bit disappointing (like waking up to 6" of snow in November) upon daylight. We were located right behind a gas station and just off a busy road (but hey, a "Chick-fil-A" was close by for midnight cravings).  The RV's were really packed in and we had trees on either side of us so there wasn't room to extend the slide out on the driver side in the front (so our "tiny house" remained in inhale mode). This office "shack" (pictured below) was the highlight of the park (Ya'll got a rezer vay shun? Yesum, I did it on the inter-webs!).  Banjo music plays eerily in the background.

That night we watched a movie I haven't seen since it came out in 1987 with the famous line: "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father.  Prepare to die." If you know this movie you win the prize in exceptional taste in iconic comedic cinema, if not, so sad (buzzer goes off in the background, trap door opens and you are dropped into comedic purgatory to watch endless reruns of Carrot Top, the Three Stooges, ventriloquists, and MIMES). 

About 5 in the morning, surprise, surprise, we are also located just next to the train tracks, almost as delightful of a wake up call as the diesel engines at Walmart. But, with a tad bit of imagination, I pretend I am riding the train to the Biltmore to have dinner in the massive dining room:

In my dream I take a seat close to the fireplace (since I know it's pretty dang cold in here from living in Dalkeith Palace in Scotland) and enjoy a full 21 course feast (OK, I only make it past the cheese and crackers part but Doug of course would enjoy it all) complete with cookies and milk for dunking. 

We came to visit Asheville with the girls about 7-8 years ago and toured the splendiferous Biltmore mansion (a must do for a "bucket list" if anyone hasn't been) and toured a bit of the town. I remembered Asheville was brimming with art so I felt like a dog in the open car window as we perused downtown Asheville again.  Art galleries here are akin to taverns in Wisconsin, one about every quarter of the block but minus the spilt beer smell (and just in case you were curious, I looked up spilled vs. spilt and modern English has now given way to using spilled in place of spilt so I'll go with spilt as a nod to our BFF like William Shakespeare--give me a "W", I heard echoing in my head from our former tour guide). 

Asheville also has the most incredible array of restaurants--something like 800 listed in Trip Advisor (for a town of 87,000 people).  We had a late lunch at Chestnut:

and then browsed the myriad of galleries--coop galleries, independent galleries, folk art galleries, wearable art galleries, old department stores made into antique-mall/cubby-like galleries; it's like the Mall of America in art. A jolly Australian fella working in a lovely coop gallery (his medium was stainless steel--beautiful sugar/creamer sets)

told us a good place to watch the sunset and have a drink was the Skytop bar on the 8th floor of a fabulous old building.  The ride up to the top is only attained by hailing the "elevator man" who guides the vintage (only two in Asheville) metal grate doors closed and states in classic fashion, "going up".  We had wine and beer but learned later they have fabulous mixologists that create incredible libations.

Worth the trip up for this:

And then after a bit the moon came out to greet us:

Being the artsy town that it is, downtown Asheville is also a hub for a vast array of colorful folks, and sitting outside at a sidewalk cafe provides great viewing. One person joked with us that he and his wife play two games while people watching in Asheville.  First game is like "Bingo" but basically winning with the middle square if you find 5 hippies and a puppy (yes, I kinda won once--only three hippies). The second game is "Is it a girl or boy"?, guessing the gender of some of the more kaleidoscopic folks downtown.  Not sure if you can really win at this one but I feel I am allowed to participate since I've been questioned twice (and probably more behind my back) if I was a boy or girl, causing me to curse my "athletic bulid" through High School, but appreciating it down the pathway of age. It's all just an illusion isn't it? Boy or Girl? But then again my name is Chris so that clears everything up. :)

We had a little time for people watching after grabbing a coffee from Double D's Coffee (all bra sizes allowed inside, obviously): 

Upstairs in the bus there is lots of room for sitting and people watching.

View upstairs toward the staircase. 

Then we took a stroll over to the Grove Arcade, another magnificent building built by Edwin Grove (more about this renaissance man later). This building is so wonderfully elegant with all the amenities of a "Downton Abbey" lifestyle. It reminds me of being in (a three story) "Marshall Fields" building downtown Chicago:

Love the fancy fretwork above all the doors!

And visible mail shoots with letter boxes.

Not sure if this was a ticket window or what (below) but I could find a million uses for this other than just a window into a Gallery: puppet theatre, living portrait window (with a regally dressed person just sitting in the window with eyes slowly following observer as walking by), mirror with crown strategically placed so when passer by looks over the crown is placed on top of their head, a shrine to all the lost souls who believe "Us Weekly" and "National Inquirer" are really "media coverage"...oh, the possibilities are endless!

 Old telephone booths recycled into marketing billboards below (note, one small "shrine" to the ATM) but again, the possibilities could be endless: little free library, shoe exchange (pinching shoes? just exchange them for others), magical entrance to another world, charging station for phones, mini gallery for tiny paintings and sculpture, husband vault--if you go shopping park your hubby inside with TV screen and some kind of car/sports/adventure show on, grandma vault--if grandma gets tired park her here and have craft items handy...see, the world doesn't need any more boring ad space.

Tuesday it was beautiful, almost 80 degrees so we decided to try out the mountain bike trails at Bent Creek park, near Lake Powhatan. The trails were extensive, no "horse rocks" here! A few logs and roots but nothing difficult except the cardiac straining switch backs up the mountain.  Several of the trails felt jungle-like with the foliage creating lovely arched tunnels:

The trails all shoot off from this "fire lane":

 Forever the stunt man:

Wednesday we headed out to Grovewood Gallery, an interesting array of buildings connected to the Grove Park Inn (more on the Inn later).  The Grovewood Gallery was filled with stunning art and craft, and the Gallery has won numerous awards through the years. The creativity and talent in this area is exhausting, there is one piece of art more beautiful and inspiring than the next.  It would be difficult to stand out in any medium with the plethora of talent.  Before entering the gallery we wandered through a sculpture garden filled with a variety of whimsical sculptures and gates.

The crow with golf ball is titled: "Excuse #153"

This pup (above) is just like me riding through downtown Asheville.

The bullfrog really was titled, "Jeremiah"...ha, now you too have that song stuck in your head.  

Another serendipitous find was the Estes-Winn antique car museum located amongst the gallery buildings. All of these buildings next to the Grove Park Inn were part of a former woolen mill (hand-loomed wool sold to high end designers) which began as a sort of social work project to improve the lives of the impoverished folks in the area around the turn of the century.  The business originated near the Biltmore Estate and was later moved to these buildings next to the Grove Park Inn.  Eventually the craft diminished with the advent of automated looms and proliferation of cotton and other new textile materials popular in the 50's. By 1980 all production ceased, however in 1992 the buildings were renovated to create this delightful complex of art galleries, artisan studios, and museums. 

The car museum is filled with  rare and vintage automobiles and carriages collected by Harry Bloomberg, a Cadillac dealer and philanthropist in Asheville.

We wandered up to see the hotel and WOW, I was blown away by the spectacular stone (which looks like a dry stack but there is mortar behind each massive stone) hotel built from 1912-13. With four hundred men working 10 hour shifts, six days a week the hotel was built, as promised, in a year. Fred Seely (a renaissance man: chemist, pharmacist, architect, and activist (he was a strong voice against the chain-gang labor of inmates in Georgia) along with his father-in-law, Edwin Grove, also a wealthy businessmen in the pharmaceutical industry and investors in land in the up and coming area of Asheville, NC. They used their fortune from the "Tasteless Chill Tonic" to build this massive resort.  

Walking through the Grove Park Inn is like walking into a giant home for the  three bears.  There are massive fireplaces flanking the lobby, one fireplace stoked with a roaring fire and rocking chairs, the other one decked out for fall (each fireplace is 36 feet in width--120 boulders were used to create each of these two story towers). I could pretty much stand inside the firebox. 

We ate lunch on the porch and this was our view:

The first deck down from the porch:

The back of the hotel:

After lunch we walked down by the spa and through the shops located inside the hotel (a Christmas shop, an outdoor shop, another gallery). We took a quick peak in the bar area and admired the wall of photos of all the famous folks that have mingled, slept, and walked the halls of the Inn (Rockefeller, Edith Vanderbilt, Houdini, Edison, Ford, on and on...) and walked back through the Vanderbilt wing of the hotel. What kinds of things did they talk about here? Did any of them tell any good jokes? What were the parties like in the 20's?  

By far the most famous person to walk the halls past and present, however, is the mysterious "Pink Lady"....more on that in the next post.

Walks, Will, and Wine

With the Blue Ridge mountains calling us from all sides we decided to explore trails for biking at the Patricia Byron Forest Preserve. The "Things To Do" section of the local brochure stated the Preserve was a 600 acre park for hiking, running, biking and even horse back riding, and we gallantly strode off, unaware that 600 acres doesn't necessarily mean width. The Rock 'N Roller coaster at Disneyland explodes like a canon, accelerating straight up into the air from 0-57mph in 2.8 seconds as Steven Tyler's scream fills your ears. How lucky for us, this was the natural equivalent in trail ascent however our feeble WI legs propelled us at Jurassic period warp speed, and the wail reverberated through my leg muscles instead of ears as we headed straight up the mountain. Despite this refrain of trail, we kept thinking it would get better. As soon as we'd turn a corner the trail would get steeper and filled with larger looser rocks, barely passable on foot without seriously twisting an ankle.  We struggled to half bike, half carry our bikes and decided (after about 45 minutes since Doug is forever the trail optimist) these were pathways best suited for a 1000 pound animal with hooves, not a 24 pound contraption with wheels. So in the end, I really just took my bike for a walk, and I sure hope my bike enjoyed it because I didn't. As we roll/hobbled our way back to the bottom we met up with a group of horse riders who seemed to be enjoying themselves, the horses at least.  But on the bright side of this day we were outside, it was a lovely day, and the 20 minute drive to get to the Forest Preserve was magnificent, winding through the mountains past wineries and gorgeous horse farms. Real estate photo recognition:

I was very happy to clean up after our bike ride and have dinner with my old buddy Tara at Dr. Ho's Humble Pie for cheeseburger pizza and brew...FFB, and caught up on twenty years of life that had passed! 

  

Next on the list was a visit to Staunton (pronounced like Stanton), another on Smithsonian's list of "Best Small Town in America" (listed 10th in 2012).  We started at the Woodrow Wilson birthplace and Museum. Moving along the timeline of history, going from Revolutionary War to Civil War, and now Woodrow Wilson, our 28th president who's two terms spanned just before and after  WWI which lasted from 1914-18.  (So if we're going to keep up our march through history it's gonna be a long drive to Hawaii's Pearl Harbor to catch the WWII segment.)    

The guide for the Woodrow Wilson Museum told us this summer a mama bear and her cub climbed this tree and camped out all day in August.  Maybe the bears were just being tourists or more likely, spying the other tourists like a bakery case of sweet treats with cream filling!   

Woodrow Wilson's birthplace below.

Learning about Wilson was an interesting segment of history since I really knew nothing about his presidency. He began with a degree in law but eventually developed a distaste for law and decided to dabble in the field of politics, becoming Governor of New Jersey from 1911-13. Eventually, as some fear might happen with our current "Guvna" in WI, Wilson's career lead to becoming our 28th President for two terms. Of course he instituted and supported several acts, the Federal Reserve, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Farm Loan, curtailing child labor hours,  and the usual what not that comes with this job, but the interesting bit to me was his desire to form a "League of Nations" to promote global democracy which was never ratified by congress before his death. However, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his sponsorship of the "League" (1919) and Wilson is consistently ranked as one of the top ten presidents of all time. I didn't know that...but how ironic that today I did note that the current WI Governor was recently ranked by CREW (Citizen's for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) as the worst Governor of the year.   

Prudent words by Wilson on War:
"I come from the South and I know what war is, for I have seen its wreckage and ruin. It is easy for me as President to declare war. I do not have to fight...It is some poor farmer's boy, or the son of some poor widow who will have to do the fighting and dying." 

Interesting plea for support of the Third Liberty Loan bonds to help cover the war expenses--these bonds (not redeemable until 1928) were primarily sold by the Boy and Girls Scouts (the scouts sold 2.3 million bonds). Imagine proposing this effort today? From war bonds to cookies, and wrapping paper, and popcorn....

Maybe Walker just needs a hit song, something that can generate royalties for his campaign, or be featured on "The Voice". The great campaign song hit of 1912: "Sit Down and Rock it Out With Me"

The Museum was small but informative with just enough artifacts and text to entertain but not overwhelm.  The museum also included his favorite car, a Pierce-Arrow limousine, pretty snazzy.

There was in interesting display of WWI weapons especially a trench warfare dagger/brass knuckles for multiple fighting benefits! 

And a simulation of the trenches created in the war. 

We decided to carry on and walk downtown. View from the Wilson Presidential Library into Staunton:

We stumbled upon the Blackfriar's Playhouse, the world's only re-creation of Shakespeare's indoor theatre.  For a small fee we took a tour by an overenthusiastic graduate student at Mary Baldwin College, a women's private college (about 1100 students) in Staunton.  The information she presented was informative but she really needed to stop saying how (now read this in double time) "I just love talking about Shakespeare and sometimes I talk too fast and get really excited because I just love talking about the history of Shakespeare and I'm getting two master's degrees in Shakespeare in three years....(no breath)...really I'm just so excited about Shakespeare and can't wait to tell you all of the fabulous things about Shakespeare."  OK, I get it--you wish Will was your BFF (if he was alive) but you'll be his cheerleader post-mortem. 

 The outside of the playhouse:

The theatre is quite amazing with post and beam construction and Scottish tapestries, and chandeliers with candle like bulbs.  The re-creation is supposedly identical in every way to the original theater, according to Will's personal pom pon squad of one, and she said the only modern convenience that has been added to this re-creation was padding on the benches and removable backs for some of the seating on the first level (because too many people complained about the hard seating). It's a very intimate theatre and the lights are kept at candle light level to recreate the original ambiance of the Blackfriar's experience.  

We thought about going to a show but it was a bit pricey for our budget (since most of the things we try to do are free or minimal cost)  but I've read numerous reviews that the acting is spectacular.

 The basement costume and rehearsal room:

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

Hat props...lots of crowns (surprise) for Will's plays:

After our tour with the overly enthusiastic college student we browsed around town. There were a few interesting shops (lots of antique shops) and restaurants but not much so we headed for the park and this one came with a special prize: swans and geese!

Another day....

Sunshine and 65 today so it must be a good day for wine...is there a bad day for wine? If there is, then again, it's a good day for wine, problem solved. There are dozens of vineyards in the area, and VA currently ranks fifth in the nation for number of wineries, currently 192 and still counting.  Who knew? Many of the vineyards are fairly new, although wine has been made in this region since early colonization in the 17th C. 

Our patronage at Wine Guyz in LaCrosse and Con Amici in Baraboo has given me enough knowledge to know that if I go missing I want my photo on wine bottles so my friends will know to look for me (take note Miss Amy). We planned to try to get to six wineries but read on...

According to the tasting room attendant at the King winery, the site was chosen specifically on the basis of the amenable grounds for polo (tax write off anyone?) thus it was situated amongst very green pastures. Top photo stable, tasting room on the left. Five samples and we're on a roll... 

On to Pollak Winery. The tasting attendant here said he has several patrons that come once a year to fill their entire trunk with VA wine (and sell it to desperate mom's on the playground--kidding, not true, don't plagiarize any bit of this so I get arrested for wanting to sell wine to vulnerable sources).

Virginia's most notable wine is the Viognier, a white wine with hints of citrus and...well the tasting notes will go on and on about the notes of bee's sweat and sunbeams with a hint of rainbow and unicorn poop..whatever, a good brunch wine. The Viognier is one of the most decorated wines of the Pollak winery. Eight samples later and a purchased bottle of Viognier to take home, like troopers we ambled on.  

Mother please may I have another? On to Veritas, with a cozy tasting room and lots of samples...I cun baereley remimber how gud the last 11 sampelz werrrrrrrre.

So only three stops into our tour we had to cry "Uncle" and save more tasting for another day (there's always tomorrow) or I'd be on the floor, the other 189 wineries will have to wait.

At this point I had my fill of wine...yeah, I'm a light weight, and needed to eat so we found an awesome bookstore/sandwich shop in Waynesboro called Stone Soup.  Great food (Yummy ham and brie on multigrain roll and kale salad with squash and apple slices and honey mustard dressing with sunflower seeds.  I'm only writing about my food here because I want to remember the excellent combination...remember I am not an old person talking about food.) and a small but thoughtful collection of new and used books.  I bought a book by a local author, Marietta, McCarty, "The Philosopher's Table", about starting a Philosophy Dinner Club, like melding Socrates Cafe with food. Hard to have a dinner party in Max, unless of course I can serve PBJ and no one minds the overflow seating in the bulkhead of the cab.

  Really awesome mural at Stone Soup in Waynesboro:  

Friday hiked to Humpback mountain and then part of the Appalachian trail. The humpback trail head has a collection of 19th century log cabins to view. "Ranger Rick" at this cabin provided a nice talk about the area:

Cabins for little people that like the breeze (maybe cuz they were really stinky):

We hiked the AT 25 years ago and back then the trail was barely marked.  Now there is a white blaze every 1/4 mile and nice engraved signs at major intersections.  

Some folks have added encouragement along the way:

Stopping at the log picnic table for lunch:

A strange feature I didn't notice last time we hiked the trail was the massive stone fence along parts of the trail.  We later learned that it was built by the slaves to deter wild boar from foraging into farm property. 

These walls were in the valley and way up at the top of the mountain and in between--the work (not the greatest photo but imagine stacked stone walls that carry on as long as the press does about Kim Kardashian):

After hiking, being the gluttons for punishment that we are, we made a beeline to Sherando Park, part of George Washington National Forest, to mountain bike for a bit. Fun trail but more fun trying to use our "Gorilla Pod" for photos:

 Lake Sherando

Back and forth...20 photos later.

Saturday was a nice change of pace. My old buddy Tara said her neighborhood was having a trail clean up in the shared woods around her home.  Yes! We'd love to help her community and play in the woods.  Doug got to play with the chain saw (which made him very happy)  and I gathered the brush and limbs to create little "curbs" along the trail. Afterwards Tara took us out for a beer and food at Blue Mountain Brewery. The brewery is the kind of restaurant/brew pub any owner would dream about, it was literally bursting with business--two parking attendants guiding the cars into available spaces, lovely view with spectacular mountain side seating, FFB, and dog friendly (where was the last place you ate that was sprinkled with dogs).  We had a great time catching up and talking about life and before we left Tara's house I snagged a photo op with her critters (and there is also a horse and cats not included)!  

Tasha, Wicket, Tara, and Sam

Goodbye Charlottesville, or C'ville as the locals call it.  We'll miss your beautiful mountains!