The
popular Biltmore Estate, the former Vanderbilt summer home in
Asheville, North Carolina, is just a few minutes from our campsite at
the Lake Powhatan campground. We used the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway
as a short cut since it is adjacent to the campground and allowed us
to avoid the traffic-filled byways of this summer residence for many
Floridians. The number of Florida license plates here is second only
to the native North Carolina plates.
The Blue Ridge parkway offers a
serene, somewhat slower connection to the U.S. 25 Hendersonville Road
area than the other alternatives. Asheville itself is no longer the
sleepy little mountain hideaway of years gone by. In fact, it is the
intersection of two major Interstate highways, I-26 and I-40, and the
bypass that rings Asheville, I-240. The Interstate traffic is
incessant through this pretty little corner on the edge of the Smoky
Mountains.
After
being presented at the entrance to the beautiful estate with the
option of seeing how the old rich ostentatiously lived in the past
for a mere $59 apiece, or using the $118 bucks for a great dinner and
wandering through the city with fewest number of fat people in
America, the choice was easy. Asheville is the last major hippie
refuge on the east coast, and is worth a walk back through the '60's.
For $118 bucks, I'll read about the Vanderbilts.
I'm just
guessing about the statistics of the number of obese people here, but
one thing is certain: more people here are fit and health conscious
than any place we've been in several years. The area appeals to the
outdoor-types who crowd the hiking and bicycle trails that seem to be
everywhere. Perhaps they are the ones who live on the outskirts or in
the many surrounding urban areas. Downtown Asheville may be a
somewhat different story.
I haven’t
seen tie-dyed shirts or tops seriously worn as clothing for many
years, but the first trip into downtown Asheville was a trip through
Alice's looking glass, and many old fashions and styles appeared to
be quite common. We even saw haircuts that were popular when Hee Haw was a
prime time TV show. Asheville is where the hippies and the
hillbillies meet in a diverse, uniquely tolerant atmosphere that
confounds many out-of-towners. It is definitely unique.
The old
hippies, and their young imposters, are tolerated perhaps as an odd
quirk, or perhaps as an eye-wink to a place where mountain-grown
herbs take on a different meaning. Maybe there are just too many of
them. They seem to have come from all over the east coast. Whatever
the reason, diversity flourishes in Asheville more than most towns further east. So does good music and good dining. A
diverse, eclectic population inhabits downtown Asheville.
NEXT: Singin' in the Rain, at:
http://sleepstwo.blogspot.com/2013/08/whether-or-not-weather.html
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