FORT CHISWELL, VIRGINIA....ALMOST HEAVEN- CHARLESTON WEST VIRGINIA...CINCINNATI

Above, we went on another bike ride, this time it was from Fort Chiswell, Virginia area.  Great rails to trails path along a river, with tunnels through mountains, called  the NEW RIVER TRAIL- misnomer though as this river is actually one of the OLDEST on the planet!  Emma in and out of hospital with RSV, and pneumonia during these couple of days.... Below we went to the Charleston VA state capitol gold topped building and the Virginia State Capitol museum.... Ilea got to reminisce about her days at the phone company cord board... and while in Cincinnati we went on a boat trip along the Ohio River (which actually left from the KENTUCKY side of the river, had some Saurkraut Balls at the Golden Lamb, visited the Fort Ancient Indian site-(where we had a stare down with Bambi) and  also visited with niece Madison and her family, including Ilea's brother George and wife Colleen.

 

Witnessed the annual PRIDE PARADE in downtown Cincinnati, and did our fair share of biking along numerous pathways... worked up an appetite for famous Cincinnati Skyline Chili.

 

Walked the PURPLE PEOPLE BRIDGE from Kentucky to Ohio...

 

FREE BEER!!

Charging off to Charlotte and very Green Greensboro...

Downtown Charlotte we were met by 6 bike cops who tried to assist (unsuccessfully) with the broken parking meter we encountered.  Interesting town... went out to visit the NC Raptor Center and that was quite impressive with large variety of rescued falcons, hawks and raptors including eagles.  Visited Winghaven private residence for birds. Also did some biking along their scenic Sugar Creek Greenway.... and had BURNT PORK ENDS & some Salmon with bacon wrapped jalapenos at the Midwood Smokehouse.  Camped out at the Charlotte Camping World Raceway.

After Charlotte on to Greensboro.....  Father's day walk at the Bog across from Tanger's Garden... did some boating down south east of G-boro in Jordan Lake and caught the biggest catfish I ever had...went tubing for 2 hours down the Dan River... visited hr away to Mt Airy (AKA Mayberry) Where Andy Griffith grew up and where the show was based on; ate at Barney's Cafe and walked around .... also able to join in celebration of Danette and Josh's wedding while there.

 

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And on to .... ASHEVILLE, NC

Overwhelming X2 is best way to describe Asheville..... First of course is the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway.  Second was the Biltmore Estate (home of the Vanderbilts) with our timing, seeing the Chihuly glass collections. Below- Sunrise at Mills River overlook near the Pisgah Inn where we had breakfast overlooking the B R Mnts.

Biltmore Estate took the better part of a day.... the house has 250+ rooms, and there were
many pieces from the Chihuly collection scattered all over the grounds and through the house. House had a pool in it and bowling allies!

Downtown Asheville impressive, with many Breweries .... Had dessert at Double D's which is a retired British double decker bus turned into a cafe.... Also checked out a GOURD festival at Cherokee, NC.

Downtown ate at the LAUGHING SEED vegetarian restaurant- had delicious CAULIFLOWER CRUST PIZZA...

Lastly- we noticed that people apparently had knitted coverings for lampposts in the downtown Asheville area (?) um....  why??? Its called "KNIT- BOMBING" - kind of like someone intrusively PHOTO-BOMBS a photo, we may guess that these knittings intrude on our daily lives (?)