Snow storm, closed roads and steep roads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture was taken three days later at Maggie Valley.

Bob and I thought we had seen the last of snow storms when we left MN.  We were proved wrong much sooner then we expected.  On Tuesday we drove through our first mountain blizzard. 

On Tuesday morning we took off for a two hour trip north to Bryson City NC.  We had heard there was a cold front coming in but were not at all concerned.  One important thing to remember is in this area in a few miles you can go from 1000 ft to 5000 ft altitude and it makes an incredible difference in what is happening in the weather.  We were not more then an hour from home near Ashville NC when the snow started.  The cloud would go away, we would desend a 1000 ft and all was clear and then it repeated again.  When we drove another 30 minutes we were at a much higher altitude and the snow was near white out conditions.  They have no plows, no salting the road and people are not used to the icy wet road.  I was driving very slow.  Soon it quit and the sun came out however there was several inches of snow accumulation where we were and another 30 miles away at the mountain pass going to Gatlinenberg TN the road was closed for more then 24 hours.   All they can do is wait for the snow to melt.  Quite an experience.

The last 10 miles into Cherokee NC was when we were coming down the mountain.  How steep was it, how many curves were there in the road?  Let’s just say for 10 miles I never put my foot on the gas pedal and road the breaks all they way down.  Bob, the passenger, now understands why I call these white knuckle rides.  It is much harder being a passenger then driving because you have no control.

History of Statesville NC

I find myself drawn to learn the history of those places we are visiting.   I hope by understanding the past I can get a better understanding of my new community.  This is from wikipedia on Statesville where we saw the balloon festival.  It is an old town and seems mostly industrial.

In 1753, Scots-Irish Presbyterians and German Lutherans, who originally settled in Pennsylvania, began arriving in Statesville to plant crops in the fertile soil where game and water were also plentiful. The settlement, known as Fourth Creek Congregation, was named for the fresh water stream, which was the fourth creek west of the neighboring settlement of Salisbury. The center of the settlement was a log cabin where the Presbyterians worshiped and where the First Presbyterian Church is located today.

In 1755, the colonial governor Arthur Dobbs authorized the construction of the colony’s frontier fort, which was located approximately three miles due north of the Fourth Creek settlement. Built and garrisoned by North Carolina provincial soldiers, Fort Dobbs defended the British North America’s western frontier in the colony of North Carolina during the French and Indian War. Fort Dobbs combined the functions of a military barracks, fortification, refuge for settlers, provisioning depot and center for negotiations with native Americans.

As early as 1833, Statesville’s leaders began laying track for railroads to connect the Piedmont area of North Carolina with the rest of the country.

Statesville served as the temporary capital of North Carolina during the final months of the Civil War when Union troops occupied Raleigh and forced Gov. Zebulon Vance to relocate the confederate state government.

By 1858, Statesville was growing rapidly and soon afterward began leading the state in the production of tobacco and tobacco products, the manufacture and blending of whiskey, and became a large distribution center for roots and herbs.

Children’s Home NC

As we drove around the the Statesville area we came to a town called Barium Springs.   I noticed immediately a large “campus” of old an new brick buildings.  We were driving by the Barium Springs Children’s Home.   All of you know the story of Helen and the Owatonna Home for Neglected and Abandoned Children and I was soon to find out that this was very similar but unlike Owatonna that closed, this home is has evolved and still serves children.  I have an excerpt from their web site and you can learn more at bariumsprings.org.

In 1883, two Presbyterian women in Charlotte, North Carolina founded the Presbyterian Orphans Home,now called Barium Springs Home for Children. As needs grew and space did not, the Presbyterian Synod purchased acreage for the Home in Barium Springs, NC. The land they purchased was the site of the legendary, healing “Barium Springs.”

The Legendary Barium Springs

In the mid-1700s, the first settlers to explore the area discovered nine springs. These waters contained healthful minerals, with the largest of the springs containing barium. A company called The Great Human Repair Shop was formed and shipped water from the springs throughout America, England and Ireland. To accommodate patients who visited the springs, a 30-room hotel was built. This area and the business it created boomed until the end of World War I when the land was sold to Davidson College and then to the Presbyterian Synod.

The Orphanage Era

 

After purchase of the land, Presbyterian Children’s Home moved to Barium Springs. Over the next ten years, the campus grew with cottages, an infirmary and a school. Until the 1950’s, children coming to Barium Springs were mostly orphans who would stay for long periods of time. Many came as infants and stayed until graduation from high school or college. During the reign of the Home’s legendary charismatic leader, Mr. Joseph Boudinot (J.B.) Johnston (1922 – 1949), the children produced 85% of the Home’s food needs. The Home once operated a farm, orchard, dairy, laundry, print shop, and shoe repair shop, as well as a Baby Cottage, and had a successful athletic program in football, basketball, wrestling, and track. Christian education was a part of daily life at the Home.

Changing Times, Changing Needs

 

In the 1950’s, needs for an orphanage decreased, partially due to peacetime and advances in medical technology. Instead, children needing care had one or both parents still living; but suffered from abuse and neglect. Not only did these children need a place of refuge but they also required treatment and therapy..

To meet the needs of children today, Barium Springs Home for Children evolved to provide a group home model of care. Our stability lies in our deeply-rooted mission and a willingness to attend to the special needs of each generation. Services expanded in 1969 to include high-quality, full-day childcare for working parents. Later, an alternative school was founded for early middle school to high school students who have not been successful in traditional classroom settings.

Balloon Festival

We drove 2 1/2 hours north on Friday to the Statesville Balloon Festival.   It was supposed to have lift off at 4:30 Friday and more activities starting 8 a.m. on Sat.   Unfortunately the rain canceled the flights so we went to wineries instead and waited for beautiful weather at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon and evening  and early Sunday morning.   There were about 55 balloons and it was beautiful.  Plenty of people there but not crowded.  Lots of food, music and an all around family friendly wonderful experience.  They did give rides but they aere $200 a person. The night time balloon lighting was especially  beautiful.   I encourage you to read a little about the history of this festival and some answers to frequently asked questions about hot air balloons.   I thought it was interesting.

http://www.carolinaballoonfest.com/history.htm

http://www.carolinaballoonfest.com/faq.htm

 I think the photos say the rest.

Carolina Balloon Festival

Blowing up some of the balloons.

 

Balloon right over head.

The sky full of balloons. The picture does not do it justice.

This little fellow was so CUTE! He clapped every time a new balloon was released.

Took my breath away!

Our visit to wineries in Yadkin Valley NC

Bob and I went north about 3 hours into NC to the Yadkin Valley.  I know this is only the first of many trips to this area and another one a little more east of here.  

The federal government approved the Yadkin Valley American Viticulture Area (AVA), effective February 7, 2003 and just this last May 2008 added Swan Creek as a seperate area.  There are a couple dozen wineries within quite close driving distance. http://www.yvwt.com/ and this for all NC wineries http://www.visitnc.com/.  The weather was beautiful and we had a wonderful time.   The country looked much like the California wine country but greener.  Most of the wineries were very new and the wines are usually not available outside NC so we started our collection.  Most are small but there are at least three larger ones.   We visited several small ones and one larger one.   They make all sorts of wine including to wineries who specialize in Italian wines and one that does some German wine.  There is even one, not in Yadkin Valley but not to far away, that is owned by NASCAR driver Richard Childress http://www.childressvineyards.com/home.asp.

Here are a few facts I found interesting.  Yadkin county is a dry county.   Don’t ask me how they can make and sell wine in a dry county.   North Carolina was the leading producer of wine until prohibition and is now number 10 in the nation.   Once prohibition started the focus went off wine and switched to the harder brews (moonshine).  Remember my previous post on Dark Corner?   The story goes that when the G Men started coming into NC there cars, it led to high speed chases int he mountains and here is where NASCAR was born. 

To keep you from laying awake like I did, here is the list of the top ten wine producing states..

Since 1999, the number of wineries has increased by 81 percent from 2688 to 4867. According U.S. Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Division (TTB).  TThese 4,867 wine producers produced a total of 2.44 billion liters.

 •At 2.18 billion liters, California accounted for 89.25 percent, followed by
 •New York  with 106.8 million liters (4.37 percent),
 • Washington with 75.9 million liters (3.11 percent),
  •Oregon  with 15.6 million liters (0.64 percent),
 • Florida with 6.6 million liters (0.27 percent),
•New Jersey with 6.3 million liters (0.26 percent),
•Kentucky with 4.7 million liters (0.19 percent),
•Ohio  with 4.2 million liters (0.18 percent),
•Virginia with 3.7 million liters (0.15 percent), and
•North Carolina with 3.5 million liters (0.14 percent).
These two photos are from Raffaldini Vineyard, one of the larger ones.  It is gorgeous on a hill with an incredible view.   They do Italian wines.   We bought a bottle of wine, cheese and crackers and had a relaxing lunch by a big fountain.   Visit their web site to get the full story on this impressive place.  Mr. Raffaldini was quite involved in Swan Creek recently getting their AVA qualification.   http://www.raffaldini.com/

These next photos are various wineries and tasting rooms.

Daveste.  We bought a couple bottles of wine here and shared a wine tasting because it was only 10 a.m.

Daveste winery, opened tasting room Sept. 2008

 Dobbs Creek

Opened April 2008. Has a spectacular view. Even skydivers at times.

 Laural Gray.  Laural Gray was so charming.   We bought lots of wine and gifts here.

There is also a small Amish store in this area that was doing a fantastic business.

 

North Carolina wines?

Ok, this surprised me.  We have a vineyard  in our back yard in Travelers Rest.  It’s not clear to me if they have a winery also but we will find out.

And then I found out about all the wineries in NC!  Looks like many of them are about 3 hours away north and east of us.  Visitncwine.com to see a map.

North Carolinas finest wines!

With more than 70 wineries and 400 vineyards in 34 counties, the number of North Carolina wineries has more than tripled since 2001. North Carolina currently ranks 10th nationally in grape and wine production and was cited in 2007 as one of the top five state destinations for wine and culinary tourism activities in the U.S.

Growers in the Mountains and Piedmont regions have planted traditional European grape varieties and French-American Hybrids. Commonly planted varieties include Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chambourcin, Chardonnay, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Seyval Blanc and Vidal Blanc. Plantings of native Muscadine grapes, often called Scuppernongs, are also on the rise.

Here are a few of them	WEB SITE
Daveste Vineyards	daveste.com
Rendezvous Ridge	rendezvousridge.com
Southern Charm Winery	southerncharmwinery.com
Weathervane Winery	weathervanewinery.com
Wood Mill Winery	woodmillwinery.com

Epcot part two

For this visit we arrived at Epcot around 1 p.m.   We planned on coming late and staying late so we could see the Fireworks display.  Since we had seen most of what we wanted to see on a previous visit we wanted to spend a relaxing day and see the flower show that started March 19.  The day was cool, about 68 and sunny and it was just perfect for walking around and enjoying everything.

The photos don’t do the topiary creations justice.  The birds and butterflies above are all flowers and greenery. Peter Pan one was probably my favorite. You should be able to guess that Tinkerbell is my special favorite.  Snow White and the seven dwarfs was also pretty cute. 

Fragrance Garden – the most original idea I have ever seen for a fragrance garden was in Paris and done by Guerlain,s among the oldest perfume houses in the world. The only fragrance I was familiar with was Sharlimar.  They had topiary in the shape of their famous perfume bottles with lots of other fragrant plants and flowers surrounding the topiary and then to top it off they had about a dozen stations (see photo) where you could actually smell the fragrances.   We loved it.

China had a different type of topiary which was made of seeds and dried things.   They had one for each month of the Chinese Zodiac.  I am a tiger.  They were about 18 inches high and two feet long.   Very beautiful.  Japan had many bonsai trees that we enjoyed.

Another highlight was watching Paul Revere and the Raiders perform.   We had very low expectations and it was a hoot.  They really played to the senior crowd.  I forgot all the music they have done. 

I enjoyed the US American Tribute but Bob thought it was too much pomp and circumstance.    I also thought it was sad.  What is the American dream today?   Have we and our country lost it?   Did we ever have it?  Lots of philisophical thoughts on this one. Ask me about this when you see me.

The fireworks or as Disney calles it “Illumination” was fun but Bob and I both expected a little more.   We would give a regular fireworks a 5 and gave this an 8. 

We are theme parked out.   Probably will not go to another one for decades! 

Epcot visit one

We made two trips to Epcot.   One when it was not so busy and saw all the major attractions and the second visit when the flower show started and staying to see the fireworks.  In the past we have been to Epcot twice already so have seen most of the exhibits at least once.

We took a behind the scenes tour of their special garden research area.  They are looking at ways to grow food in small spaces without soil.  Pretty interesting.   I want to try one of their ideas for an herb and edible garden in MN this summer. 

The China  and Japan exhibits are our favorites.

When we saw Taiko drums several years ago it started our interest in this music form and we have seen several performances in the Twin Cities.  

We splurged and had lunch in France.  Figured doing it at Disney was alot cheaper then the flight to Paris.

The Soarin experience/ride was pretty fun.  It gives you the illusion of flying over the California.  It felt pretty real.   My great thanks to the 8 year old boy sitting next to me when he reassured me before the ride.” Just remember it’s not real.   You are only about 18″ off the floor.”  I found myself repeating that to myself a coule times. 

Bok Sanctuary Gardens and Acoustic Eidolon Concert 2/23

I added a couple photos to this earlier post. 

Quite by accident I discovered a gem.  About 45 minutes  from us there is an incredible historic garden with carillon bells.   They have some special events and one happened to be a concert on Sat. night with Acoustic Eidolon, a husband and wife couple that play  a rich blend of Celtic, folk, bluegrass and Latin music with Joe playing a unique double-neck guitjo instrument and  Hannah’s playing the cello.  We also signed up for the pre event of hors d’oeuvres and wine.   We had planned on going early to see the gardens and here the bells but it was raining so we will go to see that another day, probably when we go back to Cypress Gardens since they are only about 10 miles apart.

The concert was fantastic and we got a little preview of the bells and one small garden.   WOW!  Watch for photos when we return.  The park is in the middle of an orange grove so it has a very calming drive in.  

Since it was such an accident that we found this place Bob and I are both wondering why we have been brought here.   We don’t believe these things happen to us by accident so there is a reason, we just don’t know it yet.   We also know it may take years for the purpose to be revealed to us but for now we will just enjoy the experience of a beautiful adventure.

 Side note:   The couple that we sat with before the concert when they learned we were fom Minnesota, immediately commented that Minnesota also had clarrion bell towers.   I am going to have to find out more about that when I get home. 

Arabian Nights

We celebrated Easter and our 34th wedding anniversary at the Arabian Nights show. A dinner show that brings the fairy tale to life on horseback.  We had a good time.  The show was pretty and fun.  Food was nothing great.  Seating was in long rows with the food in front of you.   We had a delightful family from Montreal sitting next to us.  Bruno was a flight attendant and very talkative.  He bought us a glass of wine to celabrate our anniversary.  I should mention that each glass of wine was about 1/2 a bottle!  

The story was about the princess and the prince and the evil prince but they also managed to get in several acts that were about the Wild West.

The horse below was HUGE!  His shoulder and rump were almost as tall as Bob so close to 6 feet!