We're going on vacation.

[Esther]

Tuesday night or Wednesday morning we will be leaving for Asheville, North Carolina. We'll probably be gone a week or so. We will be driving our van and sleeping in it. The idea is to save the money we would have spent on a motel and spend it on gas instead. LOL. We will be meeting up with several members of JBs forum. One of the plans for the weekend is to tour the grounds and gardens of the Biltmore properties. I am taking a laptop so maybe I'll still be able to keep an eye on you guys.

[Joyce]

I lived in NC for over 7 years and never made it to the Biltmore.
Hope you have a GREAT time....and please take lotsa pix!

If you happen to meet up with a certain Tony and Linda, tell them Joyce, formerly of Jacksonville, says, "HI!"
Maybe they will remember me.
They used to be in my NC Pond Club.
They have a Ostrich, Emu, Peacock and Guinea Fowl ranch up in the NC Mountains.
Had a meeting at their house and it was a blast.

[Brian]

LOVE the Biltmore Estate!!  Unfortunately, they wont' let you take photos inside...they want to sell you the book.  What a rip.  Anyway, didn't get to tour the gardens, though, but would like to go back and stay longer.

[barb]

I hope you have a great time!!   

[MikeW]

Have a great time Esther.

A friend of mine toured Biltmore last year, and she just loved it.

Cheers,

Mike

[Teresa]

I love Asheville . . . such a neat place.  I lived there for a while as a child.

There is a great little shop for handcrafted stuff, especially if you like hippie type stuff:

http://www.indocrafts.com/index.asp?redirect=http://www.indocrafts.com/indocrafts.com

And my most favorite craft/fiber supply store is there.  They have supplies for basket weaving, spinning, knitting, dying, felting, candle making and just about anything else you'd want to do.  It's a very cool place:

http://www.earthguild.com/

[Esther]

Yup, I made up a list of things to take as follows:
CAMERA
BATTERIES
BED
FOOD (cereal, milk, fruit, bread, peanut butter and jelly) That is for breakfast and lunch.
CREDIT CARD
PETE

Of course I got in trouble right away because I put Pete at the bottom of the list.

Joyce, I'll wave at Linda when we go through.

Teresa I have not heard the word "hippy" used in so many years. And I didn't even know there was still "hippy" stuff to be had.

We have reservations at the KOA on highway 70. Turns out it is Mother's Day weekend so they have free camping Saturday night. Now isn't that just the Mother's Day gift any mother would like? Well at least we only have to pay for two out of three nights there. And DH has insisted that we not cook on this camping trip anyway. So that is a relief. The cooking isn't so bad but the packing to cook is a real
pain.

A while back we toured a huge old property owned by one of the Dodges near Detroit. They wouldn't let us take pictures either but it was wonderful.

At the Biltmore we are going to tour the gardens too.

[Mikey]

The fetching one and I will also be there and will get to meet Esther as well as others

We visited the Biltmore a couple of years ago and I had mixed feelings.  For such a large piece of land I was hoping for a huge variety of plants and the Biltmore estate has plenty of room for a botanical-like garden but such was not the case.  Too much lawn and shrubs for my taste.  I wasn't disappointed per se because after all it isn't a botanical garden.  The peonies were in bloom and we really enjoyed them since I can't grow them here.  Then the actual mansion was just too much for me.  It was as if they royalty and couldn't spend enough money on their aggrandisement.  It gave me a taste of why the French Revolution occurred. 

See ya there Esther!

[emm]

Have a super holiday Esther!  I just love road trips, so much to see, especially if you have time to travel the smaller highways.  Hope you have good travelling weather.  Safe trip.  emm