A New Axelrod Record…3 States & 3 National Parks In One Week!
- Apr 23, 2023
- 7 min read
We are on the move again. Our first stop after Myrtle Beach was the Capitol of South Carolina, Columbia to be precise. Then, two days later we had a stop in Asheville, North Carolina (which we absolutely loved) and then, after that, we had a five day stint in Tennessee. Bing, Bang, Boom! Record setting for us!
For those of you who have been following our journey you can probably guess where our first stop in Columbia was. We gave you a hint....Yep, the State House. The Capitol building we went! Our tour guide gave us the inside scoop on the history of the building which is always a nice touch to a Capitol visit.
Here's some additional insight to a few of the pics above. On the third pic, if you look close, you'll see a star on the top of the second window on the left. It marks one of the six Union cannonballs that landed on the building during the Civil War. We also thought it was cool that the chalice pictured above was placed on the mantle of the speaker of the house's desk to open every session of congress. A unique political ritual for the USA. We ain't Britain.
That same day, we did a drive through at the University of South Carolina. We were hoping we would be able to share the celebration of the SC Women's Basketball Team getting into the Finals of the NCAA Championship but they lost the day before in the Final Four. Shot that theory to hell.
We took pics of their Football Stadium, Basketball Arena, and some frat houses at Greek Life Village.
The most unique part of our Columbia stop was our visit to Congaree National Park. When we first made our plan to stop here we didn't know there even was a National Park. Until, we did some additional research. It was a welcomed addition.
We hiked over 6.5 miles through the wooded swamp land. Yep, wooded swampland it was! Water everywhere. Two point six miles on a Boardwalk above the water and then a 4.5 mile hike Kathy initiated through the Weston Lake Trail. The Boardwalk hike had 20 choreographed stops with additional insight provided on a paper handout at everyone which was cool. Like a scavenger hunt for adults. It should have been nicknamed Caterpillar City but we guess that would only be temporary until it became Butterfly City. The Weston Trail was along the the edges of Weston Lake and Cedar Creek. Beautiful yellow buttonwood flowers scattered throughout the trail and tree after tree growing through the waterways.
Check out how the trees swell at the base with water and the things that look like nubs coming out of the water are called knees. You get a good shot of them in pic-six above. They think it helps support the root system but aren't positive. They were all over the place. Congaree is one of the ten smallest and least attended National Parks in the system but we dug it's point of difference and it's unique quiet and remoteness. Next stop...North Carolina, Asheville to be exact.
In a one hundred and sixty five mile drive, in less than three hours, we went to state number two this week. We spent three days in Asheville and we could have easily spent five. The town has a huge personality, it's quaint, it's happening, it's fun, it's foodie, it's unique, it's cool. Very cool!
Our dear and well traveled friends Jan and Rick Menniti gave us a page full of Asheville recommendations which came in super handy because we unexpectedly lost all of our pre-arrival notes for this stop. The Menniti recommendations became our Asheville visit bible. God bless'em!
First stop was the River Art District where we ran into our new favorite microbrewery. The New Belgium Brewing company, besides having super awesome tasting beer, also had a very cool taproom, patio, and a HUGE brewery. Untradional to our many brewery visits, we had to breakdown and buy some for home. It was that good!
We hit three restaurants while in Asheville, two were worth mentioning and both were recommended by Jan and Rick. We went to a Tupelo Honey while in Knoxville, and, we didn't realize they were a chain until we did this one in Asheville. They specialize in southern comfort food and this Asheville restaurant is their original location. They currently have 27 restaurants in 17 different states and after eating with them twice we know why. They have well-run restaurants with great food, a professional staff in cool-comfortable settings.
We hope you know we only tell you about restaurants that are worthy talking about. Some are just not. Our second one is called Bouchon providing French comfort food. It is a quaint restaurant that served an awesome Old Fashion and a fantastic Vodka Gimlet before our dualing pate' appetizer. Kathy had the Chicken Cordon Bleu which was done differently than usual and Brad had steak aupoire. Great meal! Yum-Yum-in- the Tum-Tum!
The best part of our stay in Asheville was our visit to Biltmore Estate. It's a nineteenth century mansion and garden designed and built by George Vanderbilt. We spent 3.5 hours touring the gardens and another hour and a half in the house. It was truly an extraordinary visit. A bit expensive, but, after all said and done, it was worth the dough.
We went back the next day to take in the wine tasting at the Inn at Biltmore Estates. It was included in our ticket purchase from the other day. We also toiled around the Biltmore areas Antler Hill Village and the Village Hotel too. The place is very special. Unique!
We were one of the first 65 people permitted to enter the Pinball Museum. We were tenth in line. They have 70 pinball and old video machines like PacMan and Space Invaders. It was a goof...fun. For $15 you could play all day. We played for an hour before taking off for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Parkway is run by the National Park system so we got another stamp on our National Park Passport book. Here are some pics of both.
Our third state this week was Tennessee. Yep, back again! The visit took us to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg but the highlight of this 5 day stay was a 7 hour successful RV repair.
As soon as we got here, we're popping out the living room slide, and both end cap assemblies on each side of the topper broke. Not Good! This is major because it holds the fourteen foot slide-topper. We wouldn't be able to drive without this fixed.
Kathy sourced the parts and YouTube clips for the repair which we studied for four days. We also got installations instructions from the manufacturer. The parts came in on Easter, and Tuesday we bought a retractable ladder that we confirmed the day before was being delivered to Harbor Freight. Phew, we got what we needed to do the repair. We were do to be on the road tomorrow. Seven hours later in which Brad must have gone up and down the ladder 20-25 times. No exaggeration. It was a two man repair being done by one man and boy-oh-boy he earned his money. That, was our biggest highlight. Repair complete!
The other two highlights were Great Smoky National Park (hereinafter referred to as the Smokies) and the Sky Lift-Sky Deck-Sky Trail in Gatlinburg.
It rained two days here so between the stress of getting this repair done and the weather, two days weren't very good. Although, we did get in a couple Moonshine tastings on those days...haha...things could be worse.
The first day in Smoky NP we did a car tour. You drive around and get out of the car to see sights. We stopped at the Visitor Center to get our Passport book stamped.
We stopped at The Sinks and then went to the Cades Cove portion of the park. Here's a video of the Sinks, the first stop on our Smokies Car Tour.
Our next stop featured a huge horse coral beginning the 11 mile drive through Cades Cove. Cades Cove had a lot of 19th century buildings that were original to the area. This portion of the park we could have done on our bikes, but we didn't. We had a handout that provided additional insight to each of the buildings, the people that lived there, and, their family history. That added information made it interesting and insightful. Unfortunately the Cades Cove Visitors Center was closed. No passport stamp for us! Bummer!
Both Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg were nice additions to the visit. Pigeon Forge was a bit touristy for us but would be great with the grandkids. Gatlinburg, on the other hand was more geared to adults. We went to the SkyLift-SkyDeck-SkyTrail there which was one of the highlights of our stay.
The Gatlinburg Skylift Park was a very cool Smoky Mountain experience. We took a chairlift like you would take up a ski mountain to get to the Skydeck, Trail and Bridge.
Once your up on the mountain top deck, the best part of the adventure is walking across this 680 foot pedestrian cable bridge.
Then, they have a walking trail around the mountaintop with additional spectacular views of the Smokies.
To bring our 3 state in one week jaunt to an end we did one more visit to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
We took a 2.8 mile hike through the Grotto trail to see the Grotto Falls. It was a hike up to the Falls that wound through a scenic trail around the mountain. Once there, it was worth the hike.
Wow, that was a lot. For us and for you to read this far. God bless ya for sticking with us. We really-really appreciate it and thanks for following our journey. Lexington and Louisville KY. are our next two stops and we can't wait to share it with you.
Are there any questions? Haha...we're goofing! Much Love and Happy Trails,
Kathy and Brad
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