A Soul in Repose

Asheville. Tucked away in the rolling green mountains of North Carolina.   Can it get more beautiful than this?  Dogwood, cherry, azalea trees in full bloom.  On the Biltmore grounds, tulips, daffodils and blue crocus are flowering.  The weather is pleasant during the day and cool at night.

I've stopped here for a few days of respite from the road.  People plans keep falling through for a variety of reasons.  I'd very much hoped to see stepson Mark Kevin in Pittsburg.  I was also looking forward to an autoharp class at the John Campbell School.  Maybe one of the lessons I am to learn on this journey is about disappointment.

Milledgeville had several tourist attractions recognizing native son Joel Chandler Harris.  Uncle Remus is alive and well there.   The O'Connor house was pretty dilapidated, but informative and revealing.  However, Alice Walker, one of our generation's premier writers, born in Millidgeville, was recognized with only a display in the public library.  Then I got lost in Athens.

So on to NC.  Carl Sandburg's house in Flat Rock was the first stop.  It sits on top of a hill overlooking a small pond.  It's disarmingly plain, but statuesque.  Bob Dylan visited with Sandburg on the porch there.  I did not know that the great poet loved playing the guitar and singing Woody Guthrie songs.  A refresher couse is in my future.

Today was a visit to the Thomas Wolfe National Historic Site.  It's nice to match the places and characters with the writer's experience.

And, of course, lots of time was spent at Biltmore.  What can one say about it?  Opulent, exquisite, worth the budgets of several countries put together.  The building is breath-taking, but the grounds are utterly stunning.  Windy two lane roads course through the forest.  A creek runs alongside the road, crossed by several stone bridges.  The estate used to own what is now the Pigsah National Forest.  I have to read the camera manual again so you can see pictures.

So, time to regroup, redirect and rest.  Listened to The Anglo-Saxon World  and am reading Plum Island by DeMille.  If the storms aren't too bad tomorrow, I may head up the Blue Ridge Parkway.  There's a Cherokee Living History Museum in Cherokee...