Asheville (and Beyond), NC: Before & After

It was a return to North Carolina after our failed/cancelled attempt in 2020. We had driven all the way to North Carolina from Arizona, with shutdowns hitting town by town by town along our route, like tragic falling dominoes. Thanks for nothing, Covid! I guess you could call this our Revenge Tour. We couldn’t help but compare the BEFORE and AFTER ….

ASHEVILLE

Just like BEFORE, we were eager to spend time in this lively, bohemian, artsy place, which plans here were upended on the last round. Our last visit to Asheville was at the start of Covid in Spring, 2020.

We arrived in Asheville to find it 95% shuttered. Although we still enjoyed lots of safe outdoor recreation in the area, we were jipped out of our bucket list item: visiting The Biltmore Estate, which is America’s Largest Home®. It must be so, because they include that little “R” in the circle.

THE BILTMORE ESTATE

BEFORE 1889, this location was 8,000 acres of untamed N.C. wilderness, but AFTER George Washington Vanderbilt the Second had has way with it, it became a 178,926-square-foot mansion — the nation’s largest — with an astounding 250 rooms (including 33 guest bedrooms, ahhh to have rich friends!). AFTER his one and only daughter and her ex-husband exited the premises, it remained owned by their heirs, but open for tours to support the enormous costs of running an enormous estate.

BEFORE fast food and eating on TV trays, dinner was “the” event of the day, especially if you were uber-wealthy. Accordingly, the Biltmore dining room could seat 64 people. A single place setting had 18 pieces of the finest Baccarat crystal, monogrammed Spode china, real silver cutlery, and linen damask napkins. Dinner would consist of seven lengthy courses and would go on for hours, with strict rules of social engagement. Sounds stressful, and filling.

This mansion became the family’s “regular” year-round home, not just some party palace. BEFORE Vanderbilt moved in, he was a bachelor on the loose, but he soon married. AFTER marrying and producing a child, whilst being home-sweet-home to a small, sticky child and a bunch of rowdy St. Bernards, it nevertheless remained filled with priceless art (by artists even idiots like us could recognize: Monet, Whistler, Wedgwood china, Ming dynasty porcelain), rare million dollar tapestries, and lavish furniture.

You can’t expect guests to sit around and admire your expensive stuff all day, though. Besides outdoor garden parties, carriage rides, croquet, archery and more; indoor recreation included a two-lane bowling alley and even a 70,000-gallon indoor heated swimming pool and workout room (for AFTER those sumptuous 7-course dinners).

BEFORE World War II, one of the rooms in the house was unused and undecorated, because it takes a few decades to furnish 250 rooms. Interestingly, AFTER the war began, that room was used to store the nation’s most precious treasures from the National Gallery of Art in 1942-1944, “hidden in plain sight” within the rolling hills of North Carolina. (They were thereafter returned.)

BEFORE, the surrounding 125,000 acres of these grounds were of poor quality, overworked farmland and overcut woodland, with a sprinkling of Native American and Black residents, who were quickly and quietly ousted. AFTER, and still today, the stunning grounds include acres of meticulously planned and cultivated formal gardens — the Rose Garden, Italian Garden, Spring Garden, Walled Garden — everything, it would seem, except Olive Garden and its unlimited breadsticks.

We were there AFTER the glorious spring season, and so it was less impressive than at other times of year. But there was no denying the significant influence of Frederick Law Olmsted, the Father of American Landscape Architecture, who was the big-deal landscape architect of the time, and whose work we have admired BEFORE throughout our U.S. travels, including the way-cool Bok Tower Gardens in Florida.

BEFORE the modern day, Vanderbilt guests enjoyed a wild and natural playground (all in full formal attire, of course), and AFTER, the property still includes hiking trails, forests, wildlife habitats, bike paths, and a farm. It has now been modernized with a shopping and dining village, two hotels, vineyards and a winery, built in a former dairy barn. They also have special exhibits from time to time … in this case, related to Egypt’s King Tut, to which I could assign no worldly correlation to the Vanderbilts, but what do I know.

Despite being the largest in the country, was it the most opulent mansion we’ve ever toured? No — the Cliff Walk mansions of Newport, RI, take that honor. But those suckers were built specifically, and ONLY, for a few weeks of socialite partying each year. The Biltmore, instead, was the Vanderbilt’s full-time “country estate” … and what an estate it is!!

THE OMNI GROVE PARK INN

The Omni Grove Park Inn is a luxury hotel, welcoming weary Blue Ridge Mountains travelers for over a century, including a rash of famous people both BEFORE and AFTER present times: Thomas Edison, Helen Keller, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Belushi, Harry Houdini, over 10 presidents, and a bunch of other people with cash to burn.

BEFORE, you used to have to be a guest of the hotel to visit its fabulous, subterranean spa, sunk down into the ground at the bottom of the double staircases. But occasionally — only occasionally! — during a slow week and for just one or two days, they will now sell a spa day pass to any ole slumming RV camper who comes along. Even us!

The spa is completely electronics-free– which certainly includes cell phones and cameras, but even includes Kindle e-readers. So, while I can’t wow you with any of my photos except for this entry hall BEFORE we entered the 43,000 square feet …

… I can certainly share photos from their official website! Besides the usual things like eucalyptus-infused steam rooms in both unisex areas, the co-ed areas include multiple pools and jacuzzis of varying temperatures (icy to scalding) with waterfalls cascading into them. AFTER our visit, we were both refreshed, and pruney!

The “lap pool” (in which nobody was doing laps) was fireside, had underwater music, and featured 6,500 fiber optic lights embedded in the rock ceiling above, “mimicking the North Carolina night skies.”

Outside, overlooking Asheville and the distant mountains, the outdoor pool was the perfect place to enjoy a poolside lunch and mingle with the idle rich, BEFORE slinking away back to our pine-needle infested RV.

But they couldn’t keep us riff-raff away for long. Later that night, AFTER returning for dinner at the don’t-miss Sunset Terrace restaurant perched on the side of the building, we ooohed and aaahed over breathtaking sunset views over the distant Blue Ridge Mountains.

BEFORE this trip in 2024, we had visited a similar opulent property called The Greenbrier in West Virginia. The Greenbrier was the (tourable) secret location to which Congress would be secretly spirited away in the event of a Cold War disaster. AND, this-here Omni Grove Park Inn was to be the secret location of the Supreme Court’s nuclear-disaster digs! One problem. AFTER Chief Justice Earl Warren learned that spouses would not be included in this plan and would be left behind in Washington DC for their faces to melt off, he quashed the idea. So romantic, that Warren!

SOUTH SLOPE BREWERIES

BEFORE when we visited Asheville in 2020, many taprooms had already closed for the pandemic, but we found a few to fulfill our need. It’s easy to do here … Asheville has the most breweries per capita in the United States, so your fun, sudsy choices are unlimited.

AFTER surveying the beerscape this go-round, we were thrilled to find that the top breweries survived and are still available in an easy walk from each other in the South Slope four-block neighborhood. Top-rated favorites — along with hundreds other on the Asheville Ale Trail — include Wicked Weed, Hi-Wire, Twin Leaf and Greenman, each with their own unique vibe. We followed our inner beer compass to Burial Beer Company.

For the most unique seat in the house, make your way to the converted van on the back patio!

FLOODING DAMAGE & THE RIVER ARTS DISTRICT

BEFORE September 2024, inland Asheville was rarely worried about hurricanes. That all changed when the remnants of Hurricane Helene turned Asheville and the surrounding communities post-apocalyptic: enormous fallen trees blocking streets; roads turned into rivers; power and water lines destroyed; bridges torn apart.

AFTER that biblical flooding, I-40 northwest of Asheville still has miles and miles of roadwork and bridges being rebuilt, with traffic down to one lane to rebuild entire lanes of freeway that just slid down the hill into the raging rivers. The entire area is still in various stages of recovery, but they are eager to receive visitors back.

The biggest ongoing victim of the flooding was our former favorite part of Asheville: the River Arts District. BEFORE, this area was formerly filled with businesses and buildings painted in incredible, gasp-inducing graffiti — true artwork in every sense of the world. AFTER? It’s all gone. This picture says it all:

Everywhere you look, destruction.

Here are the before and after shots of 12 Bones, our favorite River Arts BBQ joint. Whaaaaa!

It doesn’t seem that the River Arts District will ever be rebuilt, and most of the businesses indicate they don’t intend to return. Regardless, other graffiti continues to exist all around Asheville, yours for the gazing. Our favorite was the cat with glass block eyes!

LAKE POWHATAN CAMPGROUND

BEFORE when we Asheville’d, we stayed at Mama Gertie’s Hideaway Campground, east of town with stunning views, and a stunning price tag — $129 per night, at the time.

AFTER, now that Philip is mostly-retired and on Social Security and scraping by with 10-for-$10 ramen package dinners (kidding!), we opted for the much-more reasonable Forest Service campground at Lake Powhatan. With his Lifetime Senior Pass from the National Park Service, each night in a full hookup, heavily wooded site was only $33! Being older has its perks!

“Lake” Powhatan is a misnomer, maybe “Muddy Pond” Powhatan is more accurate, but a Saturday fishing derby day brought all the cute little kids to try their luck, and to pet a little baby Snapping Turtle, which I suppose can only be called a Nipping Turtle until AFTER he grows up a little.

Asheville is nestled within the Blue Ridge Mountains, with lots of ups and downs and mountainous driving. Enter my shameless segue to our latest article, appearing just in time for “National Go RV’ing Day” (yes, that’s a real thing) in RV America Magazine! Give it a read BEFORE you hit the road in your RV this summer!

FLAT ROCK/HENDERSONVILLE

We stopped 25 miles beyond Asheville to visit our friends Laurel and Eric, of the excellent Raven and Chickadee RV Travel Blog (which you REALLY oughta use as a resource, if you’re an RV traveler – it’s THAT good).

BEFORE, they were RV travelers like us, but AFTER finding this area of North Carolina, they came off the road (after full-timing for eight years!) and bought …. dun dun dun …. oh the suspense! … a TINY HOME!

You might say, “Tessa, isn’t an RV actually a tiny home?” and you would be right. But their tiny home is in a community of tiny homes, with wonderful tiny home neighbors, and a front porch, and a yard, and a clubhouse, and a pool, and endless non-roaming activities like gardening.

Their 600 square feet is absolutely adorable, and because tiny homes are all the rage, and you might have always wondered what they are like inside, allow me (with their permission) to show you theirs:

BEFORE this meet-up, we originally met Laurel and Eric in 2023. There we were, all alone 2,035.2 miles from home walking the streets of Cedar Key, Florida, when I heard someone yell,“TESSA! Hey, Tessa!” They were followers of this blog and had recognized our dog Sprinkles, which she erroneous and charmingly called Spreckles for the rest of time.

AFTER the chance meeting on the street, they came to our RV for drinks and conversation, and the rest, as they say, is history. We became instant friends — like sisters, really. They are the type of people that make you feel like you are the most interesting, amusing, fascinating people on Earth, when the opposite is actually true: they are all those things, and more!

Our reunion was filled with all the good stuff, including lots of travel talk, funny stories, and Eric’s homemade jambalaya, and their kitty Magnolia, a stray who “found them” on the RV road. We are grateful for friends on the road who make us feel right at home (and stockpile our Amazon deliveries in advance of our arrival)!!

Their tiny home is just 25 miles +/- south of Asheville, between the two adorable towns of Flat Rock and Hendersonville. In Flat Rock, we delighted in their “Rainbow Row” of small local shops, a great bakery and Hubba Hubba BBQ, with their cute hidden-from-view outdoor seating. Even the doors hiding their trash dumpsters are charming … it’s just that kind of place.

AFTER Flat Rock, they also took us to Hendersonville, with local shopping galore — tons and tons of it — and cute painted bears lining the streets for their Bearfootin’ Art Walk project. The bears arrive naked and are painted by artists and displayed throughout downtown during summer, BEFORE being auctioned off to new owners; winning bids up to $3,000 are split between downtown revitalization and a local nonprofit chosen by the sponsor of that bear.

CHARLOTTE

This 2025 Friends and Family Tour was extended on the way to our next destination, with a visit to our dear friend Stephanie. BEFORE, she was my boss at my very first big-girl-job at an investment services firm, and later became our neighbor. AFTER, she now lives in Charlotte, NC, and we spent two fun-filled days catching up with her and her daughter’s family. Steph “passed” on learning how to dump the RV sewer, however, so I don’t think we are gonna see her out there on the road anytime soon.

APEX/JORDAN LAKE RECREATION AREA

In yet another Friends and Family Tour entry, we caught up with my North Carolina nephew Tom, and our great-niece Mila, on our way to the coast.

We camped at the enormous Jordan Lake Recreation Area (with over 1,000 campsites of varying hookups) in the Poplar Point Campground. The lake edge was about 10 long strides from our campsite.

Endless hours at the sandy swimming beach, walks and snuggles with our furry family member Finn, and an unrestricted quantity of s’mores is really all a five-year-old ever wants, #amiright?

From Apex and the Jordan Lake area, we also visited Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Durham. BEFORE, we didn’t really know this part of North Carolina … but AFTER, we will definitely be back!