Biltmore Estate, Asheville, North Carolina

    Long ago when we were in Asheville we missed a couple important of important visits: first to the largest home in America built by George Vanderbilt and second to Rick's oldest relative, Aunt Virgie Burg.  We don't agree on how long ago it was that we were here, probably about 10 years ago.  We had rented an RV in Atlanta, Georgia and driven it to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  Along the way the muffler fell off and one of the tires was bad so we were sent to Asheville to get the problems fixed.  It took so long to get the problems resolved that we needed to leave without these two visits.
   We started the day at the Biltmore Estates.  The estate covers 8000 acres and includes the original house and gardens, the farm, and various barns and outbuildings.  We stopped to buy tickets and got a reality check on the price of being a tourist - $59 each with a $10 discount for being seniors.  Yikes!  For another $10 we could rent an audio tour of the mansion or for $17 a piece we could schedule various tours.  Wow, are we at Disney World?  We parked and shuttled to the mansion.  I must say that the grounds are beautiful and the house is awesome.  The size is just hard to take in.  Most of the rooms have ceilings that are two stories high, even in the basement.  Some are seven stories high.  The interior doors are about 6 times the size of a normal door - tall and wide.  The walls are three feet thick.  The family has had millions of dollars of extensive preservation and restoration done on the house to preserve the silk wall coverings, draperies and upholstery, as well as many original light fixtures and other furnishings.  The tour includes rooms on many levels of the house and, even without the audio commentary, takes about an hour and a half.  From many rooms the view of mountains can be seen across acres of woods.
    The gardens are immense and beautiful, even in the fall when most of the flowers are gone.  Guests at the Biltmore could take long walks in the gardens, ride and hunt in the woods, or spend hours inside the house using the swimming pool, gym, and one of the games rooms.  We drove to the old farm which is now a winery and  a "shopping village" for lunch.  Vanderbilt took over a small town when he bought the property - this rebuilt town now provides visitors to the Estate a place to eat at restaurants and browse shops.  Pretty shops and a great lunch.
    In the late afternoon we went to visit Rick's 95 year old aunt, Virginia.  She was married to one of Rick's mom's brothers, Robert.  They lived in Bloomington for a while after I met Rick and then left Minnesota for Florida.  When Bob's health deteriorated they moved to Asheville to be near her daughter, Barbara.  We had a great visit with Virgie who is doing great and just got a golf cart to help her move around the Senior community.  She has her own bungalow on the property and drives to the main building for lunch and socializing.  Later, we were joined by Rick's cousin, Barbara and her husband, Bern.  It has been a really long time since we saw Barbara, but there was a lot to talk about  from their childhood days and catching up on the current events of the family.  We went out for a yummy dinner at an Italian/Greek restaurant.  As we returned to our campground we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset over the Blue Ridge.