Asheville to Gatlinburg, TN

Today was a big day!  We were to be in our cars and lined up on the road leaving the hotel at 7 AM. We were released in groups of 20 cars to make the short drive to the Biltmore Estate. We were to have a group photo made in front of the grand old home.   I decided if Miz B was invited to make an appearance before such a grand lady as the Biltmore, then I needed to get out the McGuiars and clean the road grime off as best as I could. Unfortunately, the wheels and tires were just going have wait, and wow are those cream colored wheels and wide white walls filthy!!

Here is a bit of the statistics on the place:

Biltmore Estate is a large private estate and tourist attraction in Asheville, North Carolina. Biltmore House, the main house on the estate, is a Châteauesque-styled mansion built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately owned house in the United States, at 178,926 square feet (16,622.8 m²)^[2] and featuring 250 rooms. Still owned by one of Vanderbilt'sdescendants, it stands today as one of the most prominent remaining examples of the Gilded Age, and of significant gardens in the jardin à la française and English Landscape garden styles in the United States. In 2007, it was ranked eighth inAmerica's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.

We definitely weren't the first cars to roll out of the parking lot this morning, nor were we the last!  But, it turned out that we really had a great parking place for the photo. We drove up and were directed to park with our front end facing away from the house and our tires backed up to the front lawn. I thought that possibly we might be in the front row, but the A's kept coming!  We ended up with three rows across the front and a line of A's down each side. My count of cars came to 106!  That's a lot of Model A's!!!  I did notice the only other right hand drive on the tour, a yellow and black A400 was parked in the row in front of me and a bit to the left (as you look at the house).  

Miz B is in third row with white top                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

As it turned out, those of us parked in the row backed up to the front lawn, we were allowed to leave our cars right where they were while we toured the house and grounds. That was wonderful, because time was slipping away from us - we had tickets to enter the house at 9 and the photo shoot didn't conclude until 8:50!

This home is positively magnificent!  The Vanderbilt's must have had a love for orchids, as every room had at least one blooming orchid on display. If you have never visited, it is definitely worth the travel time to do so. Words could never do justice to the grandeur of this home. Not one luxury of the day was overlooked, from the central conservatory, the magnificent pipe organ to the beautifully decorated personal rooms of the family, all is lovely!

We left Biltmore about 11 and headed toward the parkway and Gatlinburg. After a quick local barbecue lunch, we were on US 25 N for a few short miles to pickup the parkway. We only had 80 miles to go before completing the 469 miles of the entire parkway from Charlottesville, VA to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. About the last 20 miles, one of our group began experiencing difficulties with "Buster," he is a 1930 Model A Pickup out of West Columbia, SC. Buster was having a great deal of difficulty climbing the mountains. Plus, he was going through a LOT of gas!

As we exited the parkway, it was imperative we find gas for Buster. The O in the gas gauge was right smack in the middle!  We think he was running on fumes, his 10 gallon tank took 10 gallons!  We found gas and Buster's owners decided it was time to part ways and make their way back home instead of going on to Gatlinburg. We said our goodbyes and Buster headed south and the rest of us headed west for Gatlinburg.

We arrived - along with at least 150 other Model A's at the resort in Gatlinburg. That made for chaos at the registration desk - again!  But in time, we were all registered and getting ready for the farewell banquet.

We feasted on delicious fried chicken, mashed potatoes  gravey, beef tips, Mac and cheese, corn, salad, and yummy desserts. No one left hungry!

Tomorrow, we will make our way back to Columbia, but we will have another A traveling with us. Jack and Mary Crabtree out of Charleston will be with us. We are always thrilled to have other cars join us in our travels.

I will blog again tomorrow evening of our days adventure. Not sure we will go the entire distance - no real deadline to make, so we might take it easy!

Here is a link to my Facebook page where I have posted photos all week. 

http://m.facebook.com/#!/happybegg?ref=m_notif&notif_t=feed_comment&__user=1320983774

I will update blog with photos after I return home.