Biltmore Estate

In July we did the tourist thing in the Great Smokey Mountains in North Carolina. We toured Biltmore Estate, the summer home of the George Vanderbilt family. George was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built the family fortune in shipping and railroads. It is still owned and operated by George Vanderbilt's grandson, William A.V. Cecil.

The house is fantastic and the gardens around it are equally great. So many different species of flowers that we had never seen before.

We took numerous day trips into the mountains surrounding Waynesville, NC where we had established residence in Creekside RV Park. One of the most fun trips was through Deal's Gap which is a very popular motorcycle road called "Dragons Tail". It has no less than 318 curves in 11 miles!!!! On a Saturday there are motorcyles everywhere.........and here we are stuck in a car!!!!!























We also visited the "Cradle of Forestry" formerly part of the Biltmore Estate and now a National Park. We met the volunteers that are currently working there and were invited to come back anytime.........to work that is!

After driving many miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway and hiking some of the trails it was time to head for Decatur, AL and the Wheeler NWR for our next assignment starting on August 1st, 2008.