North Carolina

I have been staying the last week with Tom's family, (for those of you that don't know, my father grew up with Tom,) when we got our Christmas letter from Tom last year I rather cheekily invited myself to stay with them.  I have been welcomed with open arms and made to feel so at home, which has been really nice after being on the road for so long.  We have also been doing some sight seeing and last week I got to go to the Great Smokey Mountains to see the fall colours.  I really enjoyed being in the hills, so I am lucky enough to be going back with Tim later today for a few days and hope to do some hiking.



Near Ashville  elevation approx 1800 m / 6000ft



Linville Falls

Linville Falls

Blue Ridge Parkway

We also went to visit the Biltmore House, which I found fascinating.  It was comparable to a National Trust property in many ways, and reminded me of Waddeston.  However it was so American!!!  In places it was a very odd mix of European styles of architecture, the dining hall was a cross between a church and a medieval hall, and the house was filled with European artifacts and treasures.  It was built at the end of the 1800's, and is a lot homier than many mansions in Britain, it is Americas largest house and has 250 rooms. The best part however was the gym and swimming pool in the basement!  The servants' quarters' were rather nice and filled with the latest mod cons, and the servants had a lot of time off compared to their British counterparts; I think that working as a domestic in America would have been better than working in England. Visitors are referred to as guests on all signage, which I rather liked.  Normal visitors got to see a lot of the house, and lots of different rooms, about 44 of them.  They also ran some rather good looking tours. I have attached some more pictures for you all. What was really clever, was that they had a minibus collect you from the car park and drive you to the house, the driver meanwhile orientating you, most of this was stuff about the car park and tickets, but also told us where the toilets were, could have been used to tell more of the history, and could have been used to sell the annual passes, on the way back the driver again answered history questions. This system meant that people got a good welcome, and the car parks are all out of sight from the house.



Lissa and Me




For all of you still working.....



I have also spent some time looking around Charlotte, which has some beautiful old houses, and a very modern downtown.  I have also had my bicycle fitted with a lower gear to help with the hills in New Zealand!  Today I have had a lazy day and enjoyed a swim in the outdoor pool, so I am feeling very spoilt.

Yesterday I had such a funny day, I went with Jenny (Tom's daughter) to the Renaissance Fair.  Even better, we went in her convertible, which I am rather envious of.  It was hilarious.  On arrival I approached a lady in costume, who turned out to be the Queen, and asked her very politely which year it was.  However the poor lady who started answering in a rather good fake British accent with the appropriate olde worlde words got rather flustered as she realised I was from England, and that she couldn't answer my question - the fair seemed to be roughly England between about 1400 and 1700, with a bit of America and the modern age thrown in!  It was a very entertaining mix.  We watched jousting (with unrealistically lightweight lances, swords, and even a flaming whip - like Indiana Jones) and the Merry Washer Women singing, and some singing comedy nuns, and jugglers, and they even had camel rides.  Some of the fake English accents were hilarious, and I was very disappointed that there weren't any cross dressers (which would have been appropriate as women weren't allowed on stage in those days.)