Asheville?

Jim K

Jim K

Final Approach
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Richard Digits
Taking the family to Pigeon Forge/GSMNP (KGKT) in about a month. Looking at the sectional it almost seems a shame not to hop over the mountains and see the legendary Asheville. Probably would just be a day trip with the oldest two; not sure if it'd be worth the ramp & uber fees. Maybe best to wait until we can rent a car and stay a couple nights without the kids?
 
Tubing deep creek-in GSMNP near Bryson City-is a very fun summer activity for kids. Ditto sliding Rock, in Pisgah NF.
 
Was able to get a courtesy car there pretty easily. I'll see if I can dig up the restaurant I went to as it was some of the best Mexican I've had.
 
If you are going to rent a car, why not take the very scenic Blue Ridge Parkway? Gatlinburg > 441 > BRP > stay a night at the Pisgah inn (read about its history and see pics, trust me) > get off the BLP in Asheville. That section of the BRP with many tunnels is likely the most scenic section along the entire BRP.
Asheville has the highest per capita number of breweries of any city. They even have multiple brew busses to take people from brewery to another. The most extravagant ones are New Belgium and Sierra Nevada.
The Grove Park inn is worthwhile to see and eat at it's Blue Ridge Room for weekend buffet. The Omni bought it from the Sammons family a few years back and in my opinion it's lost some of its charm as a result, but its still worthwhile if you have never been.
 
FORANE said:
If you are going to rent a car, why not take the very scenic Blue Ridge Parkway? Gatlinburg > 441 > BRP > stay a night at the Pisgah inn (read about its history and see pics, trust me) > get off the BLP in Asheville. That section of the BRP with many tunnels is likely the most scenic section along the entire BRP.
Asheville has the highest per capita number of breweries of any city. They even have multiple brew busses to take people from brewery to another. The most extravagant ones are New Belgium and Sierra Nevada.
The Grove Park inn is worthwhile to see and eat at it's Blue Ridge Room for weekend buffet. The Omni bought it from the Sammons family a few years back and in my opinion it's lost some of its charm as a result, but its still worthwhile if you have never been.
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Yeah, driving there probably makes more sense than flying. It goes against my natural inclination to "collect" airports, but it seems like a car is a necessity and it'd be silly to rent another one when there's a scenic drive connecting the two.
 
I was just at GKT on Friday. If you need any local knowledge of the area or surrounding places, please advise!
 
RyanB said:
I was just at GKT on Friday. If you need any local knowledge of the area or surrounding places, please advise!
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I'll take any advice I can get. We'll be there for I think 5 days; planning dollywood for a couple and the national park for a couple, and now maybe driving over to Asheville.

I'm a little worried the Blue Ridge Parkway will be underwhelming after just coming back from WY. The kids spent a lot of time in the car on that trip and tried to mutiny a few times, so the long drive may or may not happen.
 
Jim K said:
Taking the family to Pigeon Forge/GSMNP (KGKT) in about a month. Looking at the sectional it almost seems a shame not to hop over the mountains and see the legendary Asheville. Probably would just be a day trip with the oldest two; not sure if it'd be worth the ramp & uber fees. Maybe best to wait until we can rent a car and stay a couple nights without the kids?
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Asheville = Hippie theme park, complete with panhandlers. Greenville, SC is way more better.
Although the ghost tour was good.
 
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Jim K said:
I'll take any advice I can get. We'll be there for I think 5 days; planning dollywood for a couple and the national park for a couple, and now maybe driving over to Asheville.

I'm a little worried the Blue Ridge Parkway will be underwhelming after just coming back from WY. The kids spent a lot of time in the car on that trip and tried to mutiny a few times, so the long drive may or may not happen.
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Exactly, once you have taken in the Grand Tetons, everything else is just nice. Not saying nice is bad.
 
Jim K said:
Yeah, driving there probably makes more sense than flying.....
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bullocks. fly over the mountains to AVL, pay the stupid fees signature charges you, hop in an uber and in 3 minutes you're grabbing lunch at the sierra nevada brewery (get the duck fat fries!). fun for all ages. check the music schedule to see what's playing at the outdoor amphitheater. take the wifey for a walk in the arboretum/garden thingy. I think they have walking trails if I remember correctly. fun time for all ages, close to the airport. fewer hippies than the main part of town.
 
Jim K said:
I'll take any advice I can get. We'll be there for I think 5 days; planning dollywood for a couple and the national park for a couple, and now maybe driving over to Asheville.

I'm a little worried the Blue Ridge Parkway will be underwhelming after just coming back from WY. The kids spent a lot of time in the car on that trip and tried to mutiny a few times, so the long drive may or may not happen.
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Standby, I’ll provide what I know in a write up shortly. In the mean time, I declare a fly-in while you’re in town!

Understand if you’re unable to do it being a family matter. :)
 
Jim K said:
I'm a little worried the Blue Ridge Parkway will be underwhelming after just coming back from WY. The kids spent a lot of time in the car on that trip and tried to mutiny a few times, so the long drive may or may not happen.
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That's a legit concern. We did the train ride out of Bryson City last week and, since we had taken the train from Minneapolis to Whitefish, MT a few years ago, it was very underwhelming.

With that said, that area of the Smokies is still pretty. We hiked a bit of the Appalachian Trail last week from Newfound Gap and there are some nice overlooks in that area - you can quickly understand why it is called the "Smokies". Be advised, if you are prone to car sickness, be prepared for the windy road (441) going to/from Newfound Gap. Also, that area (Cherokee / Newfound Gap / GSMNP in general) have some of the best trout fishing east of the Rockies, so if you're into that kind of thing, the waters should be cooling down a bit and fishing picking up in a month or so.

I can't comment on Ashville itself. It has been on our list of to-do's for a while but we haven't been able to cross it off yet.
 
FORANE said:
Asheville has the highest per capita number of breweries of any city.
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I am not sure that is accurate.

Looks like Asheville has just under 40 breweries for 98,000 people and Grand Rapids, MI has over 80 for 198,000 people.
 
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EdFred said:
I am not sure that is accurate.
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I think what may hurt GRR in that regards is their higher population in the 'metro' area while Asheville is still metro-free. I was highly impressed with GRR's collection of breweries...
 
Salty said:
Just curious what about Asheville is legendary? That's news to me.
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It's a cool artsy mountain town with good eats, lots of breweries and an Appalachian music scene. The highest peaks East of the Rocky mountains are in that area. Back in Americas industrial era, the Vanderbuilt family chose that area as a vacation destination. The Biltmore is in Asheville. The Blue Ridge Parkway goes through town. The Pisgah forest was granted by the Vanderbuilt family and surrounds the town.
Perhaps you have been there; if not, take a trip up there and perhaps you would understand the charm it has.


EdFred said:
I am not sure that is accurate.
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Perhaps?
https://www.randmcnally.com/blog/post/the-best-beer-cities-across-america/
perhaps not?
https://vinepair.com/booze-news/top-25-cities-breweries-per-capita/
Either way it is a beercation city.
https://www.exploreasheville.com/foodtopia/beer-scene/
 
eman1200 said:
bullocks. fly over the mountains to AVL, pay the stupid fees signature charges you, hop in an uber and in 3 minutes you're grabbing lunch at the sierra nevada brewery (get the duck fat fries!). fun for all ages. check the music schedule to see what's playing at the outdoor amphitheater. take the wifey for a walk in the arboretum/garden thingy. I think they have walking trails if I remember correctly. fun time for all ages, close to the airport. fewer hippies than the main part of town.
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So you're saying I should fly to lunch?
 
FORANE said:
It's a cool artsy mountain town with good eats, lots of breweries and an Appalachian music scene. The highest peaks East of the Rocky mountains are in that area. Back in Americas industrial era, the Vanderbuilt family chose that area as a vacation destination. The Biltmore is in Asheville. The Blue Ridge Parkway goes through town. The Pisgah forest was granted by the Vanderbuilt family and surrounds the town.
Perhaps you have been there; if not, take a trip up there and perhaps you would understand the charm it has.



Perhaps?
https://www.randmcnally.com/blog/post/the-best-beer-cities-across-america/
perhaps not?
https://vinepair.com/booze-news/top-25-cities-breweries-per-capita/
Either way it is a beercation city.
https://www.exploreasheville.com/foodtopia/beer-scene/
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Didn't intend to imply there was no charm to the city. I've just never head anything "legendary" about it.
 
CJones said:
I think what may hurt GRR in that regards is their higher population in the 'metro' area while Asheville is still metro-free. I was highly impressed with GRR's collection of breweries...
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What? And you didn't let me know you were in town?!?!?
 
EdFred said:
What? And you didn't let me know you were in town?!?!?
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My former boss lived in Ada, so I was up there a few times around 2018-2019. Haven't been there since sometime winter 2019 I think. I've still got one guy on my team up there so I'll probably be back up there to check in on him sometime soonish. I thought I texted you when I was up there...
 
Argh. Rental cars.

Enterprise website weekly price: $500
Enterprise FBO reservation price: $1000

$500 to drive the car 2 miles and park it at the FBO. When I started flying places, you could use the Enterprise fbo website to book and price was the same as the regular site or very close. Guess we're going to have to wait until the local branch opens on Monday or go through Turo again.
 
Asheville is meh and touristy.

I prefer Cherokee, just over the hills and close to the classic motorcycle museum in Maggie Valley. That is my preferred touristy place.

The Jackson County airport is the closest airport, about 30-40 minutes away.
 
Salty said:
Just curious what about Asheville is legendary? That's news to me.
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There's a few things

One of the outstanding ones is the art deco architecture downtown. What I've been told is that the Great Depression was delayed in hitting Asheville and therefore the art deco building continued downtown. Then when it hit, it hit hard and lasted longer. Result, there are more buildings there and those buildings never got torn down / redesigned until appreciation for art deco kept them from being demolished.

There's also the legendary hippiness and the marijuana laws have some of the lightest sentences in the state - less than 1/2 ounce, it's a $200 misdemeanor. They have a homeless problem because they're viewed as much more liberal and more tolerant. That has caused tourism issues and they're cracking down, at least to try to hide the problem better. Downtown, you'll find a lot of free spirits and probably a lot of drunk tourists on weekends.
 
As you know, my wife and I headed to KGKT from the H96 food truck fly-in. The FBO was great. You're more rural, so maybe not as big of a cultural shock, but the high level of friendliness takes some getting used to for me! They have lots of parking with cables and chains for the tie downs. I used the chains since there wasn't any real weather expected, but always carry ropes (which I prefer).

Everyone in the area helped with how to taxi to the FBO, and they asked if we had a car so they could bring it out to the plane and have the AC cranking.

I recommend spending your whole time in the mountains, but since you have the kids, and depending on your wife's inclinations, sorry you'll have to spend time in the two towns! We were with college friends who kids so we did a little of that. Dollywood was actually a pretty good amusement park. They do a great job keeping you shaded and cool in all of the lines.

As for Asheville, we keep talking about it, and never have gotten there.
 
Salsa's is the restaurant I enjoyed so much.
 
Just left AVL yesterday.

AVGAS is almost $10/gallon….

There is a self serve pump somewhere on the field at $8.50 per gallon, but I don’t know if Signature waives any fees if you self serve
 
Doug Reid said:
From what I hear..you better like wearing a covid mask..
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This is dated information. Yes, Asheville went all in on the mask requirement and closing indoor access to all customers, but the last time I was there they were back to normal with businesses open and no mask requirement.
 
eman1200 said:
Jim is the date set yet?
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Sort of. The stupid rental car situation is forcing changes. It's cheaper (including the hotel) to go a day earlier and collect the car from the lot (again....2 miles from the airport) than for them to drop it at the fbo. That MIGHT free up enough time for an impromptu southeast poa meet up on Sunday the 7th if anybody is interested.
 
Check out TURO for a car rental. Last I looked TURO was about 50% cheaper than the car rental companies.
 
FORANE said:
Check out TURO for a car rental. Last I looked TURO was about 50% cheaper than the car rental companies.
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I had a couple great experiences with turo in wy, but the pickings were pretty slim for this trip. The ones that looked like they might actually show up were more expensive than enterprise. I also called a couple independent rental outfits, but they were also very expensive. There are several outfits that would happily deliver a jeep to the airport.... for$300/ day. Who is renting these things for that rate?
 
@eman1200 , I saw a post that you were in for the 7th, and now it’s gone. Not even an excuse?

I’m in, excuse pending. :)

Edit. I see your “I’m in” post was before the date was set. Clever, that’s your excuse right there. :)
 
Dave Theisen said:
@eman1200 , I saw a post that you were in for the 7th, and now it’s gone. Not even an excuse?

I’m in, excuse pending. :)

Edit. I see your “I’m in” post was before the date was set. Clever, that’s your excuse right there. :)
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I’m in!


















Or am I?
 
FORANE said:
This is dated information. Yes, Asheville went all in on the mask requirement and closing indoor access to all customers, but the last time I was there they were back to normal with businesses open and no mask requirement.
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No mask requirements, but I saw more people this weekend wearing masks in Asheville than I’ve seen anywhere else in the last 6 months.
 
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