by Joyce P., Executive Assistant
Asheville, North Carolina is more than just a town with Rhett Butler southern charm. Steeped in rich history, this is a progressive metropolis of 70,000 embraced by cool mountain air, and is a refuge from heavy traffic and impossible freeways. Surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains, it is an oasis for the rich, famous, young and old and bustles with a life all its own. Mountain biking, white water rafting and hiking are indigenous activities to this area. The region enjoys four distinct seasons with mild winters and a high of 83 degrees in the summer.

We stayed at the Grove Park Inn located on Sunset Mountain overlooking picturesque Asheville. This facility was the brainchild of pharmacist Edwin Grove who opened it at a banquet in July 1913 with Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan addressing four hundred distinguished guests. Since that time countless dignitaries and celebrities have stayed in the tasteful hostel and their photographs grace the halls.

We found ourselves in good company from visitors past: Harry Houdini, Charles Schwabb, Thomas Edison, Henry Kissinger, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, Will Rogers, Norman Vincent Peale and Tom Landry. Happily, we didn't have the honor of meeting the Pink Lady, a ghost reported to be on the premises from time to time.

Former presidents have also brought their entourages of secret service agents to this resting spot, including the Roosevelts, Eisenhower, Truman, Nixon and Bush. The novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald was a regular when his wife Zelda was being treated for alcoholism in one of the local sanitariums.

This four star hotel built from natural products from the area is lovely. Comfortable rocking chairs line the porch in which guests can relax, feel the windsong of mountain air, and people watch. But, one doesn't rock for long. People are headed to the energetic city core or the mountains much of the time. There is a fantastic 18-hole golf course here too.

We dined in the Chops Restaurant on Sunset Terrace Friday evening and were entertained by Maddy and the Masterpiece, a house band with a universal sound. A person of any age would enjoy this combination of sweet air, good food and fine music.

Millions of dollars are being spent on a new spa which should be completed by the late fall of 2000. It will have 17 multipurpose rooms for body and skin services, steam rooms, inhalation rooms, cascading waterfall, therapeutic whirlpools, spa relaxation pool, juice bar and personalized skin and beauty analysis.

We had a look at other parts of the hotel on Friday morning. After a beautiful breakfast, we took a guided tour on the Urban Trail through the city of Asheville.

In the early 1900's Asheville could boast of having the second electric streetcar system in the country, streetlights, paved streets, an opera house, and the Battery Park Hotel (a luxurious resort). Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth and Henry Ford were names appearing on the hotel's registry. Arthur Murray took dance lessons at the hotel from a teacher fondly called, "The Princess." We learned another first about Asheville: Elizabeth Blackwell, the first American female physician, practiced here.

Author William Henry Porter, whose life was a paradox of disasters and triumphs is buried in Asheville's Riverside Cemetery. He was imprisoned for embezzlement and spent three years incarcerated where he used the time to hone his writing skills. You will remember him as O. Henry who wrote Cabbages and Kings, The Four Million and The Gentle Grafter.

The city has a welcoming atmosphere, scenic beauty, art galleries that display local Appalachian treasures, eclectic shops, a fun nightlife and good restaurants. The Folk Art Center is especially proud of its Southern Highland Handicraft Guild founded in 1930. Here they display and sell works from the mountain crafts people whom they represent.

We visited the childhood home of Thomas Wolfe, whose 1929 book, Look Homeward, Angel, took the nation by storm. This was actually his mother's 29 room boarding house called The Old Kentucky Home, where Wolfe spent much of his childhood. Look Homeward, Angel is a novel based on his experiences while growing up here. Much of this edifice was burned by an arsonist two years ago and the manager, Steve Hill, is committed to reconstructing it. As we left I purchased a book about Thomas Wolfe's life written by Ted Mitchell, a historic onsite interpreter, who even autographed it for me.

The Biltmore Estate was next on our agenda. George Vanderbilt had this 250-room mansion constructed to replicate the chateaux in France's Loire Valley in 1891. Frederick Law Olmstead, designer of Central Park, created this setting where the mansion is framed by the lush forestland covering the surrounding mountains. In the spring over 50,000 tulips in every hue fill the gardens and in the fall the fields are kissed with thick, plush carpets of mums so the grounds have a variety of seasonal flowers and color. Mr. Vanderbilt was a founder of the first forestry school in America, to add to his other horticultural achievements.

This was the Vanderbilts' summer home and his visitors chose from 32 guestrooms and were seated at a dining table in the Banquet Hall, which could accommodate 64 people. They were entertained in the Billiard Room, Winter Garden, indoor gym, swimming pool and bowling alley. Vanderbilt was a visionary and equipped his home with central heat, mechanical refrigeration, electric lights and indoor baths, unheard of luxuries in 1895. The film Being There with Peter Sellers was filmed at this palatial mansion. Richie Rich was also filmed here featuring Macaulay Culkin. Jack Lemmon and James Garner utilized the grounds of Biltmore Estate during the shooting of My Fellow Americans.

We dined one evening at the Bistro on Biltmore Estate and experienced the fine cuisine of its chefs and a taste of their wine, whose vineyards produce more than 750,000 cases per year.

As we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway Saturday afternoon we were smitten by the many colors of green on the lush countryside. Our first destination was to be Chimney Rock Park, 25 miles southeast of Asheville. The rock is 500 million years old and is best known for its 75-miles view from the top. Die hard hikers or first timers can opt for a personalized trek on the mountain. There are five hiking trails, a 404-foot waterfall, unusual geological formations and native wildlife in the area. The top of Hickory Nut Falls and the Cliff Trail are the backdrop for the final scenes in the film The Last of the Mohicans. Below is Lake Lure where Patrick Swayze starred in Dirty Dancing. This was named one of the ten most spectacular man-made lakes in the world by National Geographic.

Heading to Mt. Pisgah, one of the Parkway's highest points, we got into a downpour of rain. We found the site where Cold Mountain originated, a book receiving the National Book Award and written by North Carolinian Charles Frazier. It was surreal, as the rain let up and we could see the fog and clouds locked inside the bowl of the surrounding mountains. As we had been listening to this book on tape, we could envision the ghosts of Frazier's characters: Inman, Ada and Ruby, seeking shelter under the wet tree branches as we wound around the mountain road. No doubt Cold Mountain will be filmed here when the movie is made.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed to Greenville, South Carolina, and passed by the Carl Sandburg home. This picturesque 240-acre working farm called "Connemara" was the residence of Carl Sandburg and his family for over 22 years. On the grounds, descendants of Mrs. Sandburg's famed goatherds still live and graze in the barnyard. Sandburg was the famed poet, author, historian, Pulitzer-prize winner and biographer of Abraham Lincoln.

We attended a Presbyterian Church in Fountain Inn, a few miles outside Greenville. My husband's family started the church back in the late 1700s and the building is still filled with descendents of these brothers who came to American shores. The church is still simple and exquisite, and beside it is a cemetery filled with markers embossed with the family name.

On the way back to Asheville we made a wish list of options we missed this trip. We would have loved to see "Unto These Hills," an outdoor drama 55 miles away in Cherokee, N. C., depicts the 1,200 mile march to Oklahoma on the "Trail of Tears;" had more time to browse through the art galleries in town; would have liked to attend Bele Chere, which is the largest street fair in the south; want to go to Lake Lure for a day; hope to attend Shindig on the Green which occurs each Saturday night in July; to see the fall foliage which stays beautiful from September to November, and check out rafting. We'll be back! We love the history of this beautiful, inspiring area of North Carolina.

Credits for photography: Mary Jaeger-Gale, Chimney Rock Park; David Tomsky, The Grove Park Inn and Glenn Goodrich of USA Raft; Marla Tambellini, Asheville C of C; Fairview Church by T. Peden.

Contacts for travel: Asheville CVB; email ashevilleBlueRidgeTour.com for reasonable transportations services; Outward Bound programs; Biltmore Estate, affordable lodging to upscale rates; and maryjg@chimneyrockpark.com.