Last week promised to end on a positive note (we were celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary), but started of on a downright sour one; my wife's grandfather passed away last Sunday. Though the service was on Thursday, we decided to continue with our trip to the mountains and Asheville to visit the Biltmore over the weekend. And it was a good decision. The service was very nice on Thursday. Her grandfather was a Korean veteran, and was buried in the new veteran's cemetery on land that used to be part of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Dublin, VA. My emotions were good until the 21 gun salute and the playing of Taps on the horn. That should make anyone tear with emotion and respect. So it was a good service with good family time afterward.
The following is a report on the great automotive-related aspects of the rest of our trip.
First off, we drove our CR-V and my wife's brother had his '04 Accord down, so I just had to take a picture of all three in the driveway...our green 2008 CR-V, my wife's parents' blue 2011 CR-V, and my wife's brother's 2004 Accord coupe.
We decided to spend the day on Friday leisurely making our way to our rented cabin near Asheville by way of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We've spent some time on the BRP, but never as part of a journey somewhere...just as a day trip. I can't tell you how much I recommend taking the time for a slow drive, if you have the time. We spent about six hours driving 120 miles of the BRP, from Fancy Gap, VA, to around Linville, NC. Being the BITOG'r that I am, here are some of the automotive-related photos.
We stopped at most of the "sites" to see, like many of the small cabins that line the BRP to the Moses Cone house in North Carolina. That in itself is something to behold. More info here: http://www.southernhighlandguild.org/pages/guild-shops/parkway-craft-center.php
Our cabin was in the small town of Burnsville, NC, which is about 45 minutes north of Asheville. Burnsville has a very nice little town square and many small shops and restaurants. I can highly recommend "Bubba's" after we ate supper there Friday night.
Our cabin seemed to be a mile off the paved road, up a rather steep hill. The directions said to "put car in low gear". That was no joke. The path to the cabin from the paved road was very narrow, and would have been near impassable with snow, just due to the steepness of the surface.
We were hesitant about the cabin from the outside, but it was just as pictured on the inside. Three bedrooms, a full kitchen/dining room, upper and lower decks (on the back side), and a private hot tub on the deck. It was sublime.
There can't be too many opportunities to take pictures of your car in front of the largest privately-owned house in the United States, so I just had to do it!
A real treat was seeing George Vanderbuilt's 1913 Stevens-Duryea model C-six. More about that here, but one of my own photos below:
The CR-V did great on the trip. I was real anxious to see how the 4-cylinder engine would do tugging around a 3,500 pound SUV, but it was a non-issue. It'd hold the cruise control speed just fine on long hills; if it needed to downshift into 4th, it'd do so. Honda's Grade Logic Control made quick work of the ups and downs. Lower gears were held on hills and it would never upshift prematurely. Despite all the ups and downs of the terrain and poking around the Biltmore all day on Saturday, the computer reports a fine 27.2 mpg on the 800+ mile trip. Against the EPA estimate of 26 mpg, I was quite pleased (and surprised). The highest elevation I saw via CoPilot on our Android tablet was about 4,600 feet. The lowest was around 150 feet (at home in NC).
I'm also extremely pleased with these tires, Michelin Latitude Tour in 225/65R17 102T spec. They roll very smooth, hug the curves great, are very quiet on all but of the grainiest of surfaces, and apparently deliver decent economy, too. Most CR-V owners on those forums say these are the best tires for this vehicle and I'd say that given my experience with them so far, I couldn't argue against it very well.
I'd do this trip again in a heartbeat (minus the funeral of course). If anyone has any questions about anything we did or about the cabin where we stayed, I'd be glad to provide information.
The following is a report on the great automotive-related aspects of the rest of our trip.
First off, we drove our CR-V and my wife's brother had his '04 Accord down, so I just had to take a picture of all three in the driveway...our green 2008 CR-V, my wife's parents' blue 2011 CR-V, and my wife's brother's 2004 Accord coupe.
We decided to spend the day on Friday leisurely making our way to our rented cabin near Asheville by way of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We've spent some time on the BRP, but never as part of a journey somewhere...just as a day trip. I can't tell you how much I recommend taking the time for a slow drive, if you have the time. We spent about six hours driving 120 miles of the BRP, from Fancy Gap, VA, to around Linville, NC. Being the BITOG'r that I am, here are some of the automotive-related photos.
We stopped at most of the "sites" to see, like many of the small cabins that line the BRP to the Moses Cone house in North Carolina. That in itself is something to behold. More info here: http://www.southernhighlandguild.org/pages/guild-shops/parkway-craft-center.php
Our cabin was in the small town of Burnsville, NC, which is about 45 minutes north of Asheville. Burnsville has a very nice little town square and many small shops and restaurants. I can highly recommend "Bubba's" after we ate supper there Friday night.
Our cabin seemed to be a mile off the paved road, up a rather steep hill. The directions said to "put car in low gear". That was no joke. The path to the cabin from the paved road was very narrow, and would have been near impassable with snow, just due to the steepness of the surface.
We were hesitant about the cabin from the outside, but it was just as pictured on the inside. Three bedrooms, a full kitchen/dining room, upper and lower decks (on the back side), and a private hot tub on the deck. It was sublime.
There can't be too many opportunities to take pictures of your car in front of the largest privately-owned house in the United States, so I just had to do it!
A real treat was seeing George Vanderbuilt's 1913 Stevens-Duryea model C-six. More about that here, but one of my own photos below:
The CR-V did great on the trip. I was real anxious to see how the 4-cylinder engine would do tugging around a 3,500 pound SUV, but it was a non-issue. It'd hold the cruise control speed just fine on long hills; if it needed to downshift into 4th, it'd do so. Honda's Grade Logic Control made quick work of the ups and downs. Lower gears were held on hills and it would never upshift prematurely. Despite all the ups and downs of the terrain and poking around the Biltmore all day on Saturday, the computer reports a fine 27.2 mpg on the 800+ mile trip. Against the EPA estimate of 26 mpg, I was quite pleased (and surprised). The highest elevation I saw via CoPilot on our Android tablet was about 4,600 feet. The lowest was around 150 feet (at home in NC).
I'm also extremely pleased with these tires, Michelin Latitude Tour in 225/65R17 102T spec. They roll very smooth, hug the curves great, are very quiet on all but of the grainiest of surfaces, and apparently deliver decent economy, too. Most CR-V owners on those forums say these are the best tires for this vehicle and I'd say that given my experience with them so far, I couldn't argue against it very well.
I'd do this trip again in a heartbeat (minus the funeral of course). If anyone has any questions about anything we did or about the cabin where we stayed, I'd be glad to provide information.
