Life on the High Plains

 Group photo before leaving the Biltmore House. Woohoo!  I found a picture that included me!   After touring the gardens we needed to find our way back to the car to make our way to Antler Hill.  The estate is huge and we really had no idea which way to go.  Luckily, we found a shuttle bus that gave us a ride back to our parking lot. After enjoying a delicious lunch we joined our next activity--kayaking on the French Broad River that runs through the estate.   The estate includes many agricultural crops, a dairy, a stable, produces its own beef and much more.  The beef that was in my sandwich was raised on the estate.  They have to do many things to stay afloat.  I read that although the estate is valued at $157M, it only has to pay taxes on $79M of that because it's classified as agricultural.  How would you like to pay that tax bill? I love kayaking, but don't get to do it very often.  I've been wanting to buy kayaks for...

 Our first full day in Asheville was spent at the Biltmore Estate.    I have to admit that when I first went looking for tickets I was a little put off by the cost.  In the end I went ahead and made the splurge because I had always wanted to visit "America's castle", it's the largest private house in the USA. Our day started with an audio self tour of the house.  Parking is about 1/4 mile away from the house.  You walk through a forested path and then wow...the Vanderbilt's summer house and its front lawn is right in front of you.  The estate is on 8,000 acres of land and the house is approximately 179,000 square feet.  The house was built between 1889 and 1895 by George Vanderbilt, a bachelor at the time. After going through security and waiting in line for our time slot, we entered the house and encountered this beautiful atrium located right outside the gentlemen's billiards room. It was as dark and manly as you might imagine.  Wood panele...