Asheville by trolley

 August 21-22, 2021

KOA Asheville East, Swannanoa, NC

Asheville is a very diverse city.  One of the best ways to take it all in is the Trolley Tour.  Everyone agreed that the tour guide/driver. Matt was either born to do this job or had worked hard at gathering loads of information and weaving it all into an excellent, story telling, with a bit of humor,  presentation as he used his expert driving skills navigating the good sized trolley through the crowded streets of Asheville.

The tour began in the historic district with beautiful old homes that had been patiently, expertly restored rather than torn down.  This home was purchased for $18,000.  The low price was due to the poor condition of the home/property.  The buyers spent $400 thousand to bring it back to life as a Bed and Breakfast and sold it for 1 1/4 million.

It was marvelous to see the old area brought back to life.  It seems Asheville believed in restoring and/or repurposing buildings rather than tearing them down, thus this area had beautiful buildings.

  We even saw a once gas station repurposed as a beautiful jewelry shop.  Who would have thought?  (Where's the pic, Momma?)

This popular siding is called pebble dash.  It is similar to stucco but has pebbles in the mix and is tossed/dashed onto the building.

As we traveled to another area, the shops and tall buildings took over our view of the city.

The shorter building was constructed without stairs or elevators.  To gain access to the upper floors, you take the elevator/stairs in the taller building and cross over to the shorter building.

Check out the details on these building

Thoughout the city, there are 'statues/works of art' designed to bring on smiles.  Here's one of a gal with drinking fountain.

It sure has a 'real life look' to it.  Makes you do a double-take.

This building once housed women seeking mental health treatment.  

Next door was a dormitory where the women were locked into their rooms at night.  There was fire that quickly spread via the dumb waiter and several lives were lost that night.  One life taken was Zelda Fitzgerald , wife of Scott Fitzgerald (the Great Gatsby) who suffered from schizophrenia.  She was a marvelous painter but when her mother gathered the paintings Zelda left behind, her mother didn't appreciate the artwork and offered it to neighbors. She then  poured kerosene and set the rest aflame.  Now there are only a few of Zelda's paintings left in circulation.

The foundry area is very artisy.  The artists are encouraged to paint murals on these buildings where glass blowing, pottery, and other crafting takes place.

The tour took us to Baltimore Village.  These homes were occupied by workers at one time and have since been turned into a village of shops.

But beware...that lovely historic looking brick walkway may look enchanting, but it is way too uneven for mindless walking.

This area is definitely dog friendly.   If only they would have let me ride on the trolley.

My thirst quenching drink would have been free, unlike the drinks the two-legged had to purchase.

Did you recognize that pebble dash siding?

One of the sites on the trolley tour was the Grove Inn. 

The original Inn had only 100+ rooms, but when the Inn changed hands, the new owners added an additional 400 rooms.  We had received a recommendation to enjoy lunch on the scenic terrace so with our two day trolley pass, we did just that on the next day.  What a view as we enjoyed our meal from the limited menu. 

The question remains, did Covid influence the limited menu or have they always had a smaller selection of dishes?  Either way, we enjoyed our stop at the Grove Inn, rocking by the HUGE fireplace as we were waiting for our table.

And by taking the hop on, hop off trolley, we were exposed to two other drivers.  The first driver on our second day REALLY made us appreciate how lucky we were to have Matt on our first day ride!!  Then, when we boarded the trolley at the Inn for our final ride, we lucked out once again.  There were 3 additional riders, all from Florida, and all second day riders so.....the driver varied the route a bit to give us some different views as we road the remaining trolley stops headed back to where we had left our vehicle.  Life is good!!

Dad said Asheville was okay to visit, but not his ideal spot to take up permanent residence.  Time to move on.....heading to South Carolina for our next stop.

I'm Chloe