Saturday morning we arose in our Charlottesville Inn and tottered off to the kitchen about 7:45 AM. Breakfast at the Cedar Spring Inn doesn’t start until 8 so we were a bit early. Ms. Innkeeper reminded us that we shouldn’t sit down and expect breakfast. Of course not, we replied we just wanted to stand around and drink coffee. I wonder why these people had a desire to become innkeepers. They are certainly not the warm, fuzzy types that you figure would want to do it. Anyway, Mr. Innkeeper asked where we were off to today. When we replied Asheville he asked if we were planning on going there in one day.
Uh oh, we thought. In our minds Asheville was just a hop, skip and jump away from Charlottesville. But no, it turns out that it is over 350 miles away. We ended up leaving much later than we would have for a long trip and spent a long day getting to our new lodging at the Sourwood Inn outside of Asheville.
The inn is at 3500 feet and has no air conditioning. The temperature was fine but the humidity made everything feel damp. We had dinner at the inn and turned in. On Saturday we met Mr. Innkeeper who engaged us in a conversation about whether one could be good without god. He gave us some tracts to read and we figured we would be quizzed in the morning.
Well, what’s the most important thing to do after breakfast? Find an internet site of course. Unfortunately, internet is not offered at the Sourwood Inn. So once again with my trusty computer on my lap we went out trolling for a connection. We found one at the Sleep Inn. People have been really nice about letting us park ourselves in the lobby of their hotels.
Next we went to the Biltmore Estate.
This is a huge mansion built by George Vanderbilt whose major occupation in life was being rich. His grandfather and father had made the fortune. George’s job seems like a good one. We took the audio tour which highlights about 60 rooms. Then we went to the winery. The wine was okay, not great, and mostly the grapes come from California anyway.
After a long day we returned to the Inn, had dinner, and retired to our damp room. We finished reading the tracts that the innkeeper gave us but when we went down to breakfast on Monday morning he was nowhere to be seen. But that’s okay, John and I had some interesting discussions about whether progress is a positive thing or should just be a concept without a value judgement attached.