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Randy's back yard
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View from Randy's back patio
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Randy in front of his house. Hendersonville is located on a mountaintop.
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Interesting use for a ferris wheel
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October Odyssey Day 6 - Today I drove from Virginia to North Carolina to visit Randy. Ferris wheel close to Randy's.
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Cheese!
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Sunset view at the back of the Biltmore mansion
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A view of the Biltmore house late in the day, after most of the tourists had gone.
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There is an indoor swimming pool and bowling alley. Too bad I couldn't take pictures of them!
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View from the mansion. The grounds of the estate were landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also landscaped Central Park in New York City.
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Biltmore Estate
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An outdoor stone carving. The craftmanship of the Biltmore home is stunning.
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The house was built to replicate a grand European country estate, with its own statues of medieval soldiers. We toured the inside of the house, but sadly, no indoor photography was permitted.
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Main entrance. The house was built by George Vanderbilt over the time period 1889 to 1895 on an estate of 125,000 acres. Today the grounds have been reduced to 8000 acres.
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October Odyssey - Day 7. Today we went to Biltmore, the Vanderbilt mansion near Asheville. This is the largest privately owned home in the United States, at 175,000 square feet and 250 rooms.
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Malaprops window
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We traveled on to Asheville, NC. One of the highlights here is Malaprops, an independently owned book store that is a treat for browsing.
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Another view of the home from across the pond as we left the property
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Closeup view of the home exterior
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A descendant of Mrs. Sandburg's prize winning goats
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An interesting goat drinking station
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The estate is called "Connemara." The name Connemara is Irish meaning "of the sea."
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The summer kitchen located on the ground floor
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Mr. Sandburg's bedroom. He wrote for most of the night and slept only three hours a day.
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Photographs pinned to a bulletin board in Mrs. Sandburg's home office. She raised prize winning goats, and many of the photo's feature goats.
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Mr. Sandburg's office.
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Sandburg bust
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The Sandburg living room. There were book cases jammed with books in every room of the house.
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Path leading up the hill to the home.
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Another view of the pond and trees in fall colors.
