A Little More Asheville, and Taking the Scenic Route Home

We got going Monday morning with a big breakfast downtown and an agenda to see the last few Asheville sites on our list:

Silly kids outside the breakfast shop

We ate at the counter

A little bit of Asheville flavor -- window display of the yarn store next door

Inside St. Lawrence Basilica

Fresco of The Last Supper

Thomas Wolfe's childhood home

We had an (unexpectedly) private tour

Dining room (it was a boarding house)

Abby outside the house

With Thomas Wolfe

When we finished our tour, we hit the road for home, with the intent of going partway on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We stopped at a few overlooks to take in the pretty scenery:

I caught a little butterfly in this frame

We had intended to stop at a town called Little Switzerland, which had been recommended for lunch (Chalets! Fondue!), but it turned out not to be open yet for the season. We had to make due with ice cream and cracker packs at the place down the road, which turned out to be fascinating in its own right.  Emerald Village was the site of an old Bon Ami mine, where they mined feldspar as an abrasive for the cleanser. There were two mines, one of which caved in after a blast in 1949, and the other of which shut down in the mid-1950s because of more efficient mining techniques (surface mining) being used. They've re-opened the area for tours, but it was clearly a half-hearted attempt:

Panning for gems

Our treasures

Inspecting the caved-in mine (which is closed off)

Looking up from the mine

This place was really in the middle of nowhere

The Bon Ami mine, which was allowed to flood after it shut down

This one had a "mine tour," i.e. an informational pamphlet

So deserted, it had snakes

Benji, dutifully reading the literature (the old mine elevator is in the background)

Foreman's cabin. It was really just left there, as is

Walking into the mine

Looking out from the mine

The company store, also just abandoned as it was

Stamps anyone?