North Carolina

Sitting on one of the many balconies of the Biltmore Estate, I gazed out at the Appalachian Mountains and thought to myself, “Don’t take me to a rich family’s mansion, take me out there.”

​

I spent much time in the Carolinas from the years 2008-2010 because I dated a sweet Southern girl from Cheraw, South Carolina. We did much traveling together throughout North Carolina because she had places to stay in Buies Creek, Smithfield, and Raleigh.

​

On a steaming hot day in August of 2009, we drove west to Asheville and listened to music in the square, ate vegan food, and toured the Biltmore Estate, a property built and owned by a wealthy American family, the Vanderbilt’s.

 

She was big on “fairness,” and if I got to do something, she got to do something. She chose Biltmore, I chose tubing down a river whose name my memory has forgotten. A van drove us upriver, and we rafted back down on tubes through the rocks, rapids, and rushes of the river, winding our way through the Appalachian Mountains.

​