Music in the Blue Ridge Mountains

A reenactment at Magnolia Gardens
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We finally made it to Ashevile, North Carolina after a couple of days on the road which we broke up with a brief overnight stay in the capital city of South Carolina, Columbia - not half as dangerous as everyone says! Oh, right, wrong Columbia!

We also stopped in along the way at America's most photographed plantation, Magnolia Gardens, which were magnificent to say the least. It's this big plantation that has been in the same family for generations and they (along with their slaves) built a huge garden where they stage reenactments of famous revolutionary battles. They also give tours of the plantation house, gardens and swamp garden, complete with alligators, no airboat rides though. D'oh!!

Being told what to do
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On the way from Columbia to Asheville we decided to stop again along the way at another historical site. It may sound like we are really getting into this historical stuff but really it's just safe driving, stopping to rest every couple of hours! It's just like the stop, revive, survive rest stops back home. The only difference is that back home you get a free cup of coffee and a biscuit and here you get a tour (not free usually) of one of the thousands of historical sites that are along the way! This time it was to visit Brattonsville where they filmed the movie The Patriot.

The gardens at Magnolia Gardens
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The trip to Asheville also marked the start of our trip into the Blue Ridge Mountains, although after South America they look more like hills than mountains! Everything we had read about Asheville and the Blue Ridge area had said that we should expect lots of music along the way and they were absolutely right.

Asheville was packed full of buskers performing on every street corner, there was a definite bohemian vibe in the town which it made it perfect for just wandering the streets soaking up the atmosphere. So of course what did we do? We went to the movies!!! (After soaking up the atmosphere, of course!)