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From the Atlantic coast we had to start our journey west again.  Our next stop was the Blueridge mountains near Ashville North Carolina.  From our campground at Marian we drove the Blueridge Parkway for awhile.

Just of the parkway is Little Switzerland which has several emerald mines.  We stopped at one to try our luck.

Here we are sluicing for the gems from the bucket of mine material.  They all have some "gems" in them, we got a bunch of various values.  The fee came with one gem cutting and setting so now Lori has a new pretty necklace.

This was our campsite near Marion, NC  We had a mountain stream almost below or bed since we have a rear slideout the hung out over the creek bed.

Next we made a stop at Biltmore, the cute little cottage the George Vanderbilt built.  You can not take picture inside so all that I can show is exterior shots.

His green house and gardens are beautiful also.

You can also tour the farm portion of the estate.  Here is a true Iowa boy showing them how to farm.

The old dairy has been converted to a winery.  Its amazing that you can make more money on $30 bottles of wine then $2 gallons of milk.

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