Asheville Basketball Tournament
November 10 – 12, 2023
Davidson men's basketball team played in the ESPN tournament in Asheville this year, so Tim and I went there. I really like Asheville, and it had been a few years since I had been there. The two German restaurants where we ate in Asheville back when Davidson was in the Southern Conference have closed. So we stopped for a late lunch in Black Mountain on the way, and then stopped in Hendersonville on the way home. I recently found out about a German place in Troutman that is open just a few days a week, so maybe we can get there before a game some time.
The opening game was a victory against Maryland.
There was no game on Saturday, so we visited the arts district and then went for a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The colored leaves were gone, so the mountains had a more subtle beauty. When we stopped at an overlook, Tim saw a bear. I saw others watching it as we drove in, but it had left by the time I got out of the car.
My car had never been driven in the mountains before, and it did fine, especially since one can choose which one of the seven gears to use going down grades. I found that my car gets 5 mpg in second gear. We saw a sign to the Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace, so we went back and followed the sign. I had been there once around 1980, and Tim had never been. It seemed like a long drive around the mountains, but then the car doesn’t go very fast in second gear. By the time we got near it, we were back in civilization. If you want to visit and don't want scenic mountain road adventures, it is not a bad drive from Weaverville. There is a museum and visitor center and buildings to see.
Vance was North Carolina’s governor during the Civil War. He and his brother were ardent advocates of preserving the Union until shots were fired at Ft. Sumpter. The story was that he converted in the middle of a speech when the news reached him. North Carolina chose not to secede until Lincoln demended that any state remaining had to furnish thousands of troops. NC was not going to fight our fellow Southerners. Two of my great-grandfathers and one of my great-great-grandfathers fought for the Confederacy. The great-grandfathers were at Appomattox at the time of surrender.
