Cumberland Gal: Brevard With the Grandkids-- Toy Stores & Waterfalls

Colorful maple tree on the campus of Brevard College

Brevard With the Grandkids--

O.P. Taylor's Toy Stores & Waterfalls

Thurs. Nov.5 to Sun. Nov. 8 , 2020

Dana & Kenny Koogler

Tessa and Michael Lindsey

Photos are here: Brevard Pix

We took our grandkids to Brevard, North Carolina for a weekend. We wanted to spend some quality time with the oldest two, Michael age 11 and Tessa age 7. They are the children of our daughter Crystal and son-in-law Adam.

They both got straight A's on their report cards this past 9 weeks so we wanted to do something extra special for them. Tessa Grace had not ever visited the big O.P. Taylor's Toy Store in Brevard. We wanted to remedy that. The original plan was to camp, but because of Kenny's work schedule we couldn't make that happen.

I called Adventure Village to book a camping cabin as a back up plan. They did not have any available for a two night stay so that fell through as well. We ended up just getting a motel for a couple nights. Kenny was working in Kingsport at Eastman and so I took the children with me on Friday morning and we spent the day playing, driving over, eating out, and since it was too early to check into the motel we went right to the toy store. I knew that was on their minds anyway. It was easier just to go on with it rather than keep listening to when are we going, Nanny? So we went ahead!

O.P. Taylor's is like the FAO Schwartz of Appalachia. It is awesome.

Brevard is a lovely little college town with lots of fantastic shops to browse.

Artistic, unique items galore in them. I always enjoy it. We spent an hour and a half in the store and each kid got a couple toys. They gave me lots of ideas and suggestions for what they'd like for Christmas. I took photos of lots of it with my cell phone so I could recall the particulars of each item.

The afternoon was drawing into evening and we were all getting tired.

We went back to the hotel and checked in. We were in Arden and I will not stay there again for more than a night. It is too much a hub of activity with far too much traffic. . It is convenient to shopping, the interstate and lots of restaurants, but it just wasn't worth it. The corona virus has caused eating out in North Carolina to be a tiresome event. Many places are drive through or take out only. Tennessee has covid precautions in place, but things are flowing much more smoothly. It has reinforced my stance that camping over there or renting a cabin is the only way to really maintain any normalcy. Kenny was at least able to meet us about forty five minutes after we checked in so we were glad to see him. I had not seen him since Tuesday morning when he left for work.

Saturday

We got up Saturday morning and went to breakfast at IHOP.

We liked it, and it was a more comfortable dining out option than some we'd tried. Tessa ended up not caring for it as she has allergies to eggs and gluten as well as a number of other things. It is a shame because she likes everything she is allergic to. We got that over with and Kenny had told them he wanted to go back to the toy store today at some point. He was jealous at having been left out. We decided we'd go hiking, eat lunch, and then go to the toy store for round two. We learned in the process of our planning that O.P. Taylor has a second store which is located in Biltmore Park. I thought we had been to that area of Asheville, but I was mistaken. We had been to Biltmore Forest area. We spent a considerable amount of time in Asheville when Jared was living there.

Kenny suggested we take the kids to DuPont State Forest to hike.

We had not been there in many, many years. We first visited there before it was even a state park. It had been probably 15 years since I was there and more than that for Kenny. Once we got there we were quickly reminded why we avoid the place as much as we do. It was already crowded early on Saturday morning. We had with us Kevin Adam's Waterfalls of North Carolina book. We decided to visit Hooker Falls, Triple Falls and High Falls.

The parking lot for Hooker Falls was very crowded, but we snagged the last available spot. Once we got out we quickly realized the directions for reaching Hooker Falls were incorrect thanks to some changes to the trail. They closed the original trail and opened a new way. It turned out to be only a tad longer hike and was much safer and better way. It avoids the brink of the falls completely. We were shocked at how few people were there when we got to the falls! We only saw four other people despite the crowded trails.

The kids liked the falls. I was also reminded why we should NOT avoid places just because of the crowds. It is a very beautiful place. Hooker Falls is not a real tall waterfall, but it is river wide in a nice setting. A flood in 2004 washed out that area very badly. That made it necessary to repair the damage and reroute the trail. The new one helps to prevent some of the terrible erosion from all those feet.

Above: Hooker Falls

Kenny at the falls

Tessa climbing in the rhododendron

Michael heading toward the base of the falls and the rocks around it. He quickly was called down. Like a moth to a flame... these kids want to go do exactly what they are not supposed to do.

Above sign says :

No Rock Climbing
No swimming or wading above waterfalls

Below is a video of Hooker Falls

Once we got done visiting Hooker Falls we headed back for the parking area and around toward Triple Falls. You cross the bridge and go under the road and hike the trail to an overlook of Triple Falls. Back in the day when we visited this waterfall you hiked up the right side of the waterfall along the stream. The new trail is steep, but safer and better suited to handle high volume foot traffic of which there was plenty. Now we were seeing loads of other hikers. We wore our masks when were close to others and unable to social distance, but for the most part we did not have to resort to that.

Below: Walk bridge at DuPont State Forest

River below Triple Falls

Above: Tessa near Triple Falls

Below: Tessa told me she had found a pick axe in the water. it is a pick axe shaped stick!

Above: grandson Michael down river from Triple Falls

Below: Grandkids sitting on a wall looking out at Triple Falls

Below: Triple Falls

Below is a video of Triple Falls

We considered heading on toward High Falls. It was pretty clear the kids were not that into the hiking and waterfalls. We opted instead to go eat some lunch, then we went to visit Cathey's Creek Falls just outside Brevard.

It is a super short hike down over the bank. Once we got that over with

we'd head back to the toy stores.

Catheys Creek Falls was an easy hike down over the bank. It was high volume today! We saw quite a few hunters back that road. The law passed us back there as we were getting ready to leave. They didn't look happy and were very intent on whatever task they were about.

Below: Kenny and Michael at Cathys Creek Falls

Above: Tessa at the falls
Cathey's Creek Falls

Above: the plunge pool at Catheys Creek Falls. Since we were there in June many trees have fallen. Some of it has been cleaned up by the forestry service.

We tried Cardinal Drive In today for the first time. It was pretty good for burgers and fries and lunch stuff. We stopped by the Brevard College grounds to see if we could spot a white squirrel. We sure did!

Above: look closely... there is a white squirrel at the base of the tree

Above and below: grounds of Brevard College

Above and below: Brevard College and Michael and Tessa messing around

Above: The white squirrel came down out of the tree and I got another photo of him on the run

Below: he darted across the road and made it safely and went up into a pine tree!

We visited the Brevard Toy store and stayed quite awhile longer today. While Kenny took the kids to look around in there I went into the Local Color store awhile. I bought myself a t shirt that says North Carolina in the style of the old Coke t shirts. red with white lettering. I also bought a hair barrette that is handmade by a local artist.

Last of all we went to Biltmore Park to the other one. It was not quite as large or as cozy and appealing as the one in Brevard, but it was still nice. Biltmore Park is a beautiful ritzy community. We got more toys. More suggestions for Christmas.. and went to take a walk around the neighborhood. We had icecream at Cold Stone Creamery. It was yummy!

We went back to the hotel tired and happy. The next day we had an uneventful drive home through the gorge in beautiful Autumn colors and sunshine!

Traffic was light. It is always good to go, but it is good to get home. We are all finding that we prefer eating at home instead of dining out because of the covid.

We are finding that unless we can stay in our home away from home in the camper or a rental cabin that going away from home isn't too fun. Hotels now no longer have pools open in many places. Gyms are also closed. No more breakfast rooms at hotels... you're doing good to get a cup of coffee. Home sweet home is a little sweeter these days. Family is a little more precious as well.

We had fun with our grandkids and a lot of laughs. Word to the wise: do NOT stay at the Super 8 motel in Arden. We stayed there one night before on a drive home. I thought it would be ok. It was not too cool. It is very run down and they appear to be letting some folks live there in the rear upstairs part. They put us next to that crowd for some reason. It is shabby. The folks next to us were out at 2 am Sunday morning having a fight and a cussing match. Thankfully the children slept through it all. It only lasted two or three minutes, but I was over it and so was Kenny. We have stayed at Super 8 motels that were extremely nice even luxurious, but this one most assuredly is not one of those.

Below: Tessa and Michael in front of the toy store