Tag Archives: Asheville Visiotr Information

Gas prices in the state average $3.27, compared to $3.47 a month ago and $3.72 a year ago, the organization said in a news release Friday. Since reaching a summer high of $3.56 on July 21, which was spurred by concerns over the conflict in Egypt, gas prices have been steadily falling.

The last time gas was cheaper in North Carolina was on Dec. 26, 2012, when prices averaged $3.26.

“Falling gas prices is great news for drivers,” David E. Parsons, president and CEO of AAA Carolinas, said in the release. “We expect prices to continue trending downward, barring any major supply or distribution issues, such as tensions in the Middle East or a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.”

It’s also great news for Henderson County.

“Any time we have gas prices to go down, it translates to tourism dollars,” said Beth Carden, executive director of Henderson County Travel and Tourism. “People are still traveling, but they will spend more locally if they don’t have to pay higher prices for gas. They’ll spend more money in stores and to go to events and things like that.”

Carden said the county will take any help it can get.

“We’ve had a really good year

Article source: http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20131011/articles/131019966 If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

This week’s Family Dinner Table Talk, from HuffPost and The Family Dinner book:

Last week, our country’s government entered a partial shutdown for the first time in 17 years. Since members of Congress couldn’t agree on a new budget — particularly President Obama’s Affordable Care Act — they didn’t pass it at all. This means around 800,000 government employees can’t go to work — so national parks are closed and even medical research funded by the government has temporarily been put on pause. The National Zoo’s adorable “panda cam” has also been shut off.

Tonight, let’s talk about how this shutdown has been affecting our entire country — and our family, too.

Questions for discussion:

• Who does the shutdown affect?
• What can Congress do to end the shutdown?
• What would you do differently if you were a member of Congress?

In her cookbook, The Family Dinner, Laurie David talks about the importance of families making a ritual of sitting down to dinner together, and how family dinners offer a great opportunity for meaningful discussions about the day’s news. “Dinner,” she says, “is as much about digestible conversation as it is about delicious food.”

We couldn’t agree

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/11/table-talk-government-shutdown_n_4038774.html If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

ASHEVILLE — Taking a cue from Pisgah Inn, officials at the Folk Art Center reopened on Thursday with hopes of regaining business momentum in the busiest month of the year.

The popular arts and crafts center on Blue Ridge Parkway east of Asheville had been closed since Oct. 1 because of the federal government shutdown.

“I’ve been watching the developments at Pisgah Inn closely,” said Tom Bailey, managing director of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, which operates the center. “We’re in the same scenario as them. There are no federal employees here, so we decided we were going to open today.”

He said he contacted the National Park Service to give notice of his intent to reopen.

“They said they wouldn’t stand in our way,” Bailey said.

Pisgah Inn reopened Wednesday after the U.S. Department of Interior decided to allow it in exchange for the business owner agreeing to drop a legal complaint.

Park service police had blocked the inn’s parkway entrances south of Asheville since last Friday, when management defied the shutdown order that also has shuttered park concessionaires nationwide. The parkway itself remains open to travelers, but police

Article source: http://www.blackmountainnews.com/article/20131011/NEWS/310110025/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

Christopher Cox decided the nation’s capital was looking ratty and he was going to do something about it.

On Wednesday, the chain-saw sculptor from South Carolina planted himself on a patch of thick lawn abutting the Lincoln Memorial and started to cut the overgrown grass with a gas-powered mower. A passerby took his picture and tweeted it out. It quickly went viral. The Weekly Standard—whose Jonathan Last editorialized in a cover story that “the conduct of the National Park Service over the last week might be the biggest scandal of the Obama administration”—covered it on the magazine’s website, where Jim Swift reported that Park Police officers asked Cox to stop his act of civic-minded volunteerism. Others, such as the The Kansas City Star, picked up the story online. The local Washington CBS News affiliate did a post, interviewing Cox. Columnist Michael Barone at the Washington Examiner blogged about him, calling the fact that a South Carolinian was mowing the Lincoln Memorial grass a sign the Civil War was well and truly over.

The incident encapsulates how National Park Service closures have become the most visible face of the shutdown, now in its second week. Members

Article source: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/10/how-national-parks-became-biggest-battleground-shutdown/7224/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

The Ordinary Bitters

Adam Bolt will serve brews to those of age who drop Abingdon’s Wolf Hills Brewing Co.

Visit today at 5 p.m. and Bolt will sing a stack of songs, too. Bolt’s band, The Ordinary Bitters, leads the evening’s entertainment at Wolf Hills with a mash of music that kicks like the venue’s strongest of brews.

A blend of originals and covers from a base of honky-tonk country music beats at the center of the Bitters. From that foundation they are apt to leap into realms of rock, funk and even reggae. They’re unpredictable, a little bit wild and absolutely not ordinary in any way whatsoever.

American Gonzos

Asheville’s American Gonzos have plenty to be feeling gonzo about. Most notably, the trio of rockers are in the midst of a tour to support their newly minted second album, “No Way to Live.”

The American Gonzos’ route leads to the Hideaway in Johnson City on Oct. 11. They’ll support headliners and local favorites, Demon Waffle, with a strong sampling from their melodically crunching new album.

Led by lead singer Andrew Thelston, the Gonzos’ style reverberates

Article source: http://www.tricities.com/news/local/article_bb06c16c-3104-11e3-86e3-001a4bcf6878.html If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

Thursday, Oct. 10

• Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions with a close listening of the album, followed by discussion, at The Cathedral of All Souls’ Zabriskie Hall, 9 Swan St. $5 includes free beer, wine and light fare. Proceeds benefit Homeward Bound’s Room in the Inn program.

• “We’re coming together and doing the only thing we know how — make jokes — to raise money for Xander, a tough little 2-year-old battling acute lymphoblasic leukemia,” begins an event page for an upcoming comedy benefit. “Xander Kai Valentin just turned 2 years old … He is currently in remission, but there are just enough cancerous cells remaining that he continues to go through chemotherapy every few weeks. The treatments can get very difficult, but it’s very rare that he doesn’t have a smile on his face. It’s one of those smiles that makes everyone fall in love with him instantly and keeps his mother strong. We’re raising money to help with medical bills and to show our support to his mom and throw some love to

Article source: http://www.mountainx.com/article/53403/This-weekend-on-a-shoestring If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

(USA TODAY Near MOUNT PISGAH, N.C.) — A day after preparing to close for the rest of the season, workers at the Pisgah Inn were back on the job, and the inn’s owner claimed victory in his showdown over the federal shutdown.

Inn owner Bruce O’Connell said Wednesday the Interior Department of Interior agreed to let him reopen his lodge on the Blue Ridge Parkway in exchange for dropping a legal complaint he had filed.

The government owns the building and land. O’Connell leases it, and his family has run the inn at milepost 408.6 about 25 miles southwest of Asheville, N.C., since 1978.

Park Service rangers had blocked the 51-room inn’s driveways since Friday when O’Connell defied the shutdown order that has left other park concessionaires closed across the USA. The parkway itself remains open to travelers. Rangers turned customers away at the inn’s entrances.

O’Connell said he has heard from thousands of people since making his stand. His story

Article source: http://www.wbir.com/story/news/local/2013/10/10/blue-ridge-parkway-inn-reopens-with-federal-blessing/2957649/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com