With surprises ranging from ghosts and spirits to delicious dining destinations and more, each stop is pure pleasure.
Sid Vedula
This view of the formation is only one of the lures of North Carolina’s Chimney Rock State Park and the village below.
Get out in your car in any of the mountain states and set out for the best of fall—not just taking in the colors of the season, but also making new friends, learning about ghosts and glory, checking in on colorful history and sampling the tastes of the region.
NORTH CAROLINA
It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m tooling to the top of the fabled Chimney Rock—standing on the spire then opting for the Opera Box, a natural perch overlooking Lake Lure, North Carolina.
Climbing is a ritual if you want to see “CRSP”—the Chimney Rock State Park (828-625-9611). And, for three years, the only way you could get to the top was to follow flight after flight of stairs when the elevator was out of commission.
In all, that meant surviving stairs numbering 830 to reach the tip-top of Exclamation Point—a cliff overlooking the actual Chimney Rock.
Yet, now, coming back a year and a day later, I easily made it to Chimney Rock again by simply following a tunnel then boarding the 26-story elevator that went back into service on June 22.
Back down in the village of Chimney Rock, I reward my hike with a Reuben at the vintage Old Rock Cafe (828-625-2329) then go next door to Hershey’s Ice Cream (828-625-0052) and attempt to eat a Rocky Road milkshake—nuts and all—with a straw: what proved to be almost as much a struggle as climbing all those steps above me!
Getting to Chimney Rock affords a scenic drive on U.S. 74-Alternate from Rutherfordton, a charming small town where I nest for the night with my son, John, inside an 1925 municipal building; John actually takes the big bed in a room guarded by a glass door marked “POLICE DEPT.”
But, says the Firehouse Inn’s owner, Kitty McCammon, “The room that you’re in was the tax office.”
The Firehouse Inn was once primarily that—a firehouse. And, it is outlined with gardens that shine magnificently with the colors of autumn. “There is yellow-reddish,” McCammon says. “It’s real pretty.”
An interior designer, McCammon grew up in Rutherfordton. “It’s a little bit quaint,” she says, “a little bit Mayberry-ish.”
Facing North Washington Street, the Firehouse Inn (828-286-9030) affords an easy walk to the succulent servings at the Olive Tree (828-287-9459), a restaurant featuring Greek salads, close to the Yellow Sun, a small brewery (828-375-0089) on Trade Street. John and I toured the city’s Main Street for several blocks, catching sight of colorful murals.
At the center of the Firehouse Inn, McCammon offers breakfasts in a great room that was once the site of town council meetings.
“You haven’t asked the question that everybody asks,” McCammon says to me with a smile
“What’s that?” I wonder.
“Is it haunted?” she says.
Well, is it?
“I have only had one guest in 10 years say she saw a ghost,” McCammon says. “Somebody in the hallway or something. And she was convinced that there was a ghost.”
VIRGINIA
Kristen Laise points to portraits at Belle Grove, a plantation house in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She tells of the people of the past as well as this home —and how it was spared during the Civil War, just barely. As Laise puts it, “The war marched in the front door and out the back.”
Built in the 1790s, Belle Grove stood in the midst of the Battle of Cedar Creek, a skirmish on October 19, 1864, that is noted with a small museum along U.S. 11 in Frederick County, Virginia.
Today, Belle Grove is a gathering place —a refined mansion that displays what life was like during the 1800s along the Valley Pike.
And, are there ghosts?
“Some people say they have seen a woman in black or an old soldier,” Laise says. “But I’ve spent the night here on the anniversary of the night of the battle and did not see anything.”
Nearby, I spend a night in a cabin at the Inn at Vaucluse Spring (540-869-0200). A waterfall centers this small resort, near Stephens City, where co-owner Tiffany Niide serves gourmet breakfasts prepared by her husband, Derrick.
Courtesy of Inn at Vaucluse Spring
The Inn at Vaucluse Spring sits south of Winchester, Virginia.
“We’re right in the heart of leaf country,” Tiffany tells me. “And, so, when the beautiful leaves are changing, this is just an outdoor lover’s dream.”
Heading north to Winchester, I make a day of checking out museums associated with legendary historical figures. First, I find the surveying equipment at George Washington’s Office (540-662-4412) on West Cork Street. Then I see flags and furniture at the Stonewall Jackson Headquarters (540-667-5505) on North Braddock Street.
“If you like the fall color, it’s really pretty here,” says Reba Funkhouser, a tour guide at the Stonewall Jackson Headquarters.
Walking Winchester from my home for two more nights, the stately George Washington Hotel (540-678-4700), I explore the Old Town Mall—with its monuments, shops, eateries and breweries. Everywhere, I see historical panels detailing the rich stories of the Civil War and Winchester’s impressive stone architecture.
In the rain, I walk a mile for a supper of sauteed spinach and rockfish at Bonnie Blue (540-686-7490). This eatery on West Boscawen Street was once a 1920s gas station. If you go, be sure to order the fried oysters.
I also get chills—and, yes, some goose-bumps—when I venture to the childhood home of Patsy Cline (540-662-5555) near downtown Winchester. There, I hear a recording of the late country singer’s voice when she performed on “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” in 1957.
“That was a really eventful year in her life,” says tour guide Margie Wunder. “She recorded her debut album, ‘Patsy Cline,’ on Decca Records.”
As a teenager, starting in 1948, Cline lived on Winchester’s South Kent Street in what was originally a log cabin, built prior to the Civil War.
“She went to work,” says Wunder. “She worked at a bus station and, very briefly, at a chicken processing plant.”
Born Virginia Patterson Hensley on September 8, 1932, Cline was known to her family as Ginny. “Patsy” was a stage name; “Cline” was the surname of her first husband.
She recorded more than 100 songs—including the immortal classics “Crazy,” “Walkin’ After Midnight” and “I Fall to Pieces.” Yet the ever-youthful singer died in a plane crash on March 5, 1963, near Camden, Tennessee. And her remains were buried at Winchester’s Shenandoah Memorial Park.
Still in the rain, umbrella in hand, I find the singer’s grave—thanks to the help of a stranger. A moment later, after speaking some solemn words to her spirit, I follow the tradition of those who came before me: I leave a coin at her headstone for good luck.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Toy Caldwell gave the music world a couple of classics, most notably “Can’t You See,” the plaintive opening track of the Marshall Tucker Band’s 1973 debut album. This U.S. Marine cried the blues, too, saying that he was going to “climb me a mountain, the highest mountain.”
What Caldwell offered on that first LP, as well, was “Ab’s Song,” a loving yet haunting tribute to his wife, Abbie Goode Caldwell, who died in 2016 and is now buried at his side at the Greenlawn Memorial Gardens of Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Standing in the sunshine at the couple’s grassy graves reminded me of “Ab’s Song”—and the spooky notion of how Toy addressed his young wife, asking, “If I die at 23/Won’t you bury me/In the sunshine?”
Caldwell died in 1993 - at age 45.
Courtesy of Spartanburg CVB
Lake Bowen spans 1,500 acres, providing Spartanburg, South Carolina a water playground.
Decades after his death, a reformed version of the Marshall Tucker Band remains on the road—and is still revered as part of this spirited city’s musical culture.
“There is a large music scene in this town, and they do pay homage to the people who came before them,” says Steven Horvath, manager of Cribb’s Kitchen on Spartanburg’s West Main Street. “And the Marshall Tucker Band is something really special.”
The AC Hotel Spartanburg
On a Sunday evening, I take a stroll from my lofty room at AC Hotel Spartanburg on West Main Street (864-585-8900) to savor the Cribb’s Kitchen (864-699-9669) house specialties: pimento cheese bites plus shrimp and crispy oysters with grits and grilled asparagus.
“Spartanburg is growing, in my opinion, at a proper pace,” says Horvath, a native of the Hub City. “We’re kind of just slowly easing into it and can, hopefully, keep that town, sort-of, feel.”
The quite-walkable downtown won a new addition this year with the opening of The Children’s Museum of the Upstate (864-233-7755) on Magnolia Street. Erin Munroe, the site coordinator, showed off the museum’s water attraction with magnetic fishing poles. “It’s designed for five and younger, but I have fun here,” Munroe says with a grin.
Same goes for my 11-year-old son, John, who walks away after our tour and says, “There’s a lot of stuff in there that I would have fun playing with.”
On the outskirts of Spartanburg, John and I take a johnboat for a paddle on the forested lake at Croft State Park, which takes its name from Gen. Edward Croft, the commander when this site was an infantry training center during World War II.
These days, with more than 7,000 acres, Croft ranks among the largest state parks in South Carolina.
“And I absolutely love this lake here at this park,” says park manager Tim Ritter. “It’s something about the way this lake is laid out. I think it’s one of the most beautiful lakes in the park service.”
Back at the AC Hotel, John and I cool off in the saltwater swimming pool that sits below the towering, 10-story hotel. Then we tear into the terrific fried chicken at Wade’s (864-582-3800) and take a turn to Motte & Sons Bootlegging Company (864-308-1844).
Talk about full circle: Croft State Park is a favorite place for Kayla Lambert, the distillery’s retail manager. Lambert is also a server at Cribb’s Kitchen and even a fan of the Marshall Tucker Band. “And I like Spartanburg,” says Lambert. “It’s really pretty in the fall.”
Motte & Sons is a four-year-old operation overseen by Augenis Motte and three of her sons. “Our goal wasn’t to be a distillery of moonshine but more of a distillery of regular products,” Motte says. “And a popular drink for the fall? Definitely, the cinnamon whiskey. It’s a warmer feel when it goes down.”
. . . END OF PREVIEW
The story above is a preview from our Sept./Oct. 2018 issue. For the rest of the story, including great fall stops in Tennessee, Georgia, West Virginia and Kentucky, subscribe today or log in to the digital edition with your active digital subscription.