Carolina Mornings has several offers to take advantage of this upcoming Memorial holiday.

2 night minimum. We’ve reduced our nightly minimum for all vacation rental reservations to just 2 nights. This means those who have to work Friday but still get the Monday holiday off can have a Memorial get away (book with us Saturday - Monday) with us in the Asheville area.

Biltmore Luxury Condos. Live in luxury for less this Memorial Day weekend. We’re offering our Condos for up to $150 off the regular rental price:

The Chateau A-100, The Retreat B-102, & The Villa B-100
2 Nights: $602 plus tax (Savings of $100!)
3 Nights: $863 plus tax (Savings of $150!)

The Hideaway A-300
2 Nights: $502 plus tax (Savings of $50!)
3 Nights: $713 plus tax (Savings of $75!)

The Biltmore Luxury Condos are located across the street from the entrance to Biltmore Estate, in the heart of Biltmore Village (read this previous post to learn more about the Condos).

Free Activities. All of our reservations include Asheville’s Mountain Discovery Pass, which provides free passes to golfing, rafting, Asheville Historic Trolley Tours, Lake Lure Boat Tours, and Fun Depot.

Reserve Today! With only a week left, we have several properties (including Condos) still available. But book quickly to ensure you get your desired rental!

Ask about our Corner Kitchen restaurant gift certificates and discounted Biltmore Estate tickets (valid for 2 consecutive days - for the price of only 1).

Mountain Air Country Club is located at the top of Slickrock Mountain just outside of Burnsville, and about 30 minutes away from Asheville. It is geared towards those who love both luxury and an outdoor lifestyle. This location alone places Mountain Air CC in an area full of things to do, including both art and culture activities as well as those in the great outdoors.

But Mountain Air CC also has a lot going on within the community. Mountain Air CC activities (detailed on the Web site) include a fitness center, swimming pool, hiking trails (guided nature walks are available), a cinema, golf courses, outdoor recreation areas, community gardens, and a spa.

Mountain Air CC is good family getaway because parents and kids can enjoy having fun. There are many opportunities for the family to spend time together, but with so many kids’ activities, parents can also grab time alone - getting a couples’ massage, hiking, or just enjoying a little quiet time.

Mountain Air CC is for anyone who enjoys the luxury and convenience of a country club, but also wants to visit the mountains. It isn’t for everyone, since some people desire to getaway from that lifestyle with a rustic mountain retreat, but others want what a country club can provide and Mountain Air does it better than any I’ve seen.

About half the homes at Mountain Air are lived in year-round, while the other half are vacation rentals owned by those who want to share their mountain getaway home.

Photos from Mountain Air Web site. To view more photos and to see these in a larger format, click here.

Click to see this on our *NEW* blog.

Elizabeth Anne is one of the coolest people I know in Asheville. Members of the community recognize her and enjoy her presence wherever she goes—she has a big heart and a great political acumen. I recently had the opportunity for a lengthy conversation with Elizabeth Anne over dinner at a local Indian restaurant. It began with a discussion of mountain geology, which is a favorite topic of mine. Several months back, a guest called the office and commented on the artesian well at Cozy Creek Cabin. We passed the word along, and wondered. Over dinner, I asked Elizabeth Anne to explain exactly what the artesian well is and how it functions. She replied with the following tale, which I have embellished with my own research:

Having constructed the Cozy Creek Cabin some years ago, Elizabeth Anne discovered that acquiring water service in rural Alexander, NC would be difficult and expensive. Searching for other options, she considered digging a wellshaft and pumping water upward to the cabin. Eventually she hired a dowser to visit and practice his art. Dowsers typically use either L-shaped copper “divining rods”, pendulums, or their hands to located subterranean sources of water. This ability is commonly attributed to the practitioner’s ability to perceive disturbances of telluric currents, magnetic channels naturally created by the earth’s iron core. While the existence of telluric currents is not disputed, the ability of dowsers to locate water cannot be scientifically substantiated. Experiments conducted in Germany demonstrated that dowsers located buried pipes with frequency only marginally better than random chance.

Nevertheless, the dowser reported a powerful source of water several hundred feet below the cabin. Taking a leap of faith, Elizabeth Anne decided to find someone who could drill to the proper depth.

Elizabeth Anne explained that the Appalachian Mountains are replete with subterranean rivers and lakes which grow within the mountain roots and feed the aquifer. These underground channels flow downhill just like their surface-bound counterparts, producing enormous pressures—think of Fontana Dam in Graham and Swain Counties, standing Atlas-like astride the river, holding the immense mass of water from crashing down upon the valley. This pressure is a function of simple physics known as Pascal’s Law, which demonstrates that downward pressure upon water originating from a higher elevation can subsequently pump water upwards at a lower elevation. Ancient peoples worldwide used this principle to provide pressure-fed running water to early urban centers, thus vastly improving sanitation and reducing incidence of disease. Romans first used the term aquaduct (from aqua “water” and ducere “to lead”) to describe such artificial channels. In their heyday, these structures carried over 1 million cubic meters (300 million gallons) per day into metropolitan Rome, a feat unmatched until the nineteenth century! These public works, some of which still function today, remain an iconic symbol of Roman engineering.

A local company visited Cozy Creek provide an estimate for drilling. They arrived at the cabin, which is separated from the main road by a bridge over a small rivulet. Elizabeth Anne scheduled the drilling and went traveling out of state. The drilling took place under the supervision of a friend, who reported that the dowser was wrong—the well shaft was already several hundred feet down, and there was no sign of water. Elizabeth Anne authorized the drilling to continue still deeper.

Later she received a telephone call from the friend, now reversing his report—not only was the dowser correct, but massive quantities of water were now gushing geyser-like heavenward with Herculean pressure-driven force. The drilling company explained that this phenomenon is called an artesian well.

The artesian well is a natural phenomenon, but the physics are similar to that of the aquaduct. Backed with incredible pressure, an artesian well virtually explodes when tapped. These were first used with frequency in the medieval French province of Artois, from which the well received its name. There, Carthusian Monks regularly constructed artesian wells to supply each strictly-cloistered member of the order with running water in his cell. Today, this name has been applied to central Australia’s massive, life-sustaining aquifer, the Great Artesian Basin, which is estimated to contain a staggering 64,900 cubic kilometers of fresh water.

When Elizabeth Anne returned, she stopped at Cozy Creek to see the spectacle. The water was still bursting forth with such force that installing a proper pump was both unnecessary and impossible. She called the drilling company and asked whether capping the artesian well was an option. The response was discouraging: “You can’t cap an artesian well.” She then spent days looking for someone who might have a solution. The front yard at Cozy Creek was becoming soggy.

Eventually an ingenious plan was hatched. A second pipe would be laid, diverting the excess water away to the nearby creek. The remaining pressure would be sufficient to supply the cabin with its water needs. This engineering feat accomplished, everything worked exactly as planned. As the property began to slowly dry out, the small creek became a babbling, rushing stream. Elizabeth Anne was satisfied, and guests have enjoyed Cozy Creek ever since.

This is my first posting from the Carolina Mornings Blog. Around the office, we spend our days around here setting up reservations for visitors to Asheville and other spots around Western North Carolina–but the best times are the “field trips” we occasionally take to investigate the outside world. I would call this (in the words of my Mississippi grandmother) Galavanting. You might define galavanting as wandering, ranging, or roaming, but I would propose a more subtle understanding–a sort of contented exploration, or the joy of discovery. Or even Entdeckungsvernugen, in the style of a Volkswagen commercial.

And so galavanting is our general theme–we’re interested in comings and goings around the lovely Blue Ridge region, from every peak through every hollow. We’ll be exploring local culture, news, cuisine, trends… and everything in between. Like a river, our interests flow ever onward. Check back for regular musings on Asheville and other local communities. Read on!