Asheville is a beautiful, historic small city in a gorgeous valley with an unusual “microclimate” being in a thermal belt, they get a small amount of snow but winter as you know it is only an occasional visitor. Summers are mild as well. The town boomed but was badly over leveraged in the 20’s and the crash affected it badly, they didn’t get it all paid down until the late 70’s. That problem created an unusual situation, the fine art neauveau and art deco architecture of the downtown was preserved by neglect, no urban renewal, no razing of entire blocks for new development, and so has come back to life in a fantastic way. It’s Beer City USA, all the microbreweries, it’s amazing. The recreational opportunities and natural beauty surrounding it have few equals in the eastern US.
So, of course it’s drawn every nutty leftist, vagabond and wacky wiccan. Asheville has gone left in a big way. The surrounding towns and counties have not, however. Remember, Billy Graham is at Montreat near Black Mountain just outside Asheville. Lake Junaluska is a big religious retreat of long standing. Get outside Asheville and Buncombe county, and you’re in solid red territory, well, other than Hot Springs and Black Mountain itself.
Homeschooling is better than in PA but the specifics aren’t something that I could speak to, but FReeper Tax-chick sure could.
I like area around Hot Springs
Go west a bit and you can be a North Tennelinian
As a Thomas Wolfe fan, I visit Asheville often. (Although the town has forgotten him.) It is very beautiful and has great restaurants although it seems to think it is NYC in terms of art museums and culture. It’s not, lol! It also has a large gay community. We stopped staying at a b&b there because the owner who served bk’fast every morning kept screaming “Fruit plate coming!”
The mountains surrounding it are very remote seeming and I have seen characters out of the Deliverance sitting at roadside eating boiled peanuts. But those mountains are gorgeous. And, you’re right, the art deco buildings are unique.
“The recreational opportunities and natural beauty surrounding it have few equals in the eastern US.”
With increased population the serenity of the recreational opportunities has become stressed.
One example. An area I used to explore/hike/camp off of the parkway was accessed via a gravel road which led to a parking area that held about 25 cars. 35 years ago the only time I ever saw the lot full was with hunters during deer season. Meeting people on the trails was occasional, like a few a day.
Today the same area has cars parked on the side of the road for a 1/2 mile before the parking lot and there’s a literal line of people hiking...scores upon scores at at time.
Another example is a secluded swimming hole that was difficult to find tough to get to. Today it’s marked and reviewed on google maps.