Bees & Bears in Hendersonville

June 28, 2022                                                   Most Recent Posts:
Riverbend RV Resort                          Thanks to Jackie I’m Adventuring Again
Lake Toxaway, North Carolina               Off To a Good Start and Then . . .

I haven’t had my previous post up very long so if you missed it and would like to see it – waterfall videos  and what happened to Ruby– the link is the first one above.

This is a one day post as this was a long fun day.  Most of it good.  I’ll get the bad over first.   This was the reason I went to Hendersonville today.  But the things added on made it much better.

Not sure I’ve expounded on my cell phone problems among RV, surgery, car and other concerns.  Now that it’s over, I’ll give a wrap up.  Skip down to the rest of the day if you don’t want to read about 3 weeks of problems with Sprint/T-Mobile.

To begin with, I have two cell phones so that I’ll have a better chance of having service in the out of the way places I tend to prefer.  One phone – the EXPENSIVE one – is Verizon.  Seriously thinking about looking for a minor – cheaper – carrier that uses the Verizon network.  The other was a Sprint phone which unlike Verizon worked at the farm.  With the advent of the T-mobile buy out, the sprint phone was working less and less well.  When I arrived here, it wasn’t working at all.  NO SIGNAL.

I called them.  What a joke.  I’m sorry that I don’t understand Indonesian and Indian accents well enough to kno0w what they said but I did understand ultimately that I would have service if I had a 5G phone.  My current phone was an LG which I had liked as well or better than my Verizon Samsung but Sprint wanted to send me a new phone for free.  Sounded great until I had to spend 16 hours – SERIOUSLY no exaggeration on the phone and internet chat trying to get them to understand that they could not text me a code to authenticate my account as MY PHONE WAS NOT WORKING.  

The next problem once we got that straightened out was that they did not have Riverbend’s address “in their system” and could not send the phone UPS to a place that didn’t exist.  Fed Ex and UPS deliver here every day.  No they could not send it to the UPS/Fed Ex package acceptance store near me.  It had to go to my “home address”. Hours were spent on this.   FINALLY, I went on line, ordered the new Pixel 6 and gave my home address as the package store.  It went through!!!  I called the package store and 4 days later they called me with the phone.

In this scenario I had driven into Brevard, 30 min, so I would have a sprint cell service so I could get the text but for a myriad of reasons you don’t want to hear that wouldn’t work.  The closest real T-mobile store was an hour away in Hendersonville.   I was SICK to death of thick accents on the phone so in order to “authenticate” my new phone I went to the T-mobile store.  They are short staffed and the regional manager from South Carolina was there that day.  Good for me I thought.  Not so much.  He was great at pulling everything off my old phone and onto my new one but apparently if you are a Sprint employee you have to have a special code or something to authenticate to T-Mobile and his only works in South Carolina.  Neither of the two people in this store who have such authorization were in…..sigh…..so it’s back to the phone.    As you can see having two phones was this could happen without my driving daily at least 30 miles.

The next day I did call them to authenticate and when she said she’d have to send me a text to do that I went ballistic.  Screaming that I wanted her supervisor or I would cancel my account and just being absolutely horrid as I was SO out of patience with this now 3 week saga.   Finally got it done and I like the phone.  If you have Sprint or T-mobile I hope you never have to call them.

Now on to the much better rest of the day.  I only spent a half hour in the store which didn’t open until 11am and then headed out for lunch.  That was a rousing success.

Lunch was at The Book and Bee Cafe.   What a great place.
Apropos as my friend Laurie and I had just finished discussing Sue Hubbell's book A Country Year all about her life in the country in Missouri as a single woman bee keeper.What a great place.

Check out the stairs more closely

Inside, this was the hostess stand where I told her a table for one outside.

As you will see from all of my pictures, whoever designed this place did a great job with the many many details.

The outside porch was lined with wrought iron tables, each with a red umbrella.

These ladies were my neighbors and figure in my story.

I chose a table around the corner next to the trees and the bees.

After I placed my order I went inside to check out the rest of the cafe.

Through the far door is another room with a decorated tree.

This room also had a Jane Austin table and when I went back inside to pay my bill, three women having High Tea in the back far corner.  After this, they told me they were going to the movie theater to see Downton Abbey.   These are my kind of people.  I want to play dress up with them.

There were little touches all over.  I could have spent hours just looking at it all.

How about the three tiered trays filled with tea sandwiches, chocolate dipped cherries, scones and other treats.

The other rooms were as unique.  Look at the pressed tin ceiling.

I want the window seat with the covered chairs.

I had come to order what is called “Afternoon Tea” a pot of tea, 2 scones, lemon curd, strawberry jam and clotted cream.  But after seeing my neighbors delicious looking sandwiches, I decided to have a full lunch AND tea.   It’s no wonder with all the potlucks and breakfasts at Riverbend and now this that I have gained 5 pounds since I’ve been here despite the waterfall hiking.

Lunch AND Tea. 
I couldn’t not order a sandwich called The Alchemist which was a meatloaf sandwich with sauerkraut, havarti cheese and “meatloaf sauce”, whatever that is, on sunflower seed bread and a pea salad.

I have a problem with all the tannins in tea so I never drink it but the menu here had two herbal teas and I tried this one called The Hobbit.  Check it out on the menu along with all the others with great names.  The teapot was fantastic and came with a candle warmer and brown sugar cubes with sugar tongs.

Blueberry scones with lemon curd, clotted cream and strawberry jam.  YUM!!

I ate half the sandwich and all the rest and when my neighbors ordered dessert and I heard coconut cream cake, I ordered a slice of that for dinner tomorrow with my sandwich.   I fairly waddled out of this wonderful place.

I was then off to the downtown of Hendersonville to walk of all that food.

They were having the Bearfootin’ Art Walk auction.  According to the information the Bearfootin’ Bears search for a permanent home each fall as winter nears. Since 2003 the art walk has helped raise funding for downtown Hendersonville and for local non profits.  Local artists transform the bears with creative themes.  Not sure where the bears come from but each is sponsored, the artists donates their art and each bear has a benefit organization.  If the bear auctions off for $3000 or less then the money is split between the organization and downtown Hendersonville.  Those bringing over $3000, all monies go to the organization.  The auction is virtual and begins September 14 closing with a big event on October 15th at the courthouse.

The bears above are called Love Bug sponsored by Troy Drake & Danny Wiley, the artist is Kay Rose Sloat and the money will benefit the nonprofit PFLAG Hendersonville.

One of my favorites all around is below.  I Beg Your Garden is sponsored by 4 Friends of downtown Hendersonville, the artist is Judy Dempsey and it will benefit Bullington Gardens.

There are 20 bears up and down both sides of Main Street.  It was great fun seeing them all.  Though I’m not going to post pictures of all twenty I know you’ll be glad to hear.

Also while I was downtown I went into this great bakery though given my lunch I didn’t buy a thing.  But look at what they have.  YUM!

Every kind of baked good imaginable

And many of them are gone of course by afternoon.

Several of the shops obviously have bought bears in the past and I saw them as I strolled past the shops.
 

Not for auction.

The ice cream shop had its own bear standing out front with his giant cone.

The shop also sells fudge and caramel apples of all sorts made right on the spot.

When I asked about the flavor names which I recognized as towns in Michigan, I was told the company originated there.

But Carl Sandbear is up for auction.  I tribute to the poet whose home is nearby.
It’s sponsored by the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara, the artist is Mike Ayers and it benefits the Friends of Carl Sandburg Scholarship Program

The money from the bears has been put to very good use by the downtown.  It is a lovely and attractive place to visit with greenery and flowers everywhere, outside tables and non restaurant seating.

They haven’t chosen to make their Main Street a mall as my home town did and I actually think I like it better.  It has a more open feel and retains the feeling of a small town downtown.

This very good flutist was busking on one of the many benches.

I’m not much of a shopper and I’m sure you’ve noticed that the only two stores I’ve gone in to at this point are food related.  Good thing I ate such a big lunch.

But I did enjoy strolling by the colorful shops and their windows.

I loved this T-shirt – People in Sleeping Bags ….Are Like Soft Tacos.

The only non food store I went into in this shopping town was this one.

It’s huge and full of fun and nostalgia.

I didn’t stay long as the mass of merchandise was overwhelming.  But here are a couple of things that caught my eye.

All set for Grandparents.  O.P. Taylor’s Toy Store.

You could also bid on Take The Road Less Traveled Bear – a rival poet.  Sponsored by Burlett Painting, The artist is  Dee Ballenger and it benefits the Hendersonville Family YMCA

Or Daisy Dogwood sponsored by dogwood of flat rock.  Artist Bethany Joy to benefit St. Gerard House, School for Autism.

In the background is the Henderson County Courthouse with its gold dome.

I was very taken with the landscape architecture of Hendersonville’s downtown including the graduated low brick walls enclosing the relaxing sitting spaces. 

One final note about comments.  I just noticed when I went to reply to a commenter on my previous post that blogger had me as Anonymous as it did several of the comments.  I posted a comment to my reply about that and it listed me as Sherry.  So look at who you are commenting as if it’s usually your name and it comes up as Anonymous, close the comment and try again like I did and perhaps it will work as it’s supposed to.  Who knows what’s going on but thanks for your comments however they show up.