At Inn on Main Street, we have a group of yearly guests who enjoy the lawn instead of the rooms. Those guests are the first graders in Hailey Coomer’s class at Weaverville Primary School, who look forward to hunting Easter eggs on our lawn just as first graders have done for the past eight years or so.

This year the stakes were raised. Eggs in subtler colors than the usual hot pink, yellow and blue were used, and the parents who spread the eggs disguised them well. I was sure that several would go hidden until next time I mowed the lawn. But the children rose to the occasion, claiming 14 eggs each in a matter of minutes. As usual, we sent home a batch of mini-muffins for the kids and the volunteers.

As always, the egg hunt takes us back. Our own girls are now newly married and off on their own. But we see them in these young faces and remember some happy times.

For more egg hunt photos, see our Facebook page.

Posted on April 11, 2011

The whole point of riding in a hot-air balloon, other than taking in the Asheville area scenery from an extraordinary perspective, is getting a thrill. To be that far from the ground, yet that close, makes it easy to contemplate the horror of plummeting to earth. That jolt of adrenaline is what makes a body feel alive, and at Inn on Main Street we don’t get a lot of life-or-death moments.

We got our money’s worth of adrenaline today when we took a hot-air balloon ride that our daughter had bought us after she was married in a balloon. What started as an exhilarating drift over the Enka area became one of those moments every balloon pilot dreads when the burners that supply the hot air actually burned part of the balloon and melted three or four of the dozens of ropes that connect the balloon to the basket. Someone on the ground saw flames shoot out of the balloon and called the fire department and Channel 13. I was enjoying the view of Mt. Pisgah when the basket suddenly dropped a couple inches and huge burnt flakes, like remnants of newspapers thrown on a campfire, went drifting by. “We have do do an emergency landing,” our pilot said. He radioed the chase crew to get under us immediately, and we were going down in a wooded area with occasional tiny yards and way too many power lines.

Except for an initial exclamation that I found forgivable, our pilot kept his cool. He finessed the balloon down toward a small yard, then blasted us back up above the trees when it looked like a powerline was unavoidable. After brushing the top of a tulip poplar, we began another descent into the same yard, this time a few feet from the wires and with the chase crew under us to pull us by rope to a safer spot. The landing was so soft I couldn’t tell we touched down.

When we got out, I saw that the damage was much greater than I had thought. A hole bigger than a doorway was burned in our side of the balloon, as well as the ropes I had seen from the basket. Our pilot said that had never happened in his 11 years of ballooning. A member of the chase crew said we really weren’t in a lot of danger because you can lose a huge part of the balloon surface and still stay aloft.I don’t know if that was true, or just an attempt to comfort us.

I don’t want to name the balloon company, because I felt they took every precaution and shouldn’t be singled out for what we passengers understood was a very rare occurrence. Mostly, I thought the pilot acted with tremendous grace under pressure. I’d go back up if he’s the one flying.

April also is the start of the Biltmore Estate Festival of Flowers. The gardens are beautiful, and the inside of the house bursts with the color of cut and live floral displays. It’s a great way to shake off winter. We’re celebrating by selling discounted two-day Biltmore tickets for $50, every day. At the gate, the price ranges from $54 midweek to $64 on Saturday, and that’s for a one-day ticket.

But we’ve got more to get excited about this April. I mean REALLY excited. Navitat has re-opened for the season, and the canopy adventure tour has added nighttime tours as well. We took the daytime tour last season and got a barely bearable adrenaline rush. It’s hard to imagine shooting through the night sky with nothing but inky blackness and moths in the spotlight ahead. We’ll leave that to the true adventure seekers.

An April means even more. Our Asheville Bed and Breakfast Association Spring Tour of Inns is April 16 and 17. We’re excited about the participation and the top-notch restaurant sponsors who will provide bites at each stop. Stay with us that weekend, and we’ll supply your tickets half price.

We’d love to hear from visitors what your favorite things are about April in Asheville, Weaverville and the mountains. Share on our Facebook page .