Instead of Asheville, try Blowing Rock, NC. Smaller town right up on the Blue Ridge next to Boone. I spent a weekend there a few years back. IMHO, one of the nicest places I have ever been in the USA.
The cancer that is Asheville will spread and consume most of western NC EXCEPT for rural mountain areas along the Tennessee border...do NOT travel those windy, steep mountain roads in a Yugo with a Biden or Bernie bumper sticker after dark...SOLID Trump country. :-)
Have you ever been to Mt. Mitchell? Over the last thirty years my wife and I have spent at least one hundred days camped out there. I used to say North Carolina was as beautiful as a jr California, without the fruits and nuts. That’s no longer applicable.