- Our first stop takes us to Hot Springs where I had a splashing adventure and met some really cool locals taking care of their community.

Here's a look.

This is the amazing view from my cabin in Hot Springs.

This town, like a lot in Western North Carolina, suffered greatly from Hurricane Helene.

But Hot Springs is slowly rebuilding back and we had a wonderful time with my family.

I just wanted to share a little bit of it with you.

- Hot Springs Log Cabins is a set of five individual cabins on an 11 acre property about 12 minutes outside of Hot Springs.

It's just a beautiful little spot with individual cabins that are all private from each other.

They have one bedroom, fully covered front porch with a hot tub.

They're perfect for couples and also four out of five of them are pet friendly.

- The cabins are fully stocked in the kitchen so we provide pots and pans.

- Our area is just a great place to be in all four seasons of the year.

- In Hot Springs we love the Smoky Mountain Diner.

It's a great place to have breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Bluff Mountain Outfitters is a must visit.

They're geared towards the hikers that are coming through but also little gifts and supplies.

The Hot Springs Resort and Spa has natural hot springs filled hot tubs.

We also love Artisan Coffee Shop and Gallery with local art.

Hot Springs Rafting Company is a good one if you want to get outside and get on the river or get some good instructions about where to go and what to do.

- So if you guys are ready, step on over and I'm going to get you guys jackets and helmets.

[music] - We offer a five mile trip which consists of class twos, class threes.

Our nine mile is also the same you'll do on a five mile except you get four miles back to Hot Springs which gives you two more class fours.

All my guys, I try to emphasize what they need to do is make it easy on everybody, make them feel comfortable.

- Okay, come on down here closer.

You can see and hear me.

We're going to go over a brief safety talk before we get ready to go.

Have your right foot underneath this cross tube at all times today.

Opposite foot, fly along the floor, press along this tube.

Now, if you do fall out of the boat, there is one thing you do not want to do.

This river or any other white water river for that matter.

You do not want to try to stand up out here.

If you put your feet down, your foot could get lodged in the bottom of the river.

Instead, what you want to do is assume the white water swim position.

Toes up out of the water, we can see them.

Lean back on that jacket and stay in the current.

- So, how far are we going in terms of mileage and what's the destination?

- We're going five miles on this trip.

- First, you'll start out with a beginner rapid.

We call it a class one.

- Okay, this is our first rapid called beginner's rapid.

- That was easy.

[laughter] No disrespect, River.

I felt good.

[laughter] - And then you're going to get a little bit more exciting.

You're going to hit a class two.

Then you're going to catch some class threes.

Okay, we got our first couple class threes coming up.

[music] [laughter] - We're going to pull over.

[unintelligible] - Okay.

- A lot of people from here that want to do something else after the trip, then we'll send them to the AT here, which is right here in town.

You can go across the Lover's Leap loop.

[music] Big Pillow is a new brewery here in Hot Springs.

I mean, they do keep you entertained.

They got great music and it's been a pleasure having them here.

- Big Pillow comes from Big Pillow Rapid, which is one of the bigger rapids on Section 9 of the French Broad River.

The reason we opened a brewery in Hot Springs was strictly because of Hot Springs.

I've been involved with the town since the 1990s.

We always thought it would be a great place for a craft brewery.

- We always thought maybe we should get Carl Herman on board.

He's been brewing for over 20 years.

Carl brews just about any style imaginable.

Right now, we're trying to work back up on our inventory.

We lost a lot of beer from the flood.

I would say our flagship that kind of started out our first beer was the Roof Dog IPA.

We also have a really good hard seltzer that Carl makes.

He named it after a dog and called it Bonnie the Greyhound, but then the locals started nicknaming the seltzer Trouble Water because it's, you know, one or two and you're feeling pretty good.

- That is refreshing.

I like that.

- We wanted to create a space that kind of had a little bit of everything.

- We just have this awesome space, a lot of live music.

My biggest thing was we have to be open to dogs.

Dogs have to be welcome here.

I love dogs more than anything.

So we have a huge outdoor place for dogs, but the good news is they can be in the taproom too, because the food is separate.

And we have the Grey Eagle Taqueria from Asheville doing their delicious food here.

We also welcome people to bring in food from other places if they want to go grab a piece at Vinyl Pies and bring it over here, they can.

- Right now I'm about to meet a couple of the owners of Vinyl Pies.

I want to hear more about their Vinyl Pies story.

- Hello.

Karen, Gary.

It is so nice to meet you.

This is so cool.

And I see the vinyl on the wall.

So what's the connection?

- Our first Halloween here, we went over to the Spring Creek Tavern.

They're wonderful people.

And they were doing a Halloween party.

And they were playing just coincidentally three 80s hits right in a row.

- Oh yes, an 80s party.

- And people were going crazy.

- I'm feeling that.

- It was an 80s party, but it was really a Halloween party.

But I looked at Gary and said, oh my gosh, we have to do an 80s weekend.

And so we were just thinking we were just trying to just take a really slow weekend and have a little bump.

You couldn't move in the town.

We turned it into one of the busiest with the help of everyone in the town.

It's such a great community.

- The brewery, the tavern.

- Gary always said the town needed pizza.

- Yes.

- He's the brain behind the recipes.

So between the concept being there, our partner jumping in, and then Gary with the expertise with the food.

It was a perfect sport.

- It was a perfect storm.

- I want to see how you make these pizzas.

- We'll do it.

We'll do it.

We get our flour from Italy.

So it's zero, zero flour.

So you get your knuckles in there.

So now once you're in, so now you can just-- don't be afraid of it.

- That's why we practice.

That's a practice dough.

- You got it.

- Toss it up?

- Yeah, just go in a circle.

- Not bad.

- So it can look any way you want, right?

So the sauce, simple ingredients, all fresh.

The pizza, when you want to taste a good pizza, you're just going to get the dough, the sauce, and the cheese.

- That's the essence.

- That's it.

So this goes in.

The oven is set to 660, 690, depending on the humidity and what the temperature is of the day.

- There's our pizza.

- A lot of people will see the char there, but that's what we like.

And around our pizza, we put olive oil on the crust when it comes out and parm cheese around.

- Now we've got to test out that dough, that sauce, and that cheese.

- There you go.

[laughs] - All right.

Here it goes.

- Taste the cheese.

- Karen, you-- - Mm-mm-mm.

Oh, yeah.

The sauce is amazing.

The chew is good.

A nice amount of cheese.

And it's just a cheese pizza.

- Just a cheese pizza.

- This is delicious.

- Yeah, thank you.

- Bon appetit.

And they have the whole '80s thing going on.

What do you think?

You have a good pizza.

- Despite all of the devastation, the real devastation of this hurricane, what do you want people who see this story to know about Hot Springs?

- Well, I want them to know that the river's good and it's safe to come back to.

Something different to see.

We've got a lot of regulars that come back every year, which has been a great help.

- Everything about Hot Springs is special.

It's such a blend of old and new and the community of people there who all care a lot about each other.

- There's a vibe here that you just feel it.

I feel honored to be able to be here and have a business here.

- What I love about Hot Springs is the uniqueness of it.

We have section 9 of the French Broad River.

There's hiking everywhere you want to go.

- We're ready for people to come and visit us again.

- To plan your visit to Hot Springs, go to hotspringsnc.org.