5-15-10 Saturday (Asses)

Up at 6am to take my mom to the Raleigh-Durham airport.  If you’ve forgotten or just dumb, click here to see the reason she flew in and out of that airport rather than the Charlotte airport.  We’ll all wait.

I’m done waiting.  So we got up early, drove part of the way and then stopped for breakfast at a Burger King.  I love me some croissants.  Onward to the airport!  It was nearly 2.5 hours but we made it.  I almost choked up a little saying goodbye to my mom. 

Now for a 2 hour drive to a Walmart in Statesville to meet Jim, Dasher, Clea and the MoHo.  We ate at a nearby Cook Out which is a local/North Carolina burger chain.  Fast-food-ish.  I must say they have a strange variety of menu items.  We’ve never went there previously because most of their restaurants are outdoor dining only (like Juicy Lucy’s or Checkers) but this location had a dining room.  Jim and I enjoyed the burgers.

During the drive with my mom and with Jim, there’s beautiful patches of wildflowers on the interstate’s medians.  I tried to get clear photos.  They were spectacular.  Thank you North Carolina for being beautiful.

Above: The most stunning was a patch of white, purple, lavender, blue, pink and red.

 

Back on the road for more driving – I think about 2 hours – to Asheville.  We’re here!  The RV park is small but nice enough.  There’s a river that runs behind the park.  In the distance we can see

donkeys and horses.  I’m not sure who/what they belong to just yet.

Above: Jim and Dasher in front of the creek.  The donkeys and horses are in the background.

 

 

Above: Our home for a few days.

Above: A view up the creek.

It’s been a while since we’ve done a full set up of the RV.  We did spring cleaning in it last month.  We haven’t showered, eaten or slept in it since December.  It was strange setting up the patio, putting out towels, etc, etc.  It will be even stranger tonight.

After setting everything up, we took Dasher for a stroll and then returned back to the RV for showers; it’s humid out there.  Ahhhh, I feel so much better and probably smell as such.

Jim and I have been to Asheville for a day or 2 almost 10 years ago.  I’m not even sure if we found the downtown area.  We both remember a gay bar or two and a gay owned restaurant.  That’s about it.  This trip here should be exciting and new.  (I just thought of the Love Boat theme).

For dinner we redeemed a $25 restaurant.com certificate to The Bier Garden in downtown Asheville.  We didn’t know it was downtown until the GPS took us there.  We found the place but a Saturday night in the heart of the shopping/entertainment district certainly sucked for parking.  We drove around, found a garage but was disappointed it was “full”.  Ugh.  We drove around some more eventually finding another garage for $6 around the corner from the restaurant.  We got a table immediately near the sidewalk where we were able to people watch.

Above/Below: In the parking garage hallway were these “Bike lockers”.  So weird.

With our certificate, we have to order $35 worth of food to use the $25 certificate.  We had spinach-artichoke dip.  Yum.  Jim ordered some chicken sandwich thing.  I had 2 choices.  A porkchop dish or the fillet mignon.  I asked the server for help.  The server suggested the very new porkchop dish: 

Tuscan Pork Chop
Char-Grilled Pork Loin Chop topped with Wild Mushroom-Marsala Sauce along with White Bean Ragout $11.95

Above: Heaven. 

We strolled around the downtown area.  We were absolutely amazed at the night life here.  So many restaurants and bars.  Tons of shops.  The downtown area was hopping.  Ya know something?  It wasn’t just some central strip.  It was several blocks wide and long.  There were some street performers here and there but we may have missed the bulk of them. 

It was nice to see some historic buildings.  One easily recognized was a shop that had “JC PENNEY” inlaid in it’s entrance way.  Kudos to owners who have kept that alive.  Another interesting store front had “F.W. WOOLWORTH” at the top of the building.  The new owner’s recreated the old counter service soda fountain and made the entire store into an art gallery called Woolworth Walk.  We could see in through the windows but it was closed for the day.  If you click on the link you can see a photo of the restaurant counter along with the building’s history. 

Above: Jim picks out dessert at a decadent candy store.  Mmmm.

Back to the RV – see ya tomorrow!

A MISadventure while driving the RV leads to a fridge mess.  Lunch in a Walmart service bay.  We arrive in Bisbee.  What a view at night!  Wild animal warnings too.  Check it out here.

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