7-23-11 Saturday (Double D)

Tuesday: I worked an early shift today. A coworker wanted to work a later shift today and ask me to swapped. I was eager! After work, Jim and I checked on the progress of the house:

The drywallers have very little left to do.

Thursday: We stopped by the house again and were surprised to see vinyl siding up!  Wowsers.  Our salesperson, Michelle, says the house will only be unlocked for  another week because then kitchen cabinets come in, and the house will need to be locked up.

Vacation this week!  Jim brought the RV to the house earlier in the week so we could load it and have it ready to go.  Friday before work I moved it (by myself) a couple of blocks away to a dead end street where we could have it somewhat level while the fridge started getting cold.  It’s an ammonia-absorption type fridge that needs some levelness to work properly.  I moved it and even backed it in… all by myself… without incident!  Yay!

Friday night I left work early and we departed Charlotte to go to Hendersonville which is only about 30 minutes away from Asheville.  We really hate arriving to a campground after dark so we opted to camp out at the Henderson Walmart for the night.  This was particularly good since the generator seemed louder than normal (Jim discovered the next day that the air filter had come off, creating its extra noise).

Saturday, Jim and I awoke and went for breakfast.  Our MoHo printer wouldn’t print in black (ink probably dried up while in storage) and our bedroom alarm clock died so we stopped into Walmart, then a shoe store and then to Dollar Tree.   We did all that without having to unhook the Jeep from the RV (we walked every where).

Back in April, we drove around Asheville to check out a couple of RV parks.  We liked Tapps where we’ve stayed several times before but this time we wanted something more of a view.  The 2 parks in the lead was one located on the Broad River and the other up on a hill overlooking the mountains.  The mountain view (Beer Creek RV Park) won because of it’s beautiful views and it has a pool!

We set up camp, went for a dip in the pool, and then had snacks for lunch.  We enjoyed wine, cheese and crackers, and crab dip.  Yum!  Jim was so thrilled that our local BJ’s now carries our favorite crab dip which ironically comes from a neighboring city (Naples) of our hometown in Florida.

We printed off a restaurant.com certificate and went to Pack’s Tavern.  In the area next to the restaurant was “Shindig on the Green” which we didn’t have time to visit since after dinner we’d be going to see a show.  We arrived to Pack’s Tavern and put our name in.  We were told a 20-25 minute wait.  37 minutes passed (I know because I Facebook checked-in).  It burned us to see tables sit empty.  We figured the kitchen couldn’t handle any more or they were short wait staff.  I went up to the hostess and she pissed me off.  She said they were still waiting on people from the Shindig to come back to claim a table.  Really?  I’m sitting here waiting and they’re waiting on people who have left the restaurant?  I demanded, yes, demanded a table.  Just as I walked away the buzzer conveniently went off.  We were seated.  We ordered an appetizer.  Our meals came.  We told the server we never got the appetizer.  She said we didn’t order one, thumbed through her notes, spotted it and then apologized.  Jim had a burger.  As typical, he ordered a side of mayo which didn’t come with it so he had to ask for it again.  This happens quite often.  I ordered a signature item:  Spanky’s Seared Sirloin - Angus beef, peppers, onions and Provolone cheese with creamy horseradish on grilled flatbread.  The sirloin on it’s own was flavorless. 

When Jim whipped out our restaurant.com it was pointed out that it can’t be used on Saturday nights.  I think with all that happened it just angered Jim.  A manager apologized.  It was our error for not reading the restrictions correctly.  The manager comp’d our meals anyway.  Will we be back?  We may just give it another try.  It’s a place we “want to like”.

Jim said I should leave out the restaurant’s name since they made good.  I don’t think it’s fair to only mention really good places and really bad places.  I think that the service issue was isolated and the no appetizer thingy was a server error, but one thing that won’t change is the ambiance.  That we liked.  The food?  Didn’t like something?  Try something else next time.

Next we used a Groupon and went to the Magnetic Field to catch a show.  Playing there tonight was The New Orleans Bingo! Show.  It was a fun show.  We enjoyed the strange to us music.  It was Jazz meets carnival meets Rocky Horror meets Pink Floyd.  Very interesting.  We even bought a CD!

We went to Double D’s Coffee and Desserts.  They don’t have a website so if you’re really interested you can Google it.  It’s a cute place inside of a double decker bus.  We sat upstairs, luckily it was late and the place wasn’t busy.

Coming soon… Jim’s Groupon obsession and white water rafting!