One Month In...

 One month in and...a year late....

This post was written almost exactly a year ago. For some reason, it was never published. I was probably going to add photos. Guess what? I'm skipping the photos and just putting it out there.  Have another update coming soon. 

June 2021:

I'm doing it like I mean it. 100%.  It has helped to have visitors because that gets me out exploring places I wouldn't normally go on my own. But I have absolutely explored Asheville and gotten myself "out there".

What have I done?

Restaurants and bars: Lots of them.

Some favorites:

White Duck Taco for street tacos and outdoor seating.

The Lobster Trap for fresh lobster and Old Fashioneds.

Sunny Point Cafe for breakfast calories. And I do mean calories. But sooooo yummy. Also they have a gorgeous little garden adjacent to the restaurant which you can wander through and see where those tiny flowers in your orange juice came from.

Isis Music Hall for music AND incredible food. I was expecting burgers and fries and instead there were Buffalo Chicken Gizzards and Mississippi Catfish.  Plus great music in a small venue. Win Win.

Mellow Mushroom for pizza. Thin crust, lots of topping options.

Postero in Hendersonville because it had the best Old Fashioned. (Lunch was good, also.)

Outpost at Forestry Camp for atmosphere. Also a fun history. Only had a beer there but such a cool location and the menu looked interesting. I will go back.

Five Points Restaurant for Eggs Benedict. A total diner but they have the Eggs Benedict down pat.

Twelve Bones Smokehouse for ...duh... BBQ. 

There are more, some just filled the bill for feeding me, others that just weren't my favorites. But I can say that the food scene in Asheville is strong. You won't go hungry and your palate will be happy.

The Biltmore. My friend Diana lived in China and of course had plenty of visitors while she was there. One day she called me (while I was standing in a field with my horse in Texas) from the Great Wall. She went there with everyone that visited and eventually it got old for her. So while her visitors explored, she chatted up friends. The Biltmore will be my Great Wall, I can tell. I wisely bought the season pass on my first visit this month. I've now visited the house twice. But the grounds! O my.  This is one of the places Carlos and I walk. A pass gives me access to the grounds every day for free. There are trails upon trails through the most beautifully landscaped property ever and it is surprisingly dog friendly. I love all the little stores on the grounds and even the food on site is yummy, albeit a bit pricey. (Read about my first visit here.) 

The North Carolina Arboretum. Another place Carlos and I walk. Another pass I purchased first thing. Tons of trails, very dog friendly, you can bring in a picnic or a lawn chair and a book or both. Definitely the space is to be used and it is. I've seen painters, readers, hikers. 

The Drum Circle is an Asheville tradition that had been on hold during Covid. It is back now and sooo much fun. About 6pm every Friday night, drummers gather downtown in Pritchard Park and drum. People stop and watch, dance, gather. There does not seem to be a leader, the rhythm changes randomly but it has a very tribal feel about it. I had heard it's just a bunch of homeless people and drug addicts and I'm sure a few of the participants and audience fit that description but there were also babies in strollers and toddlers twirling and many drummers offering impromptu drum lessons to preteens. 

The final resting place of O. Henry (Gift of the Magi) is the Riverside Cemetery. If I wanted to be buried, this would be the place. What a gorgeous place. Trees and crumbling gravestones. There's something about the feel of an old cemetery with the beautiful monuments and assortment of names. Lovely place to spend the afternoon wandering.

Since it is summer, there's baseball. Asheville has its own High A Minor League team, the Asheville Tourists, which feeds to the Houston Astros. Before 2020 it was a Colorado Rockies baby league team. How's that for synchronicity? Tickets are inexpensive, the stadium is intimate, parking is ..uh.. not well planned. But I enjoyed the game in spite of the Asheville Tourist's loss. 

Last but not least, I have been joining some Meet Up groups. One meets to wander some of the downtown trails and sidewalks. Others are beer drinking groups. There's a Taco Tuesday group that meets at different Mexican restaurants. Over all everyone has been super welcoming and friendly. Between the Meet Ups and friend Libby's social group, I feel like I've made some acquaintances that could become friends. For having been here a month, I'd say that's a grand start. 

I've also navigated the allergist, the library, the watchmaker, the Subaru dealership and am familiar with many Goodwill locations in addition to the Habitat Restore.  I realized the Ingles Grocery store is not the Inglés Grocery Store. I thought it catered to the Hispanic community here. Nope. It was started by all American Bob Ingles. I'm learning that my car GPS lies to me frequently and loves to take me on the most round about tours of the city. It's all an adventure. 

Now. If only I could find a permanent place to live. When I started thinking of this move a year ago, housing prices were affordable. As we all know, housing prices have sky rocketed in the last six months. I looked at one house last week that was darling until I walked inside. If the black mold on the walls or the bowing paneling in the den didn't entice, there was always that pungent smell of cat pee that permeated the basement to make me feel like "ooo, this is home." Not. If I like it, I can't afford it. If I can afford it AND like it, then it is already under contract because, you know, it was on the market for three hours. I know the unicorn house is out there for me. Patience. And maybe it isn't here. Maybe I still need to check out Savannah and Beaufort and St. Petersburg. If only I had unlimited money to do the exploring.

In the meantime, I'm doing it like I mean it. 

Another New State, No. 65

No. 65: Travel to States I've Never Been to Before

North Carolina.
O, this is a state I have really been wanting to do for a while. That desire intensified when my friend, Libby, moved there 18 months ago.  But. But. But.  Airline tickets weren't cheap and it was a long flight requiring connections and THEN we had a pandemic.  

Growing up in Texas of course we get a taste of "The South". But Texas isn't really the old South in many ways- it's its own entity. We have, unfortunately, our share of Confederate flags and statues and an abundance of high schools named Robert E Lee, but in many ways it doesn't seem like the South to me. Like a foot in the South and a foot in the West. but not one or the other. 

I blame my subscription to Garden and Gun magazine. It makes that part of the country seem so inviting. 

I have been to Virginia (definitely considered the South) and Mississippi (also VERY definitely the South) so I've had my intro to Southern ways (the good and the bad) but this trip was to Asheville, North Carolina.  A random check online and I discovered air tickets had dropped to under $300. I'm still unemployed, and while looking for work online, I have found that I have very few job options. Somehow no degree, the inability to type faster than 40 WPM, and few obvious qualifications makes me a hard sell on line. So why not travel??

I have flown quite a bit this summer and have felt relatively comfortable doing so even with this pandemic. Most of my flights have been on Southwest and they have been very good about leaving the middle seats open. Pretty much I've been able to find an empty row on every flight. This trip was on United and I did get a notice that the flight was over 70% full. Yes, that made me a little nervous but I kept checking the seat map and moving my seat further and further back so that I would have an empty row. Arriving at the Denver airport, I discovered long lines, wayyy too many people for my comfort and no empty rows to move to.  Thankfully I was given the option to upgrade at check in which I did immediately. I'm a big believer in enjoying the journey and my choice was in the back with zillions of people or up front with one other person. I took my chances and was delighted with my seat mate who had been camping in Wyoming for the last week with 6 other people. Figured she was most likely "Covid-free" and we had a great chat on the flight. O, we also drank our upgrade fee in Gin and Tonics and Bloody Marys. 


Libby picked me up at the Asheville airport on Friday evening after traveling most of the day. Whenever I mentioned going to Asheville, everyone said "you must go to Tupelo Honey for dinner". So we did.  Grits. Fried Chicken. A flight of desserts (Peanut butter mousse, banana pudding and brown butter pecan pie- doesn't get any more Southern than that.)

Well, if you insist!

My faithful tour guide and friend, Libby

Cheers!

Afterwards we wandered the downtown area where we saw a shrouded Confederate monument and Black Lives Matter painted on the street. The old South is having to confront their past, finally.  We also drove through the arts district and were disappointed that the Friday night drum circle did not happen.

I'm assuming that's a Confederate statue, shrouded in black plastic and protected with a plywood base.

Black Lives Matter paintings all around the roundabout.

Saturday we had biscuits for breakfast from Biscuitheads. Libby scored a free t-shirt with breakfast... so I consider that a good morning!

A free Tee! She asked to buy one but they only had them for employees, so they gave her one.

I'll let you figure out what it says.

 And then we went back to her place to do an online class in cutting and pasting. (I'll post on that soon.) 

First time I've done an online class like this and it was sooo inspiring. 

Afterwards we drove to Sliding Rock- another highly recommended destination.  In the forest, surrounded by trees are some perfect flat rocks in the river made for sliding down. I was super excited about this adventure. Sadly, the river was too high from all of the rain they have had so we did not get to slide or even play in the water. After being in dry dry Colorado it was still lovely to experience all the green of a state that gets summer rains.

Sliding Rock which actually looked more like Gushing Waters Rock

Our day ended driving around looking at houses as Libby would like to get out of her darling apartment at some point and really settle in.  It was a great way to get the feel of the city and there were so many fun cottages. Also,  some of those streets were really narrow so I was grateful I wasn't the one driving.

Sunday was a hiking day and we went to Pisgah Forest (which I want to call Pig-sa because that sounds like more fun) to hike to a water fall. It was another overcast day and the hike was pleasant although truthfully I would have been happier with less people on the trail. I'm delighted people are outdoors during the pandemic, I just don't want them all outdoors at the same time that I am. Ha! O well, the waterfall was gorgeous and it was so nice to be outside. 

Only a 3 mile hike so we were smiling at the outset and on the return.

The sign says "Catawba Falls"

We made it!

And Monday- Monday is another post. I went to the Biltmore and o! it was beautiful. I'll tell you all about it next week.

Anyway, I'm putting North Carolina in the books.