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. 

Voilà! I'm in Asheville...

 Voilà! I'm in Asheville, North Carolina.

O. If only it were that simple. 

I am in Asheville. Sweet friend Roger drove me here and by that I mean he DROVE every single mile of the trip to Asheville and then down to West Palm. The little Subaru was on a car hauler behind the RV, loaded with my stuff. 

This was terrifying. One of those situations where you better hit your mark.

Eeeeeee!

I did it! Whew!

Carlos, Mina and I sat in comfort in the front seat of the RV and helped navigate. Well, I sat in the seat and helped navigate. Mina sat in my lap most of the trip or under the emergency brake and she tried to sit in her most preferred spot- under the brake pedal-but I think we convinced her that was a bad idea. (That involved the hand brake and some yelling with me butt up trying to pull her back out.)

Mina Kitty tucked up in my lap. Like having a nice warm blanket.

We FINALLY convinced her this was NOT the place to sleep.

It wasn't pretty though.

Carlos slept under my feet, for some reason terrified that the "house" was moving. He was ok on the highway but the stopping and starting absolutely put him over the edge. 

Eventually the animals settled under my feet and under the emergency brake.

For about 2000 miles.

We left Saturday, April 17 from Golden with one minor problem. The RV stabilizers did not retract so they were dragging on the ground causing Carlos much anguish. What a racket! A quick stop at Camping World where Roger pulled in, asked the first people he saw if they could help and they did. I'm not even sure those people worked there but they knew what to do. 

The first night was spent in Salina, KS at the Hog Valley RV and Treehouse Resort. Expectations were low but it was actually a lovely spot.  On our way we stopped at the Dish Room in Burlington, CO for dinner. OMG. Out in the middle of nowhere and they had Wagyu beef and seafood and it was excellent. Definitely recommend if you are going that way.   We arrived at our campsite at 3am due to the delay with the stabilizers. Roger was still smiling. I was in awe. 

Next was Bentonville, AR and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Please go. Alice Walton of the Walmart family founded it as a non profit charitable organization and it is admission free due to her. The visit is worth it just for the buildings and grounds. Dogwoods and redbud trees were blooming as we walked the extensive trails that were dotted with  sculpture. Inside there was a special exhibit of Crafting America which sparked a debate of what was art and what was craft.  Definitely most of what was in the exhibit was labeled craft but qualified as art in my book.

Crystal Bridges Museum

Look at those red buds. The blooming trees were magnificent.

That ceiling!

The landscaping! 

I had never heard of this place.

Now I want to go back.

In Memphis the next night we stayed at the Graceland RV park right across the street from Graceland. We figured we would just take Lyft into downtown Memphis, have some Barbecue and then Lyft back. After a lovely messy dinner at BB King's BBQ we stayed for the live music. Wandering outside at 10:30pm (granted it was a Monday) we tried to order a Lyft to go home. Nada. Crickets. Nothing. I tried Uber. Nothing. We wandered over to the Peabody Hotel thinking maybe we might have better luck there. Nope. I asked the valet and he gave me the number for some taxis. Nope. A couple of policeman were walking out of the hotel and I stopped one, asking if he had any suggestions. At this point it was almost midnight and we had come close to resigning ourselves to just getting a hotel room and going back to the RV in the morning. The police conferred and finally offered to take us back to the RV park as long as we didn't mind sitting in the back of their patrol car. Being desperate, that sounded like a splendid idea. 

After over an hour of trying to find a ride home, 

we finally were locked into the back of a police car and returned to the RV park.

Let me just say, the back of a police car is not limo material. Pretty sure no AC was coming our way. The seats were the plushest molded plastic, no seat belts. At least the plexiglass divider was clean! And no, there are no handles on the inside of back seat police car doors, so we had to wait for them to let us out. They even managed to miss the turn so we were treated to a flash of the lights and a squeal of siren. Even though we assured them it was perfectly fine to drop us at the entrance to the park, they insisted on driving in and letting us off at our door at almost 1 in the morning.  The neighbors were giving us the side eye the next morning. So. While there has been plenty of police brutality and police aggression in the news recently, there are good cops out there. We had two of the nicest cops ever. 

We did make a run through Graceland the next morning as Roger had not seen it and EVERYONE needs to at least see the Jungle Room once.

Me, in the Jungle Room, at Graceland.

I am not wearing suspenders, that's my iPad guide.

And obviously, RV travel is not the best for hair styling. O well.

A stop in Nashville was uneventful because apparently everything shuts down on a Tuesday due to COVID. That's ok, we were ready to have a quiet night. 

Finally we arrived in Asheville.  We unloaded my Subaru which had been lounging in back of the RV on a car hauler. All of the stuff inside was dropped at the apartment which will be my home for the next few months.  We took my "landlady" out to dinner at the Lobster Trap that evening as a mini thanks. Yum. It's been ages since I've had lobster and this did not disappoint.

And then....

the trip continued. 

Sixteen hundred miles down. Another 700 miles to go in the RV before Roger and I parted ways.

More to come.