Asheville – Riveted

This is as much as we could fit in today in Asheville

Laura Domela — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 01:45:05 +0000

Okay I'm going to start at the end of the day.

Jim and Lisa (friends we met in Austin a month or so ago) invited us over to have dinner and drinks at their place…great food and great people! It was a fabulous way to end our visit here.

Before that we drove out to Chimney Rock and hiked up to the top. Lots of stairs, gorgeous view. This was taken from a little spot further up (more stairs!) from Chimney Rock, called the Opera Box.

Our truck's down there somewhere:

Quite a view:

From below:

Chimney Rock there in the center:

I know, it's a lot of landscape photos, but isn't it so pretty?

Before that we had lunch in town near the entrance to the park (salads at Medina's Village Bistro, pretty good).

Before that we did a nice drive on the Blueridge Parkway, and then drove a very nondirect and winding long-cut path to get to Chimney Rock. Some snaps along the way. (See! The trees are still pretty!)

And holy moly will you look at all these silver trailers!! This is the front yard:

The one in the middle between the two Airstreams is a Vagabond.

And this is the backyard:

There's an Airstream motor home, a Silver Streak, and I think another Airstream.

Before that we explored the River Arts Distict a bit. Looks cool and worth more time there. Next time!

Before that we went to the Western North Carolina Farmers Market right down the road from our campground. This farmers market is not just your garden variety parking lot farmers market…it's HUGE, and it's open every day. This is inside just one of the buildings:

I was going to take a nice photo to show you what we bought, but I didn't, and it's late, and we're heading out in the morning so it's probably not gonna happen. But here it is: quite a few different kinds of tomatoes, a couple of North Carolina Fuji apples, zucchini, a dozen farm fresh eggs, some mountain butter, bacon, a bag of plantain chips and a bag of dehydrated okra (which OMG is awesome…and I kinda want to go back in the morning and get some more before we leave), some Carolina peach butter for my mom, some marinated mushrooms and some spicy pickled okra.

Tomorrow: Kentucky!

Here's a shot of our campsite here, from the row below:

Last Day in Asheville, North Carolina

Laura Domela — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 11:34:43 +0000

Well we had a really productive work day yesterday (not to mention a very nice view from our office here in Asheville). Last night we met up with a couple we met when we were in Austin at Pecan Grove…they had the Airstream next to us and we've been facebook friends ever since (Hi Jim and Lisa!). When we first started talking in Austin and learned they lived in Asheville, we'd really never heard of it (nor did we ever imagine we'd BE here a month and a half later!). Cool how things work out sometimes, huh?

We met up last night at a little bar/tapas place called Sazerac and had a great visit with them (and we had sazeracs). Jim and Lisa recommended that if we were going out to dinner after we left there, we try a Spanish place up the street called Zambras. The wait was about an hour, but the ambiance of the little cozy pillow-tossed corner table we got was sweet and romantic and the food was great! Thanks for the recommendation, guys!

Today we slept in (Saturday!) and we're about to have some breakfast and then head out to go see some more stuff. There's a big Farmers Market right down the road so we'll probably gather some produce there for our next few days…then probably head out for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The weather is gorgeous today: right now it's 40F degrees and clear and the high is supposed to be 66F.

We Are Loving Asheville, North Carolina

Laura Domela — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:02:06 +0000

I can see how people come here to visit and never leave. It's a great city…reminds us both a little of Portland, actually.

We got up early to go grab breakfast and walk around downtown a bit before we started our work day. I took quite a few photos of the Jackson Building:

Built in 1923-24, this unique structure was the first skyscraper in Western North Carolina, and was constructed on an amazingly tiny 27 by 60 foot lot that many believed to be too small to build on. Designed by architect Ronald Greene, this steel-framed Neo Gothic brick and terra-cotta structure is adorned with dramatic stone gargoyles near the top. In its early days, one of the buildings most unusual uses was as a "clean-air lookout". Many of Asheville's buildings were heated with coal, and every morning the city inspector stood at the top of the Jackson Building to watch for excessive smoke as building furnaces started up. If heavy smoke persisted for more than 5 minutes a citation to clean the furnace was issued. Source

Love the gargoyles up there.

This partially covered old building-side advertisement is pretty cute. Glad they kept it.

Now we're back to work, but I think we're going to stay an extra day in Asheville. Yay!

Asheville, North Carolina – Bear Creek

Laura Domela — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 10:15:39 +0000

Here's the view from our campsite here at Bear Creek RV Park & Campground:

We came in last night after dark but woke up to a gorgeous morning. I wish we were going to be here more than two nights! (And I think I need to buy another sweater.)