In the Mountains

Before leaving Sunday morning, we had a lovely breakfast with Claudia in Chapel Hill. She is in my writing program at UBC (a distance program). It was fun to meet face-to-face and she did what promised – she introduced us to grits and hush puppies.
We ate at Mama Dips.

The hush puppies were yummy. They are corn fritters – kind of like pogo sticks without the hot dog, but corn flour instead. I liked the grits, too, although it’s strange to eat something so white. They taste good with butter and Claudia swears that with shrimp, they are to die for!

Thanks Claudia for the wonderful southern breakfast.

Then we drove to Asheville. After not driving much for two weeks, we drove the four hours in one stretch and were pretty grumpy when we arrived. But once we found the visitor centre, we were welcomed by Phyllis. She told us that she traveled in her RV for 8 years! She also invited us to a storytelling event at an elementary school the next morning.

Then we went and saw a ton of gingerbread houses that are part of a huge competition. They were at the Grove Park Inn, an amazing hotel. We walked around and admired the stonework and the many Christmas trees.

Then we spent the night at Wal Mart. It was pretty quiet.

This morning, we went to the storytelling. It was fun! There was a story about a frog who got turned into a prince and was very upset because he liked being a frog!
Then we went to the Arcade, which is a historical shopping centre downtown. We bought fudge – very tasty – and I bought felting supplies. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time! Morgane is very keen on it, too. We met another Westfalia owner and with her we visited the office for Asheville’s sister cities – they have 6 or 7! They had art on the walls from children in all the sister cities. Morgane was inspired and made them this picture for their wall.

Then we drove to Chimney Rock, which is just past Bat Cave in the mountains. It was a very windy road. We got close and then found out that our park pass wasn’t valid there. It was late enough that we decided not to pay. We just admired the stones in the little shops below.

Morgane convinced me to buy her a sphere-like rock that the saleslady said we could crack open with a hammer. We actually have a hammer in our van, so we got it out and put the rock in a sock and she hit it with the hammer. Then I hit it with the hammer and it cracked open. Inside were crystals of some sort. Morgane was really excited!

Then we went to see Where the Wild Things Are. I’ll give you my review and post pictures later since we have to go now… Still finding ticks on Carmanah and some day she seems strong, others not so good.