Believe it's Time for me to Fly

 

 

 

Our plan was to be on the road for Ashville by 8am. To that end, I was up and out of bed by 6am. I felt good and even had a bit of vacation butterflies in my belly, which is a good thing. Skipped calisthenics but still meditated and stretched ahead of a run. Spent 30 minutes enjoying coffee and internet before any of that. Out the door for a run near 630am but not before waking Mindy with a cup of coffee at her bedside.

It was cool and clear, a lovely start to my summer vacation. After a successful 3 mile run, I organized/packed a few more personal electronics that I charged overnight. I headed up for a shower around 7am. By then Mindy was out of the shower and dressed.

Most of our gear was already downstairs by the front door. We still needed to pack two coolers, one with long-term vacation food and then a smaller car cooler for the trip to Ashville. It was soon clear that we wouldn’t be getting out of the house by our stated goal of 8am. Looked more like 830am at best. However, aside from simply missing a stated goal, which I abhor, it wasn’t a big deal. Just hoped to arrive in Ashville late afternoon/early evening.

Mindy and the kids were slow to get motivated, especially Jacob. Hungry, I took the time to make a sandwich before we left. Jacob’s the only one that didn’t eat anything. He was grumpy and tired. We hit the road near 845am.

Mindy and I were both excited to be taking a different route to the Carolina’s – I-71/75. In fact, we toyed with a stop in Cincy/Newport to tour the Aquarium but nixed it as late as Thursday for another time. Made good time down I-71 thru Cincy and well into Ky. The sunny skies we left behind in Columbus slowly but surely turned to gray, and by the time we made into Tennessee for lunch it started to rain.

Jellico is the first town in Tenn. via I-75, which is in the mountains. We stopped at Wendy’s I’m thinking near 1pm. Decided to dine inside. I had the pretzel bacon burger, which was good but smaller than they make it look in TV. There was a fireworks store right next store. After lunch, Jacob and I meandered over there while Bella and Mindy filled the Pilot with gas.

Mindy wasn’t too pleased with herself after carelessly spilling her Wendy’s soda pop into the snack bag. It did little good, but I insisted she not be so hard on herself.  Back on the rainy road. I’d had a good bead on the 5 day forecast for the last few days, so it was no surprise to me that it was raining. However, it was far cooler than I remembered seeing – only in the mid 60’s through the mountains of Tenn. and western N.C. Little did I know that it would rain from that point through midafternoon Sunday.

Our I-75 travels took us to Knoxville where we picked up 40W. And if memory serves, that left another 90 miles or so to Ashville, which was pretty much through the Smokies and along the Appalachian Trail. We passed the exits for Gatlinburg & Dollywood soon after clearing Knoxville. The traffic was backed up for those exits both directions. Ugh!

The rain continued, and often times really hard, all the way into Ashville. That coupled with the mountainous and curvy terrain left me very focused. My GPS guided right to Country Inn & suites but unfortunately the wrong one. We had to back track about 8 or 9 miles to the one on the west side of town in Ashville’s rainy rush hour traffic.

Of note was how tight the freeway running through town is compared with that of Columbus. Not only are the lanes narrower but the on and exit ramps are smaller too. Quaint but also dangerous. I was very careful. Finally arrived at our two night digs near 530pm. Check-in went smoothly. I carried in all 3 of my bags (clothes duffle, camera pack, and miscellaneous electronics pack). Mindy wisely packed one small suitcase for her and the kids specifically for our brief stay in Ashville. The majority of our haul remained in the Pilot.

I wisely booked us a suite in lieu of a normal hotel room. That way the kids would have their own room. I think it’s fair to say that the rain and chilly temps left all of us a little disappointed and gloomy. We lounged around the hotel until 7pm or so. During that time Mindy and I checked out lots of tourist opportunities, including a tubing trip down the French Broad River through town, a day at Black Mountain, as well as some hiking opportunities. However, with the inclement weather forecast, hiking and/or tubing wasn’t in the cards.

At 7pm we readied and headed out for dinner, our destination being The Ashville Brewing Company, which as best we could there were 3 locations. We picked the one in the arts district downtown. Despite the crappy weather, parking was still a challenge. Within the few block area there must’ve been 4 or 5 brewpubs. Nice!

There was a quoted 245 minutes wait for an indoor table. The outdoor seating was covered but I wasn’t dressed for such, having brought only shorts and t-shirts. Our wait was no more than 5 minutes. I went with their black IPA. Mindy went with a flight, trying five different beers. As for dinner, I ordered dry rubbed chicken wings, which in the end weren’t nearly as good as those at Ohio’s Brew Kettle. Mindy ordered their hummus plate, which was decent. Jacob ordered a large pizza all to himself, and Bella a cheese burger. Mindy picked up the dinner check and even bought she and I t-shirts.

Back to our hotel just after 9pm where I enjoyed a beer and TV from bed before dosing off around 10pm. Yes, it was still raining.