We intended on hitting the Charleston, SC area to see a childhood friend of mine on the way up which took longer than it should have since we had tire problems pretty much until we got out of Florida (4 hours in delays did not make for much joy).
We made it to Pete and Jenn's and had a nice dinner, evening, and breakfast then departed for the Glass Mountain Tree House cabin we were to be staying at in Fairview outside of Asheville.
We made good time and were early so we decided to check out Chimney Rock. It's a crazy winding drive up, but did deliver the first bit of snow for the girls.
Considering it was just a pile in parking lot we hoped we could do better. The views up top were awesome so of course I snapped some shots.
After that we ate at the Riverwatch Deli and Grill then headed to the cabin. By then it had started to get dark and we were guided by the GPS I borrowed from my folks. You either love those things or you hate them; I'll explain later.
According to the female voice with a British accent we arrived at destination on the left. It was so dark the only thing I could see was a service road to the left. Or at least I thought it was a service road. Apparently all the snow melting left the driveway muddied and torn up. After plowing the Volvo station wagon through the troughs of mud we got stuck on the ascent to the house.
After a bit of spinning the wheels and even more profanity I threw it in park and we lugged our bags up to the cabin. Inside I fought to get a fire going then we settled in for the night in hopes of getting a better handle on our situation.
The morning revealed a temp of 31 degrees and the ground was frozen. Mud puddles on the driveway were turned to blocks of ice. I was actually pretty happy with our chances of getting out since the ground was so hard. Here's the drive:
Monkey and Peanut waned to hike up the back of the property and we found a bit of that white stuff:
We decided to head into Asheville and check out an indie book store called Malaprops. Neat place, the kind you want to support so we bought a few books and a coffee mug.
As the wife and I were looking over a few more books Peanut came up to me and said "This is what we do all the time." Then she handed me this fridge magnet:
I in turn tell the wife what she said and handed it to her. We both started laughing.
What Peanut was referring to was this:
Then Peanut says "Actually, I guess that's what Grampy (my dad) always does since it is wrong."
This of course leads to tears rolling down the wife and my faces. My dad can't get his arms to bend around to make the face Peanut does, so he just makes the OK signs and holds them up.
After a good hard laugh we headed out into downtown Asheville and enjoyed all the architecture.
The day was going great and got better when the owner called the wife to inform her he was having a truck drop of some gravel and he was headed over to the cabin with his tractor to repair the drive.
The next day we headed up into the mountains to do some tubing which was great for the girls, but a bit cold since there was a slight rain. After getting a bit wet and cold we headed back into town for some Starbucks.
The wife punches in Starbucks into the GPS and we proceed as directed. The British lady tells us to turn right. The British lady tells us to go left. As we head in the directions by order of the Queen we pass a Starbucks on the right. We scratch our heads but continue only to discover that apparently the British don't know the difference between Starbucks and Bank of America.
As the trip goes on the damn GPS gives us poor direction, telling us to enter the wrong way down a one way street, and never giving us the proper coordinates of Starbucks.
In a fit I decide to take matters into my own (not like the Pope picture). Having driven by Starbucks several times I had a pretty good idea of where I was going. This contradicted the directions of the British lady and she starts getting snippy with me yelling "Recalculating, recalculating!" like I'm some kind of loser on The Weakest Link. Coffee in hand we headed back to the cabin.
The rest of the trip went well and I'll leave you with some of the waterfall pics we took at Looking Glass Falls. I think I found a place to retire...
