August 25,2019
I got the bright idea to blend a weekend get away and Asheville NC. It has been a orgy of things I love. The drive was not as bad as it cold have been, but long and the last 30 minutes were très LONG. I usually sleep like a baby and Ian awake until 2 AM Thursday night. SO we began our adventure, or at least I did, sleep deprived. Jodi asked me about what the weather was forecasted to be, I had not checked, so she did, rain and thunderstorms, great. It is a six and a half hour drive from my house to Asheville. We ran into clouds in the mountains, Jodi says fog, but I am calling it low hanging clouds! And rain, which allowed us to hydroplane for a few seconds. That’s is always a prayerful moment!
I had told the reservations person ( and we called again) we would be late, so they were expecting us. We are staying at the same Holiday Inn we stayed at last year. We had issues last time, but this go-round it has been great. Well except for the fact that they leave coffee but no accoutrements. I noticed though and picked up some sugar ( I brought cream, no powdered stuff for me) and a stirrer, down in the lobby before we went to bed and good thing because none yesterday either. Nice location on the far east side with easy access and lovely views.
Thé first order of business was Cheap Joes. I had just placed an order and then realized that I was out of Violet, which made for a fabulous excuce to need to visit this store. Honestly, I don’t need an excuse, Jodi is fairly tolerant of my foibles, but you know...... I managed to spend enough for it to be worth the visit and on some coolish things. I purchased a couple of water brushes at Hobby Lobby when my art pursuit began and they are junk, I can’t get them back open to put in more water. In addition to the water brushes, violet paint, I was lured into a flesh colored WC pencil, lovely metallic gold paint ( there were many lovely shades but I was SO restrained and only got one to try), a couple of kneaded erasers ( I found out the hard way, kneaded erasers and my trunk do not mix well). I bought more, but the point here is that it is so pleasurable to feel off, look at, consider, stuff before purchasing. I lament the passing of stores that one can go in and experience rather than buying from websites or catalogues.
Then we ( I ) was hungry and it was well past breakfast.
Though..... I would have considered it had the little place we passed up due to a long wait, was still open, but we cold not find it so we settled for pizza at Mellow Mushroom. We shared cheese bread and Pizza. The Cheese bread was served with marinara sauce. The half cheese, half sausage and mushroom with extra sauce was good, actually fairly similar to pizza in Italy.
Next..... April Cornell. Sigh, just walking into this store makes me happy. Yes there are stores that actually make me delighted, charmed, enchanted just to walk in. Usually it is in conjunction with antiques or food, but sometimes clothing makes the list too. Jodi settled on the couch after my perusal of the store. Helpful clerks took my bounty to the dressing room and i began the feast of all these lovely frocks. My Auntie Gert has a dress picked out for the he catalogue and I even tried on too. (It. is. adorable - buy it!) I ended up with a dress from the spring catalogue, currently on sale at 50% off, and a similar dress form the currently catalogue, which both look the same on the hanger but are totally different when on. Also a lovely lace bottomed slip to let peep out of dresses, and a lovely knit, floral jacket that I TOTALLY Needed.
SO my clothing allowance blown, off we went to Black Mountain to have a gander and maybe find somewhere to hang for what was left of the afternoon. Once there, I spied a yarn shop (http://www.blackmountainyarnshop.com/) that required a closer look, Jodi stayed in the car and read. We drove, looked, and just enjoyed the area. We stopped or a coffee at a cute little book/coffee shop and then drove to the other side of the freeway and wandered up the mountain there a bit discovering a Disciples retreat (Christchurch, I think- who knew that there were such things as rhododendron farms? )
and a cute little village of homes that needed to just be experienced.
We came back to the room and Jodi turned on the TV to the news and all the G7 talk. AUGH, amidst all this loveliness I find out that I may have to boycott American wine in response to the lummox. Fortunately I was drinking some wine which (and chips) took the edge off. But I think I am going to purchase somme French wine soon just in case, golly I wish I had purchased more last week in Cincinnati.
Jodi finally asked about dinner and were we going to the French restaurant, Bouchon. I had sort of written that off as she had not seemed real thrilled about it last year, so I called for reservations and they do not take them. That did not bode well at 7:15 on a Saturday evening, but off we went. And it was an hour and 20 minutes, at first I though I heard only the 20 minutes. But you know how sometimes things, sort of sink a second or so later? Well, yes it was an hour, 20. No Merci, you are not Le Petit France, which I am STILL mourning.
So we started walking, fortunately most of the dining establishments in Asheville have menus in the windows and finally we sort of fell into Rankin Vault Lounge (rankinvault.com)that had outside seating and food. Serendipity is always amazing as I had one of the best burgers I have had in a very long time, sorry Bru Burger, it was their house burger with white cheddar, arugula, onion bacon and their own special sauce, medium rare (Jodi’s=creamate), it was offered regular or slider size, so I had a mini orgasm without guilt!
Back to the room for more wine and M&Ms for dessert.
