H2 & Smart revisit North Carolina

View from The Grove Park Inn patio..Asheville

After close to a month covering Michigan, it's time to head up to the cool Blue Ridge Mountains for the rest of Summer 2013. We headed due south from Metro Detroit on I-75 through Toledo, then down to Lima, Ohio for an overnight stop and a detour to the local Skyline Chili Shop for a splurge dinner. Knowing we were going to blow through Cincinnati the next day, and that this town had one of the iconic Cincinnati chain's eateries, we decided to give it a try. Wow, seriously simple but delicious stuff. You can have your chili three, four, five, or even more Ways. Look at their website for more http://www.skylinechili.com/signature.php . If our friend Gary Clark, Mr. All Things Cincinnati!, is reading this, his mouth's probably watering just from the mere mention! We kept our compass due south the next day and ended up in the beautiful little town of London, Kentucky. Watch this for a little travelogue http://londonkydowntown.com/ . Next, for the last leg, right into our home for summer...and the temperature did keep falling as we now headed east from Knoxville and began the climb into Asheville. We got lucky and settled in to a spot at Bear Creek RV Park, about 5 minutes west of downtown and 5 minutes south of funky and quickly gentrifying (and fun!) West Asheville. We made a deal with the owner, Ricky Coates, to stay in a separate space next to his combination contracting, and wife, Heidi's, real estate offices. This space is away from the rest of the park and gives us lots of privacy...darn near perfect for a long spell!
 So what's different here this time? Well, the first thing we noticed is that the foodie status of this place has risen even higher than when we last visited exactly three years ago (go back and visit that post if you like, dated July 6, 2010). There are even more dining choices, food stores, and where there were almost no decent bakeries, there are now many. Here's a sampling of restaurants we hit this time around that met our standards: Limones, Vinny's, Corner Kitchen, Fig, Plant, and Chai Pani. You can go to Tripadvisor.com or a similar site to get a brief description of any of them. Asheville is a center for the Farm to Table, local, and organic food movements. You can barely find even a small diner here that doesn't offer at least one, if not all three types of these foods. Groceries? Well, besides the big regional chain, Ingles, and lots of smaller organic stores, there is a new Harris Teeter (Kroger), Earth Fare, Fresh Market, Greenlife (Whole Foods), and a brand new Trader Joes. Asheville's the 11th largest city in North Carolina, but it acts like it's bigger than Charlotte! Bakeries! Where to begin? First, there's Dough



Homer Simpson would love their filled DOUGHnuts!

 

This place is a bakery, Italian eatery and gourmet foods shop, and a cooking classroom all in one. Their breads and pastries are heavenly. Next, and a local favorite, is Karen Donatelli, right in downtown. Their fancy French pastries would rival anything in the largest cities. You can sit down in the upscale dining area and also enjoy breakfast and lunch items. The West End Bakery supplies lots of restaurants with bread, but you can just walk in for one of their huge cinnamon rolls or other goodies, all made with organic ingredients. Oh, if you need a reason to look for more, there are several other relatively new ones around, most notably, The Well Bred Bakery in Weaverville, a few minutes north of town. Their selection is pricey but everything we've tried there, especially the fudgy chocolate cake, is terrific. What a change from three years ago when most of the places weren't here!There weren't many disappointments eating out, but one does stand out, The White Duck Taco Shop in the also fast gentrifying River Arts District. This place is 4 to 5 star rated on every websight. Being Texans and always homesick for a real taco, we had to try it. We shouldn't have. While the tacos weren't bad, they were nothing special...certainly, in both our opinions, not worthy of all the accolades. The fillings were okay, the sauces were (barely) okay, the tortillas were not even okay. Okay, you get it? Taco Bell anyone?

 This is a two month stay, so what to do in our spare time, while not working? Side trips! We took a really fast slide down the mountain, to Charlotte. This is a booming big Southern city...full of energy. The downtown is loaded with walking areas, restaurants, and shops and is very vibrant. The most fun eating there was The Cowfish!

Sushi or Burger...you can't miss!

Yep, not a typo. It's half sushi bar, half burger bar, and all bar(scene). When we stopped in, late in the afternoon, it was packed! We drove down to Greenville, about sixty miles. Again, a pretty Southern town with an amazing park that runs through downtown and is a magnet for runners, walkers, bikers, bench sitters, tourists, and locals. We took a long two day tour to Raleigh Durham, by way of Winston Salem (light 'em if you got 'em!). The American Tobacco (LSMFT, anyone?) plant in Durham is now the focal point of an entertainment area, not far from the ballpark where the Durham Bulls (interesting stuff! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_Bulls ) play. The most interesting food find was a burger chain called BurgerFi  http://www.burgerfi.com/. Some of you may already be aware, but if not, unless you live somewhere north of The Badlands, you soon will, because they're expanding rapidly out of Ft. Lauderdale. Quickly, a description? Take The Shake Shak burger, then try to improve it! Can't be done? You be the judge...that's all I'm going to say.

M A in Greenville's city park

 We had a few memorable visits while living here for the summer. We met friends Curly and Eric in The Highlands, about half way between here and Atlanta, where they live. The Highlands area could easily warrant it's own post...most beautiful area! Also, we had an entire one weeker with brother and sis (in law) Ed and Pat, and friends, Jim and Dee, who all drove here from South Florida to hang out with us....and to celebrate Eddie's milestone birthday and our anniversary. We all moved in to a rent house outside town, and we had a blast showing them around! Our first cousins, Lenny and Judy even drove up from their home in Charlotte to run with us. It was a memorable week,

From left: Dee, Pat, Ed, Jim 

and it went by in a flash. Our running buddies went back to Florida, so we had to find other diversions. Usually, if the topography and weather cooperate, that means hiking. We headed to Dupont State park, around 35 miles southeast, to hike to some wonderful waterfalls, three to be exact.

...at one our diversions

We hiked a couple of times along The scenic Blue Ridge Parkway. The most eye catching was Craggy Gardens, around 35 miles northeast of town. From an elevation of nearly 5,000 feet the views and weather are great. We did lots of urban hiking too at many locations around Asheville proper, like both Arboretums and lots of other parks around the city and sometimes just walking the beautiful, old, tree lined neighborhoods. The cool weather makes me feel like being outdoors, and good hiking is everywhere in these mountains.

 It's now the middle of September, and the days are getting shorter, the leaves here are just starting to turn their Fall shades of red, orange, and yellow, and we're thinking about our next set of journeys back to Northern Iowa for an in-warranty H2 check, back to home, Dallas, to get rid of some stuff, and then on to Florida for winter. First though, a parting shot of something homemade (one version of a MartyBurger), and a reason to actually stay home to eat. Later...

Michigan Is a State of Mind, Pt. 3, Detroit/Ann Arbor

The Henry Ford Museum

What more can be written about the (in)famous city in Michigan that began the last century as one of the bastions of American innovations, "can do" attitude, and wealth, and started this century as an example of almost everything that can go wrong?! Well, quite a bit actually. We pulled in to the Wayne County Fair Grounds RV parking area on Sunday, the 30th of June. Again, the RV park situation is limited in this part of the country, and this place is located about mid way between Detroit and Ann Arbor ( More in depth on Detroit here ). Our main reasons for stopping here were The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, curiosity about the food scene, what one of the biggest college towns in the country's like, and Grosse Pointe (because the movie Grosse Pointe Blank http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ7AXKWmWOg is on our top 10 quirky films list, and we wanted to see GP up close). After we settled in, we headed over there. We drove through Downtown Detroit, and except for a few blighted areas which we find in most big cities, it looked fairly normal from a distance. We hit Lake St. Clair, which, with The Detroit River, separates The U.S. and Canada (Windsor's over there) and made a left, taking us way up along Lake Shore Road. The beautiful homes along the way mostly look like America's post WW2 affluence. (Oh, by the way, as I'm writing this chapter, I have WCSX/ 94.7 Detroit's...Classic Rock, tuned in on tunein on my Roku Box in H2. Why? More on that later!). You can ROCK while you're reading this! Click this.  We stopped in downtown GP to pick some items up at the neighborhood TJ's (Gotta love all those abbrevs!!). While we were there, we stopped a couple of the locals working in the store and told them we were from out of town. What happened next was fascinating to us and an insight to the area. The two fellows stood there scratching their heads when we asked where we should head next to see the sights. After downtown, they both ran out of places! "What are you doing in Grosse Pointe?" one of them asked. Most any other place we've been, we can't get the locals to stop telling about all the places they want us to see. Here? Not so. They did manage to eek out a couple of ideas, but this was the start of what we now call the stuck culture we found all during our visit here. We began to notice that this place is where most of the Michigan clichés (and even though they are stereotypes, they're usually based on some reality) come from. Here are a few we noticed: Hair cuts/styling for men and women? Nay! (think Ted Nugent). From May until September...shirts are optional for guys just about anywhere. Rock and Roll means..The 70's! We actually liked this! The stations here are stuck there, and that's not a bad thing. Tune in WCSX, and you'll hear what we mean. Here's the best...fires! Picture folks with long, shaggy hair, guys with their shirts off, listening to Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, Mitch Ryder, and Grand Funk Railroad, all while sitting around a campfire...and it's 85 degrees out! Oh, here's one more, July 4th fireworks last at least until July 10th. They go crazy with elaborate backyard displays, and they keep it up until way after the holiday's finished. Must have something to do with...FIRE!



The quintessential Ted Nugent

 We had heard about The Henry Ford Museum, and spent an entire day there. It's a world class collection of motorcar, transportation, and other technology. The grounds, museum, and Greenfield Village, a separate "town" with a collection of interesting and very old buildings, are well worth the time. Their website's even worth an online trip. http://www.thehenryford.org/
We spun (sometimes pretty quickly!) through Detroit neighborhoods like Southfield and Oakpark. We did a driveby of the Motown HITSVILLE studio, and on a Saturday, visited The Eastern Market. Now this place is worth a few words. The Eastern Market is one of America's oldest farmers markets and also one of the largest. It takes up a large area near Downtown Detroit, and is open six days a week. You can buy just about any type of food item you can imagine there. On the Saturday we visited we immediately saw, on entering one of the huge open air buildings, a couple of fellows handing out newsletters. They were saying things like, "don't you feel that our government needs to be changed?" Then we noticed more of them. They were all over the place. What were they handing out? The newsletter from the Communist Party. Made sense! Take your Communist views to places where the economic situation is worst. Try to grow it from there, and sow the seeds of revolution. It surely worked in Russia (right?)! In fact, that's exactly where I suggested to one of them he should go. Mary Ann had to pull me away from getting into a deeper discussion with him. The point is that we saw conditions in the city that looked like a bomb had gone off. There were people on corners all over, just sitting around with nothing much to do (just after we left Detroit, the city declared bankruptcy). It is really depressing. Some of what is going on there, in our opinion, has to do with the people there. Mary Ann had a conversation with a lady from the area who gave us the term "stuck." She used it as a way to define the culture there and some of her own children. Is it a reason why The American Automobile Industry tanked? The people seem to have a stubborn attitude..."This is how we've always done it. It worked before, it'll work now!" New ideas are not readily accepted, so the result is very evident in Detroit. It's going to take a lot of new, can do type thinking to get this part of our great country back in business.

Detroit past..Henry & Clara Ford's home in Dearborn

Detroit today..need a reservation?

A taste of Ann Arbor/Summer Music Fest

 We headed west a few days later and toured around in Ann Arbor. It's a pretty nice middle-sized town with cozy looking neighborhoods. Most of the main U. of Michigan campus adjoins the downtown area so there's lots of good walking. Now we know some folks who'd disagree, but this place is no Madison, Asheville, or comparable Foodie town. Arguably, the most famous eatery in Ann Arbor is Zingerman's Deli http://www.zingermansdeli.com/?utm_source=mailorder&utm_medium=zinglink&utm_campaign=zcobbar. It's been written about on every food outlet you can think of. Our quick comment is: Go during off hours since the lines can be long, and don't split things because even though prices are pretty high, portions are not Jewish deli huge. Stick to those rules, and you may not be disappointed. On the bright side, their baked goods are good and their other restaurant, Zingermans Roadhouse http://www.zingermansroadhouse.com/?utm_source=deli&utm_medium=zinglink&utm_campaign=zcobbar, is really good (and worth the premium prices). They'll give you samples of their delicious bbq or other specialties, and every dish we tried was very high quality, farm to table wonderful!

Zingerman's Roadhouse

 

 The Independence Day rush has long since passed , and we've chosen to head to the North Carolina mountains to spend the rest of the summer. Detroit's thermometer was tipping well into the 90's now, so we knew we'd overstayed our welcome. Our route was set to follow I-75 into Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and then straight for a revisit to Asheville, where the current high temperature in July is 73 degrees! We're on the way...