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...