Destination: Outer Banks

Pier on The Bogue Sound at Waters Edge RV Park, Newport NC

From Wilmington, along the North Carolina Coast, we rolled toward our next destination, a little blip on the map called Newport. It's actually a town along the Bogue Sound, which seems to be more like three places in one. There's Newport, then Morehead City, and finally Beaufort. These towns are and were based on fishing (and boating), now mostly of the sport variety, and then mostly of the food variety. Our headquarters is the Waters Edge RV park in Newport. The place sits along the main road, Highway 24, and from the road, at the entrance, you can't tell that it extends all the way to the sound, ending in a nice dock that juts out a long way over the water. From the dock, you're looking across at Atlantic Beach, lined with beautiful homes, vacation condos, and hotels. Not knowing what really to expect around this area, we reserved a spot for a week. Our stay ended up at just shy of a month! Why? Well, it's a place filled with cool towns all around, and we saw that we could indeed tour the entire Outer Banks (OBX to the locals) region using this as our base. At first we thought we might have to move up north to cover it all, but it's really easier to do it this way (and besides, we loved the folks at Waters Edge RV Park... fellow RV'ers, make a note-if in the area THIS is the place to stay awhile. Joanie, Linda, and Mr. Tom made us feel right at home! Highly recommended!).

Iconic Hatteras Lighthouse

Ferry landing in "downtown" Okracoke

  Our tour of the Outer Banks started with us driving Smarty a little over forty miles to the ferry terminal at

Cedar Island. From there we drove onto the ferry for a two hour ride to Okracoke, our first actual landfall in the slip of movable earth called The Outer Banks. Okracoke used to, of course, be a fishing village. Now it's a sleepy little summer resort town, full of inns and restaurants. We spent the night at The Edwards Inn, after walking the quaint streets and having a good local fish dinner. The next day, we drove up to the next ferry terminal on the north side of the island and took the ride to Hatteras Island, past the famous diagonally striped black and white lighthouse and on through the upscale area of Nags Head, and finally to our night's stay, this time in Kill Devil Hills. This is the Kitty Hawk area, and we were both anxious the next morning to head over

Actual spot where first plane flew

Wright's monument

to the Wright Brothers National Memorial and Museum. We spent the whole morning there and stood at the place where their planes took off for the first time. It's quite unique and contemplative, and it made us think about how far aviation has come in such a short time, as a big jet airliner casually flew overhead. On the third day, we started heading to home base and drove off the islands and on to the mainland. By early evening we were back in Newport.
 Our favorite new town that gets put in a special category for us, is New Bern, North

Pepsi's birthplace..downtown New Bern

Carolina. Ever hear of it? Maybe it sounds vaguely familiar? Well, aside from being the birthplace of Pepsi Cola, it is one of the prettiest small towns we've come across anywhere. From the waterfront to the downtown, the place oozes charm. There's some serious history here too. Many buildings and homes date back to the mid 1700's and the Tryon Palace, which goes back to 1770, and was the home of the first provincial governor of North Carolina. It's a mostly upscale little town, with a vibrant and walkable downtown, filled with neat stores and restaurants. A couple of our favorites, out of a bunch to choose from there, were The Chelsea in downtown and Persimmon on the water. In fact, we visited Persimmon twice during our month in the area, something we almost never do. Oriental is down the road from new Bern, and on the advice of a local, we drove over there one day. It's known around here as the sailboat capital, and there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of them everywhere. Oriental reminded me of the same laid back feel that Okracoke has. A place where it would be easy to spend a week...or a whole summer, just chillin'.

Persimmon restaurant in the moonlight

Our month went by like a flash, and before we knew it we were turning our attention towards The West, at least The Western side of North Carolina. We'd decided to go back to Asheville for the entire summer. Our reasoning was simple. First, we've gotten to the point where we like to leave summers traveling...to the tourist travelers and families. We have all year to explore, so why not let them have one less rig to contend with during the busy months. Next, we had entertained going out West to Santa Fe, but the water is scarce there now, and it's very dry. Third, we love Asheville. It has the hippie charm of Santa Fe. It has cool weather in summer, lots of outdoor venues, and the food! A special place indeed. So the summer of 2014 is WNC time for us. We plan to explore places in the area that we haven't had a chance to see yet, work, and enjoy the mountains. H2's big engine is revving now as I'm finishing up here, Mary Ann's at the wheel, and off we go from the wonderful North Carolina Coast to the beautiful mountains!

M A kicking back in Oriental

Going North, Up The Coastal Highway

Wilmington homes exploding with color

By the end of April, the Spring foliage is in full bloom here in The South. Heading north from Charleston, we wind up US 17, on track for our destination for this segment of the adventure, The Outer Banks. Once leaving Mount Pleasant, there is a lot of wide open road along the seacoast until you reach the quaint little seaport of Georgetown, North Carolina. More beautiful tree lined and flower lined streets fill this historic place. As we have found, there was a lot of 18th and 19th century activity in the area. Our main reason for pulling off the road here, as you might guess, was to visit the original location of an area bakery (maybe we should think about renaming this blog..."Harvey and Smarty's Bakery Stops!") that we grew to love in Mount Pleasant, Kudzu http://www.kudzubakery.com/.

Kudzu Bakery in Georgetown

As usual, we just stumbled on it while shopping in the area. From the minute we walked in we knew it was the real deal. Their baked goods and breads are totally scratch, and one's more amazing than the next. We loaded up with goodies and kept heading up the road, past Pawley's Island (Yep! There really is a place named after the famous hammocks...or is it the other way around?), and then to the southern part of the Myrtle Beach area, Murrells Inlet and then Surfside Beach. Myrtle Beach surprised us a little. We expected an old, worn looking area with lots of t-shirt shops. There is that, up the road from the main, newer area of the beach, but this newer area is what we saw first. There are high rise hotels and condos, nice stores and restaurants, and pretty parks and beach areas. It's easy to see why people, especially from the Eastern half of the country flock here. The older, t-shirt and surf shop part didn't show itself until the next morning as we started heading towards North Myrtle Beach. If you go for that kind of place, there is about a five mile strip of it there. Have fun!  We keep rolling up Highway 17 and land in Leland, NC, just a few miles from downtown Wilmington. It's raining, so we pull in to a new, nice looking Wal Mart lot in this newer area, and unhook Smarty to see what it's like here. We stayed seven nights right in the Wal Mart lot, using our fresh water tanks and all the solar electricity we could absorb to keep the house running. All systems worked perfectly, and we could have even stretched it if we needed. How is it to live in a Wal Mart lot for a week? Interesting!

H2 and friend at Wally World

There's a Carolina chain of good coffee places in the area called Port City Java http://www.portcityjava.com/ We packed up our briefcases in the morning and used their neat little shop, located a couple of blocks from our (Wal Mart) home and worked during the day and explored at night.
 The magnificent Magnolias and Crepe Myrtles are coming alive and especially the Azaleas. Almost every town in The Carolinas has an Azalea Festival, but the Granddaddy of them all is the one in Wilmington http://www.ncazaleafestival.org/. No kidding, this is to Wilmington what Mardi Gras is to New Orleans or Mobile! And it's no wonder. This town literally explodes with color at this time each year. It is the quintessential South, and everyone should be lucky enough to experience it at least once. Wilmington is an understated city. It's population is a little over 100,000, but the greater area is about 250,000. Ever heard of Cape Fear? This is the center for the area known as Cape Fear (named after the river). In other words, this is not really a "cape" like Hatteras, it's an entire region. The movie(s) made the name famous, but this place has lots more to offer than a Hollywood story. First, the city is a living museum, much like Savannah and Charleston. It has deep roots in ship building, and the marine history is everywhere you look. Many of the buildings date back to the early 1700's!

Wilmington River Walk Downtown

Another interesting tidbit about Wilmington is that it's a relatively large movie and tv production town. In fact, the last blockbuster Iron Man 3 movie was done here. We explored the surrounding areas too, like Southport, another historic sea town a few miles drive...to the south of Wilmington. More historic homes with plaques dating them all the way back to Pre Revolutionary War times, more quaint shops, and a very pretty waterfront park and pier. The beaches nearby are cities in their own right, especially Wrightsville and Carolina Beach. Mary Ann had a fun surprise too. Her friend and boss when she was in the apparel business, Joe, surfaced! She had been trying to reach him, knowing that he must still live in the Myrtle Beach area, where he's originally from, and she had no luck...until a phone call reunited them finally. He was indeed still in Myrtle Beach and agreed to drive up, since we were already in Wilmington. We had a great dinner together in downtown, and the two old friends got to do some catching up! We did finally leave our Wal Mart home, and continued to dead head it towards The Outer Banks. Our landing spot, next, takes us to the Beaufort, Moorhead City, Newport area (go to your map to pinpoint us). From there as base camp, by ferry and Smarty, to legendary ports off the coast, like Ocracoke, Cape Hatteras, and finally Kitty Hawk.

The pier at the waterfront in Southport

Route 17!

After an amazing week at The Marriott Monarch Resort in Hilton Head, we continue to track up US Highway 17, also known as The Coastal Highway. Highway 17 runs pretty  much parallel with  I95 from Florida to Virginia. In some areas it runs closer to the Atlantic though, and that's why we're on it. Destination now: Charleston, South Carolina, for a revisit. The first time there, as was true for Savannah, we just touched on the area. This time we intend to dig in. Our specific landing spot, from info we gathered last time, is James Island, an area about 10 minutes Southwest of downtown. The James Island County Park http://www.ccprc.com/index.aspx?NID=1434 has a full service rv park and is a regional destination for all things outdoors for the area. There are festivals of every imaginable variety going on just about every week there. During our visit, a Cajun Festival and The East Coast Paddle Sports and Outdoor Festival happened. There are venues for cycling, boating, running, camping, swimming, just about anything you could do outside, including just sitting among the beautiful trees and foliage and watching shrimp boats in the rivers, gliding along, sometimes magically appearing like they're skimming on top of the saw grass fields.

James Island County Park near Charleston

This time we stayed long enough to get a real feel for the area. We walked almost every street downtown, looked at the amazing homes (many dating back to the 1700's), visited other neighborhoods nearby, like Johns Island, Kiawa, and Mount Pleasant. All of those places have their own special vibe and charm. In fact, Johns Island is home to one of our favorite eating places...anywhere in this entire country (at least the small part of it we've seen so far). We went to The Fat Hen www.thefathen.com a few years ago, on our first visit, and were impressed with it right away. Low Country French is how they describe themselves, but I had one of the most stellar burgers there...and the fries! Oh my! I'm sure the other choices are incredible, but I just can't get past that hamburger. In fact, I had it twice. I even asked the chef to whip up some of the tomato jam (instead of good old Heinz, which does a disservice to this burger!) they serve with the fried green tomatoes that M A ordered, and that totally threw it over the top of the left field wall! Mary Ann is a bit more adventurous and also tried a chicken dish and some veggies and grits and the report was also many starred. It's a good drive from the downtown tourist area, but well worth the time to get there, and a beautiful one too.

Walking along the waterfront in Charleston

 Aside from about a hundred long and short drives in to downtown, we explored other areas too. West Ashley, a gentrified neighborhood just west of downtown, full of bars and cool eateries, is close to where we were stationed in James Island. It's just a bridge or two away! We drove over to Sea Island and Kiawa, a newer posh development with an already very famous golf course. In fact, it's soo posh, the new Marriott Courtyard Hotel doesn't even have any visible signage, only "Boutique Hotel" can be seen from the outside. Mount Pleasant is east of downtown, over the Ravenel Bridge. It's home to lots of local seafood places, marinas, and most of the really important shopping for the Charleston area (like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods for us). After a couple of weeks in the area, and the revisit to Savannah, we think we might even qualify for the test to be local tour guides! Well, ya never know!!

Ravenel Bridge connecting Charleston & Mt. Pleasant

 As a side note, while in Charleston, Smarty decided to have a heart attack! His fuel pump (get it?) went out and that lead to another failure with his complicated and computerized innards. The crankshaft sensor also failed. So Mary Ann picked me up in the Best Buy parking lot with H2 , where I was stuck. Who ever knew we'd be using our roving house as a tow truck one day! We hooked up Smart, moved to a Walmart lot for the night, and early the next morning reported in at Baker Motors, the Charleston Mercedes/Smart Dealer. They gave us a Mercedes SUV to drive while Smart was being operated on (4 days!), and even let us stay the first night in H2 in their back lot before relocating back to James Island, while we waited for the news of Smart's condition. By the end of the week, he was returned...ALIVE! After almost 58,000 flawless miles, we figured that we were due for some maintenance issues. Hopefully, after this repair and a thorough 60,000 mile preventive maintenance check up, maybe we'll get some more good service from the little guy...so far, so good! One thing we've learned, full time rv'ing for almost four years, is that stuff can and will happen and break while we're on the road. Our philosophy is to try and keep it as simple if possible, and having the Smart as a tow car does just that. It has proven to be safe, reliable transportation, backed by the nationwide Mercedes Benz network. Is it the cheapest way to go? No, but it is a practical way for us.
 After a day or two checking to make sure Smarty's repairs had taken, we left Charleston behind and headed up US 17 for the next stop on our route to The Outer Banks, one of the most famous tourist towns on the East Coast, Myrtle Beach, and the beautiful and historic city of Wilmington, North Carolina.

Early Spring 2014 Update

Mary Ann at her desk..Hilton Head

 It's the end of March, 2014, and we've landed back in Savannah for a more in depth visit. I must say we have been looking forward to this revisit since we were first here back in 2010. Savannah, so far, is our favorite big city in this part of The South. It's full of southern charm. The kind you read about or hear of when people talk about The South. The genuine warmth and kindness that many think has been lost in our society still generally exists here, even four years later than my first story about it. (If you want a quick reference to what I'm adding in this post, start back in June of 2010 over in the right hand column, and then come back here.) We had to revisit a favorite stop in Savannah, Leopold's Ice Cream http://www.leopoldsicecream.com/ . A hundred years of tradition, and one of the most iconic ice cream parlors in the USA! Where else to eat in this foodie town? Well, there are tons of upscale to down home choices, but two places got our attention this time. The first is an out of downtown place called The Crystal Beer Parlor http://www.crystalbeerparlor.com/. Billed as the second oldest eating place in this very old town, the good, basic pub food and amazing selection of beers from all over are well worth a stop. It's a place so good that the locals come in droves, not minding the mix-in with the tourists. The Green Truck Pub http://greentruckpub.com/about/, which you really have to hunt for outside the downtown area, is another mostly local place but we found it filled with curious and adventurous tourists too. It's a neighborhood bar with terrific food choices, mostly on the healthy side. If you get there after about 5pm...prepare to wait a long time to get seated. It's small but worth the wait! Again, a terrific selection of craft beers, and Mary Ann ordered a reddish IPA, but I ordered a wonderful glass of Camenere Wine from their diminutive but interestingly eclectic list. It went well with my grass fed burger.

Leopold's Ice Cream, Savannah

 I digress though. We actually started this segment in Miami, where we spent most of the winter with brother Ed and sister-in-law, Pat. We'll miss the drive to the Keys, bike rides, and discovering new eating places with them, and our 5:30 pm walks with friends, Dee and Jimmy, near their home, where H2 was residing in their yard. We headed up to Central Florida in the beginning of March and stayed in the Mount Dora area for a couple of weeks.

Mount Dora, FL.

Never heard of Mount Dora? Good! They'd probably like it that way! It's a small town, about 40 miles northwest of Orlando...but a world away. Cuddled up next to a large lake, one of hundreds in the area, the charming downtown is full of shops and restaurants and pretty little parks. It's another in our growing list of very livable places that harken back in time.

 We left there and drove right back up the East Coast highway (I-95), past St. Augustine and Jacksonville, and stopped in Jekyll Island again, but this time we opted to stay right on Jekyll Island so we could spend more time in the old historic village. Again, see my posts from June of 2010. The entire St. Simon's Island, Jekyll Island, Brunswick, Georgia area is so filled with beauty and American history, that we still don't think we've absorbed it enough. The highlight of this stay was a Saturday night dress up dinner at the original  Jekyll Island Club Hotel, built by the likes of Goodyear and Rockefeller. The pastry chef there caught my attention too, especially with the very delicious danishes they sold at the little coffee and pastry shop in the hotel. The little lemon/cheese and cherry/cheese ones in particular! MMM,,.definitely another visit will be needed in the future.


Jekyll Island Club Hotel

 We keep rolling up the coast after the stay in Jekyll and then Savannah, We thought that Charleston was on our route map as the next stay, but ace time share exchanger, Mary Ann, scored a prime time share trade in Hilton Head Island. So on Saturday, after a night's boondocking, we stored H2 for a week away from "the house", and drove about five miles to the Marriott Monarch Resort on a wonderful stretch of beach on The Atlantic. It turns out this is the original property with which Marriott started it's amazing collection of world wide resorts thirty years ago. Our two bedroom, two bath condo is on a high floor, with a great view of the beach (see pic at the top of this story). A near perfect location for a week off the road. It's a luxurious four star property that would have cost over $3000 for the week had we not had that week of time to trade. Mary Ann mined a big one!! Since we have a four star kitchen here, and even though there are some very appetizing looking eateries all around, we are choosing to cook in mostly while we're here. Fresh shrimp and seafood, good grocery stores, and that kitchen, are keeping us mostly home for food this week.

 Our plan is to keep driving up the eastern edge of the country, and another stay in Charleston, until we get to the most Northeastern part of North Carolina and The Outer Banks, and then head west, right back to Asheville for the summer of 2014.

Wintering in Florida (again)

  This post finds me writing from the lower level of brother, Ed, and sister-in-law, Pat's home, just South of Miami. It's already February 2014, and the harsh winter up north is very much in fifth gear while we are living in unusually warm and humid conditions. Just proves the full-time RV'er credo that there's no such thing as perfect weather...anywhere, but we can try to move towards it and maybe get close! Anyway, we're not complaining since we get to have an extended visit and the weather surely could be much worse! Meantime, H2 may as well be a bear because he's hibernating, pulled up about a mile from us at friends Jim and Dee's house. They installed a 30 amp power outlet just for us, and H2's sitting inside the fenced area of their yard. This is giving me time to do some modifications and adjustments that are not easily done while we're rolling, like replacing the original flat screen tv with a larger, more upscale model (and a totally new sound system too!).


Mazzaro's Coffee Bar/St. Petersburg

 To catch up to the present, we have to go back to just before we rolled in to Miami in mid December of 2013. We did actually hit a cool, new foodie place in St. Petersburg that everybody should make a trip to,  Mazzaro's Italian Market http://www.mazzarosmarket.com/  . This is no ordinary little operation. It takes roughly a city block, comprised of various scattered buildings. There's the main market which houses the bakery, meat and seafood, grocery section, coffee bar, and wine area. There are prepared foods and delicacies and just a wonderful selection of stuff to munch on. In another building, there's a new gourmet cooking store. There are lots of good eating choices in Tampa and St. Pete, and we've added this one to the list.
  Next we rolled down to Ft. Myers and Naples and boondocked at Camping World. They even provided us with 30 amp power and a cozy space for the night, while we checked things out in town. Our find here is a chain!! OMG! Marty and Mary Ann eating at a chain restaurant? Yep, it can and does occasionally happen when all signs are aligned properly. This time they were, and we're glad we sought the place out. Name? Pizza Fusion http://pizzafusion.com/company, and they have locations in Florida, N. Carolina, Ohio, New Jersey, Colorado, and oh right...Saudi Arabia (guess the Saudis like eating healthy too!). Healthy? Pizza? You ask, "How can that be?" They use mostly organic ingredients, serve beautiful pies on big, rectangular white china (at least the one in Ft. Myers does), and have a short, but great wine list too. We had a terrific meal there and now are looking forward to visiting the next one in Miami Beach. Hope it's as good as the one in Ft. Myers. If you see one of these in your travels, this one comes highly recommended.


Midway Campground in The Everglades

  Ok, we're dead heading now for Miami, except for a last night on the road for awhile. This last stop is very nearby, right in The Everglades. We stayed along the Tamiami Trail, which, when you're in Miami turns into SW 8th Street (or more familiar to locals, Calle Ocho). This street has for years been known as the heart of Miami's large Cuban community. Before you get to that hustling part though, you couldn't be in a more different environment if you tried...The Everglades! We spent the night at Midway Campground, just about 35 miles west of the Miccosukee Resort & Gaming Casino and the very Western edge of the City of Miami. One night of listening to nothing but chirping frogs, night birds calls, and maybe even an alligator grunt (hopefully off in the distance?) before we gear up for big city life once again. We slept well, and the next morning we spent some time emptying all tanks and finalizing our planned short hop to Dee and Jimmy's, where H2 remains in "dry dock" for a good part of the winter. And here we remain until we pull out and begin the long trek back up the Florida Peninsula as the weather starts warming up a bit, and we look for new places to explore.

Doin' "The Looparound"!

What's a Looperaround , you might ask? Well that's when Marty and Mary Ann leave their "home" for the past summer in Asheville and head to Florida for the winter...by way of Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and (whew!) Alabama, and Florida. That is a LOOPAROUND! So it's mid September, and we're spending three weeks at Camp Winnebago in Northern Iowa, getting our final new coach punch list done (which included a longer than expected stay to work out a very pesky slide-out problem). We then headed down to Dallas, with a few fun stops in Kansas City and Wichita, to visit friends and family. Ten days or so back home in Big D gave us time to do some personal and business business, and a chance to catch up with Mary Ann's cousin Dee Dee and Aunt Willie Mae and good friends like Chuck and Jan, Gary and Marilia, and Bunny and Ivan. One evening while M A was at a business meeting, Ivan, who loves to keep me up on the ever changing burger scene in Dallas, drove me to Good Friend Beer Garden and Burger House http://goodfrienddallas.com/. This is one of the newer HOT tickets on the plate at the moment. The place was packed for a weeknight, we sat down, ordered beers and burgers, and as usual, Ivan waited for my comment. "Whoa...this is an awesome hamburger," I garbled between bites. The Wagyu beef was off the chart delicious, and the micro beer was good too. So good I brought M A back a few days later for her to try. Her score was unusually high too! Ivan had introduced us to a real winner, and for that a big Thnkuvrymch! Other than a few other bites with friends, we didn't eat out much there. Not because there aren't a hundred new places since we last visited, but just due to the hectic schedule.
 This brings us time wise to around the end of October, when we rolled into Tyler for around a ten day stay, which included a visit to the wonderful Rose Garden and a drive over to Canton, Tx. for First Monday. This one would have to be experienced first hand to be fully understood. It, basically, is an entire town turned into a monthly market where you can find anything from clothes to tools, electronics, decorative items, pets, food, etc etc etc! Here's more if you're curious http://www.cantontxfirstmonday.com/?clid=CIPptfWA7boCFU1gMgod1xQAUw Tyler, as much as we love the town, can't be seriously considered for the dining scene. We did hit a couple of favorites though, the first being Andys Custard http://eatandys.com/. This is not ordinary stuff! If you're ever in the area (they're from Springfield, Mo., and there are others in Illinois, Arkansas, and Missouri ), don't miss it. The other is Stanley's Famous BBQ (the Famous is part of their name..for good reason). Simply outstanding Texas Brisket! http://stanleysfamous.com/. Since we were close to the pretty town of Mineola, M A took the time to connect with Junior High friend, Julie and her husband, Gregg. Next, on to Shreveport, where we were hosted by the Diamond Jack Casino parking lot for a couple of days. The only problem was we had left Texas and were now entering LOUISIANA...home of all kinds of FATTENING FOOD and non stop PARTYING. Give up the healthy eating for awhile.,..maybe so! Next, down to the thriving metropolis of Marksville, Louisiana, home of The Paragon Casino RV Resort http://paragonresortcasino.com. 

Slip 127 at Paragon Casino Resort

Ahh...finally! An RV park that calls itself a resort...and it really IS one!! They have about 200 slips, all with full hookups, cable, and very fast internet. The price per night ranges from about $17 all the way up to $22 on weekends. We've finally discovered what other full time motor homers know, that many of the casinos around the country have good facilities for travelers like us, and many of them are very happy to have us stay with them. They range from just a safe place to park the rig for a night or two to places like this, that have beautiful clubhouses, pools, health clubs, and other high end amenities. In fact, on the way down to Dallas, we also stopped at the Winstar Casino http://winstarworldcasino.com/casino on the Texas/Oklahoma border. This place bills itself as the Second Largest Casino in the World, and even if it's only the third largest...it's huge! They have it all there, and the RV park attached to the property is first class all the way. Not a bad way to roll! A side trip from Marksville takes us back on Sunday afternoon to Lafayette. Why drive 83 miles each way for lunch?! Three words...Poor Boys Riverside! We are so close (by full time RV'er miles are our life miles anyway) that we can't pass up the chance to savor the fine cuisine of this area at a place that, for us, typifies it. We sit down, order fresh grilled Redfish with a baked sweet potato, Seafood Gumbo, Italian Salads, mini loaves of yeasty bread and butter, and Sweet Potato Beignets for dessert. This stuff needs no additional sauces or flavorings. Everything is so fresh and well prepared, it's like Foodie Heaven! Well worth the miles.
 So to continue catching up, it's now mid November, and with over stuffed bellies, we start to head due East from Louisiana to another favorite, Fairhope, Alabama. This time, we only stop for two weeks to soak up the Southern charm of this amazing part of the state. Besides visits to old favorites like Lulu's in Gulf Shores (Jimmy Buffett's sister's sprawling and fun eatery) and Pinzone's (some of the best hand made Italian food anywhere!), we only tried one new place, Locals. It's a little start up in downtown that serves locally sourced and pretty organic food for breakfast and lunch. It's very casual, and reasonably priced for the quality. We just stopped in for a quick breakfast where everything's ala carte so you can get one or more eggs, for example, and just toast with nothing else...and they don't overcharge you as if you'd ordered everything else (a bit unusual!). From Fairhope we headed farther East along I-10 into Florida for short stops in Tallahassee and Ocala, where we did manage a revisit to The Villages area (no Foodie finds there still...well, with the single exception of a German bakery we discovered, called Yahala http://www.yalahabakery.com/. Now that doesn't ring very German to my ears, but no matter, the place has great breads and pastries...very authentic and delicious). We also revisited Artisanal Dish in Ocala, which caters to the horse crowd there (and there is a large horse crowd!). They're in the process of a name change to Blue Wagyu http://www.bluewagyu.com/comingsoon/ to take advantage of the Wagyu beef craze which is starting to take hold. If you see a place serving this for a burger for instance, order it! It's like American Kobe beef...healthier and delicious too. Anyway, this place is the one we'll go out of our way for in the area. It's real casual too, but all of the things we've tried there are over the top good! From Ocala down I-75 through St. Petersburg, to our current residence on the way to Miami, Fort Desoto Park (see picture below..we're just to the left with our feet in the sand....(grounding!). Ranked as the Number Four Best Beach in the U.S., this is a great place to spend a few days off the road. Since we've been here we have not left our secluded slip where H2 and Smarty are stationed. All of the cool places in St. Pete and Tampa beckon, but, so far, we're not biting.

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...