About five years ago, Adam and I decided that we wanted to visit Asheville, North Carolina. I’m not sure where this desire came from; I don’t even think we’d met anyone who lived there until years later. Based on the influx of northerners, it’s possible we were also influenced by some mysterious marketing campaign. Regardless of the reason, we excitedly decided to book a cabin in the woods somewhere near Asheville for that Christmas time. Unfortunately for us, however, our plans were thwarted by ‘Snowmageddon 2010’. This, I think only served to make us more enticed by this little city.
When we began preparations for this summer, we decided that starting off in Asheville might be the easiest transition from NYC to life on the road. I met a native ‘Ashevillian’ last summer who confirmed all our Internet Research about how the city is not only surrounded by beautiful mountains, but is also inhabited by open-minded, happy people who drink a lot of beer and eat only good food.
Asheville, to put it simply, met and exceeded all of our (super high) expectations. We stayed in the Asheville area for two full weeks before moving on. In that time we climbed to some of the prettiest views we’d ever seen, went on amazing trail runs, ate incredible food, and of course, drank great beer at many of the local breweries.
We stayed in a cabin for the first week out in Leicester, North Carolina. (We had the top floor above the garage).
The second week we spent camping at Lake Powhatan, which was right along the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway. 
On July 4th, we hiked out to Skinny Dip Falls to go swimming, but unfortunately it was grey and rainy so we decided not to jump in. We’re pretty sure Vera was ok with that idea since she associates water only with taking a bath (one of her least favorite things to do). 
Probably my favorite hike was the morning we climbed to the top of Max Patch, an area on top of a mountain once cleared for a pasture, that offers 360 degree views of the Great Smokey and Black Mountain Ranges. Views for days…
Also, on this hike, we got to see our first ever baby llama.
It was definitely hard to say goodbye to the comforts of Asheville, but we were excited about pushing onward to Adam’s most anticipated stop: Chattanooga, Tennessee (of course, his anticipation was based solely on this article from Outside Magazine).
earth's sweet gas 