Back Tracking to Asheville ❤️

First of all, there MUST be a better way to move pictures from my iPhone to my laptop, in iPhoto.  The way I did it seemed slow and stupid.  But I finally transferred all those photos (and videos!) I took while in North Carolina to my computer.  Ugh.  But now: Yay.

I guess I'll tell of my travels in sequential order.  At least mostly. So, I'll start at the very beginning, and that was the packing!  Packing for a month might sound slightly challenging, but I had few things working to my advantage.  One, we knew we would have a washer and drying at the house we would be renting. Two, we did this last summer- packed pretty minimally for a month, and loved not having many choices on clothing once there.  And three, North Carolina is not at all a third world country. If I forgot something, or I decided I needed something that I didn't have, all I had to do was go to a store and buy it.

So this is all I packed.

Just as many books as shoes.  As long as I have a few comfy pair for walking, I'm good to go!

This is a pretty small suitcase, but I had plenty of room for a months worth of clothes.

Because the weather app told me the weather was in the 50s at night, and 70s in the day, and I get chilly easily, I only packed two short sleeved shirts and no shorts.  It ended up being a little warmer than I had expected as the month wore on, but with the washing machine, it all worked out fine.  There was one day, or maybe two, I wished I had a swimming suit, but if it had been that important to me to have one, I would have bought a cheap one at Target.  It wasn't essential.  But next time, I'm bringing one for sure.  It takes up no space-- What was I thinking!? I would have loved to have floated around at least one day in the French Broad River!

Traveling from Dallas to Asheville is about a 14 1/2 hour drive, so we broke it into two days.  Ricky loves car trips- He sees it as a time to take long naps in a mobile bed.  Lucy, on the other hand, is not a big fan.  She's gotten better over time, and at least, on this trip, she laid down most of the time.  Never slept or even closed her eyes, but she did lay down the majority of the time.  And that, my friends, is progess!

Bathroom stops, for us or for them, as well as meal stops, are complete chaos.  They get all whiney and pant-y and think having to wear a leash near highway traffic is lame.  It sucks completely.  So we don't stop as much as we should.  By the time we make it to our final destination of the day, it's a circus.  But once they settle in the hotel room, they're happy.

Traveling is exhausting!

The hotel we stayed at when we passed through Memphis was our nicest pet hotel yet.  It was a La Quinta, as usual, but this one was new so it didn't smell doggy and it looked and felt very clean.  (That is, probably until we left!)

The next day, we drove the rest of the way and made it to our house in Black Mountain, which is about 20 minutes outside of Asheville.

Oh My Gee! We're finally here!

Again, monkey business ensued when we first got out of the car, but once we got inside, things calmed down quickly and we all felt right at home. Especially these two...

See? Sometimes we act normal. 

The house we rented was on a quiet street.  And just beautiful!

Our street, for the month of June.

Well, quiet in the city-sense of the word at least.  There wasn't traffic or street noise. But there were lots of chickens and roosters, and outside dogs that barked all through the night!  Believe it or not, the house we stayed in didn't have A/C, so we slept with the windows opened.  The first few nights, the dogs (not ours, OF COURSE, but the barkers outside) drove me crazy.  But somehow, we got used to it.  I loved the sound of the chickens and roosters cock-a-doodle-doing, and now that I'm back in Dallas, I sure am missing that little choir we heard on a daily and nightly basis.

The Choir of Black Mountain~ Gladys Night and the Chicks

That's the "getting there" portion of the North Carolina recap.  I'll get into what we did and saw in my next post.