Asheville, NC

After 5 days at my father's house in Charleston, SC, we determined that our best course of action would be to leave, even though it means missing his birthday two days later.  Our reasons were many; 1) it was very hot and humid (high 80s & ~80% humidity), 2) Richard was clearly allergic to something in the air, even taking the usual Claritin, 3) the mosquitos had attacked Kelly so badly that she was beginning to have a more severe allergic reaction to all fo the bites, 4) there would be rain and thunderstorms starting over the weekend and extending for quite a few days.  It just began to look as if leaving before the storms started would be best, so we decided to leave and meet up with our new friends, Guy & Lisa, whom we met just a few weeks earlier at Cades Cove Campground.  (You remember, where we talked until midnight?)  So, it was with sadness that we said our goodbyes and got onto the road.

We travelled NW on I-26, through Columbia and everythging was going well until...

Just north of Spartanburg, SC, the GPS suddnely informed us that I-40 had a huge delay in the direction we were planning to go, and we probably should take an alternate route.  At least this alternate route wasn't over gravel or dirt roads, it turned out!

It was indeed windy, as the signs for truckers were warning, but not too bad

and we finally arrived at the Asheville East KOA.

We sent a TXT to our friends, arranged to get together for dinner at their place, showed up with our usual G&T, chips, etc., and we all had a great time talking and laughing all evening, until...  we suddenly realized it was 2am!  Oops!

Saying our goodbyes for the evening, Kelly & Richard came back to our trailer and passed out.  Neither of us slept very well and we got up late Saturday morning, determined to go somewhere even though it had already started raining by around noon.

Saturday - April 4th ("May the forth be with you!")

We visited one place today, "Asheville's Best Gem Mine" shop.  Kelly did the "mining for gemstones" using their sluice and had a great time!  It was a well designed experience.  While the pails of dirt were obviously seeded with gemstones for you to find, they did a great job of helping you identify all of them and it gives you a taste of the experience and everyone who was there seemed to be having a great time!  We highly recommend this experience and the shop!  This is truly a rock shop made for rock hounds and run by rock hounds.  We had a great time and ended up staying after they were closed, discussing various types of rocks, etc.

So, we say "bye" to our new friends for now.  May we see you again on the road somewhere, but not say up until 2am!

Tomorrow, Sunday, April 5th (Cinco de Mayo and my father's 93rd birthday!), we head toward Crater of Diamonds State Park via a small campground just west of Nashville, TN.  Sorry, kitties, but it'll be a long travel day!