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07/09/06 - Flat Rock, NC Checking out the Asheville area and meeting new friends |
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We had been meaning to check out Asheville for a while, as it's been on the list of potential places the Brookses would consider moving to, and while planning our driving trip from Mexico to Michigan, we discovered that, "Hey, it looks like Asheville is between Mexico and Michigan!". A month or so ago, we had found a beautiful home on a home exchange website and contacted them about the possibility of a future exchange. They turned out to be wonderful people with a bit in common with us (as our readers know, WE are wonderful people as well), and invited us to stop over during the course of our drive to Michigan. So after leaving Chad & Dawn's on Sunday and a brief visit to Athens, GA, we made our way to Flat Rock, NC, just south of Asheville. We spent two nights staying with Maureen and Zelle (in addition to their other houseguests Moe, Roberta and Dayna - also wonderful... really need to get that thesaurus out), and spent our one full day driving all over Asheville - visiting the historic Grove Park Inn mountain lodge and spa, meeting up with a friend of Maureen's who grew up in San Miguel de Allende in the 50's & 60's, and having a fabulous sushi dinner downtown.
We really wanted to explore the Asheville area to see what kind of a place it is. And what kind of a place is it? It's the kind of place that has people from all over the country (and world) living there and continuing to move there. The kind of place with lots going on all the time - festivals, meetings, famous guests coming to town to speak. The kind of place with way more sushi restaurants than bbq joints - how un-southern! - and where bike shops sell bicycles, not dirtbikes. The kind of place with "Impeach Bush" billboards downtown, and art films playing at the city cinema. In short, it's a place kind of like (a lot like) California. Only in a beautiful part of the North Carolina mountains. We got a very western feel being in town... a little western oasis in the south. Overall, it seemed like it could be a very fulfilling place to live. You do feel a bit as if you are on an island, a long way from anywhere, although you're only 3 or 4 hours from the Atlantic coast or Atlanta. An interesting place, we'd like to go back and see and do a lot of things we didn't have a chance to... Perhaps a home exchange next year will be in order. |
Maureen & Zelle's
Asheville skyline, from the Grove Park Inn |
