– Asheville, North Carolina to Nashville, Tennessee –

Today, we visited the highest point in North Carolina, Mt. Mitchell. We’ve been to a few high points before, but it’s never been one of Mark’s favored collections, or at least, not while I’ve been around. Before Ripley and me, he visited a number of high points on his own, but not too many. We’ve been to maybe 6 as a family, and I know Mark is talking about making a page to mark off the ones we’ve visited. We will never make it to a few of them, as “five require real mountaineering skills: Denali in Alaska; Washington’s Mount Rainier and Oregon’s Mount Hood in the Pacific Northwest; and Montana’s Granite Peak and Wyoming’s Gannett Peak in the Rockies. Another five or so (Rhode island, Illinois, Kentucky, and others) are on private land and require landowner permission.”

With no mountaineering skills to speak of, and no desire to acquire them, we won’t be doing anything that requires and sort of rope or actual exposure to heights. I can’t even imagine climbing a rock wall at a gym, and I feel like fainting on a mountain would be counterproductive. It isn’t just me, though. Mark doesn’t seem to into the idea, either. The only problem for him is, he loves gear. Mountaineering is a sport with a great deal of related gear, and he drools on it sometimes when we visit REI. I’m not sure if his favorite part is the little rock climbing shoes or the carabiners and anchors. I don’t even know what gear would be required for each of those climbs (although I suspect it would be quite different for each one). I vote we just stay out of it.

In any event, since Mt. Mitchell was really our only goal for today (besides getting to Nashville for the night), we weren’t in too big of a hurry. We got up at 6am and went for a run at a local park. I must say, it wasn’t a great run. Asheville, despite being a granola hipster mecca, didn’t seem to have that many good trails, or at least based on what we could find from the internet. Maybe we should’ve picked one of the other options, but since we didn’t, I guess I can’t swear that all of the options would’ve turned out badly, but none of them sounded any better.

Mark took the camera out before our run this morning, which we never do. He took a few pictures before and after our workout, so one can now see photographs of us all sweaty and wearing matching hats. It also means you get to see Ripley’s running gear. It’s not fancy, by any means, but since I don’t really have any other pictures of her in it, I guess it is interesting. Anyway, if you haven’t ever read the page about her backpack, Ripley wears that little cutoff T-shirt under her running harness because she pulls while she runs, and the shirt protects her hair and skin from damage from the harness. You’d think that she would stop pulling if the harness started to irritate her, but no. That’s giving her too much credit.

Once we’d all had our exercise and taken our tired and sweaty photographs, we drove back to our hotel for a shower and packed up all of our stuff. We grabbed Dunkin’ Donuts on the way out of Asheville, since we never get it at home. It’s about an hour and a half up to Mt. Mitchell from Asheville, and after we’d seen it, we would have to turn around and drive back through Asheville to get to Nashville, so we weren’t really making any forward progress with out morning excursion. By the way, is you haven’t noticed, Asheville and Nashville sound a great deal alike, and it caused us a bit of confusion when we were planning and discussing the trip before we left. One of us would be talking about one city, and the other about the other city, and then we’d have to ask which one the other was talking about. It’s a little silly, actually.

As you might expect for June in the South, it was pretty warm down in Asheville, even in the morning. As we drove up into the mountains, it kept getting colder, and colder, and cloudier, and cloudier. In the end, when we made it up there, the mountain was totally socked in, and I was absolutely freezing. You can’t tell from the photographs, but despite the little jacket, I was trying very hard not to turn into a human popsicle. It wouldn’t have been so bad without the wind and the fog, but I was seriously doubting that it was summer at all up there. I suppose it isn’t technically summer until the 20th, but whatever. Everyone knows summer in the South starts in May.

To get to the top of Mt. Mitchell, you first drive up the side of the mountain until you reach a flat-ish area where they have a relatively large parking lot, as well as a small cafe, a bookstore, and bathrooms. About a mile back down the road, there’s also a restaurant, which advertises itself as “fine dining.” From what I’ve read about it, it appears that the views are spectacular, but the food is not, and that “fine dining” is a bit of an exaggeration, but I digress.

From the parking lot near the top, there’s about a 300-yard walk to the observation deck at the top. It’s a lovely little trail, wide and paved. It’s quite steep, but not nearly so bad as the walk to the top of Clingmans Dome. Ripley was allowed this time, which made me much happier, and her as well. She practically towed me up the mountain, she was so excited. I was happy to be in a hurry, anyway. I couldn’t wait to get out of the wind.

At the top, we ran into a pair of trail runners and their two beautiful Vizslas. They were very well-behaved, but were not on leashes, so we were a little hesitant to go up onto the observation deck, where they were running around with their masters. Ripley did want to meet them, though, and they kept stopping and staring out at her, too. They ended up being quite friendly, and Ripley wanted to play with the first one she met. Unfortunately, once she realized there were two, she became intimidated and changed her mind. She tried to hide behind Mark and I instead. She’s such  a sweet little coward.

We didn’t get many good photos from the top thanks to all of the fog, and we joked with some of the other people we ran into about the delightful weather we were having. Back at the parking lot, we popped Ripley into her seat in the car and locked the door so we could take a quick look around the gift shop. No sooner had we turned from the door then we started hearing the most horrible screaming you can imagine. Whoever was screaming wasn’t even stopping for air. I looked around, half-worried that I might witness a murder, and ended up spotting a toddler instead. She was perhaps 3 or so, and she was screaming loudly enough that I expect they could hear it at the bottom of the mountain. Her parents looked incredibly embarrassed, and her poor mother kept saying, over and over, “It’s just a jacket!” I guess the baby did not like wearing her coat.

She screamed the entire time we were in the gift shop, causing the employees to go outside more than once to make sure that the kid wasn’t being killed. According to the lady at the desk, they’d started the climb to the top of the mountain, but had turned around and come back down. When we walked out of the store, the screaming had only just stopped, and her parents were stuffing her back into their SUV. I guess they gave up on their walk up to the top. I can’t say I blame them. The little girl really had an excellent pair of lungs. Surely she’d worn a jacket before? I hope she doesn’t scream every time, or they must be miserable in the winter.

Back in Asheville about an hour and a half later, we grabbed Whole Foods for lunch. We hadn’t planned to, but it was easy and convenient. We did have sandwiches instead of the hot bar, however. Mark’s was a vegan Reuben (without rye bread, because they were out), and mine was a vegan BLT. The “bacon” in the sandwich was tempeh, which I always seem to forget that I despise. I wasn’t impressed. It was a better sandwich without it. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to The Cupboard, back home in Denton, but they make a V.A.L.T., which is a vegan avocado, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. That’s almost exactly what this was supposed to be, except The Cupboard just uses fake bacon bits. It is fantastic that way. Mark and I even make them at home. It’s funny how practically the same ingredients can be used, but one thing can be awful, and the other good. What I’m really saying is, you can keep your tempeh, Whole Foods.

It was only about 4.5 hours from Asheville over to Nashville, and we went through Knoxville this time, which we hadn’t driven through on the way in, since we went through the Smokies. We stopped briefly at the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center for the Blue Ridge Parkway, which was entertaining. They had a wood burning stove, which Mark really wants for our new house someday. Every time we see one, he points out how cool they are. I’m not so sure. It looks messy and hot. We will see. We visited a really nice rest stop, too, where Ripley entertained small children with her friendly nature and soft ears. She loves quiet, calm children. If the kids are too excited, she panics and hides. All of the children she met at the rest stop were sweet to her, and so she stood still and let them rub and pat all over her. I was so proud.

The times changes somewhere after Knoxville back to Central, so we gained an hour and made it to Nashville around 4:30. We stopped by our La Quinta and unpacked and rested for a bit before we drove back out into Nashville to visit a dog park and check out a little bit of the town. We didn’t have too much that we cared to see, so we didn’t have too many plans.

The dog park we visited was in Centennial Park, and it was positively full of dogs. It was a nice park, too. It was filled with soft grass and trees, and the ground was covered in hundreds of tennis balls. They were literally everywhere. I can only assume the city provided them, since they were so prolific. They were certainly not forgotten by that many dog owners. It was nice to have them, even if Ripley wasn’t interested in playing fetch. She made friends with an Australian Shepherd puppy, and they played together for a while. In the photo, you can see that the park has two tiers, and Ripley, who won’t even jump into the car on her own, jumped up onto the upper tier multiple times. We were pretty surprised, especially considering it was around waist-high on me. The little Shepherd couldn’t make it, and we felt so bad. We wanted to help her, but she lost interest in chasing after Ripley before we got the chance, and Ripley was left wondering where her little friend went.

We didn’t know it before we went, but Centennial Park actually has a full-size replica of the Parthenon with an art museum inside. We walked across the road to visit it once Ripley was tired. It’s huge, and feels very out of place. It’s interesting though, and I’d recommend a visit if you pass through Nashville. From the front, you can’t tell just how long it is. The museum was closed when we arrived, which makes me a little sad. I’m not usually one for art museums (I like science and history a little better), but this one houses a statue of Athena Parthenos, which is a recreation of what scholars and the artist believe the original statue in the Greek Parthenon would’ve looked like. It’s 42 feet high and gilded.

In reading about all of this, I’ve learned that Nashville is called the “Athens of the South,” because of its early establishment of universities and a public school system, as well as its general wealth and gentility. The nickname is why the replica of the Parthenon was built in the first place. At first, it was made of plaster in the 1890s, and then later it was rebuilt in concrete to create a more permanent structure. The more you know, right?

Once we were done with the little Greece, we decided we were starving and drove back to Nashville’s Whole Foods (for the second time on this trip) to get a meal (for the second time today.) We’ve gone a little overboard on the Whole Foods on this trip, I fear. I bet we don’t visit any next time, but we will see. It’s going to be fun to refer to this one as “The Great Whole Foods Trip,” though. I will enjoy it, at least.

We went back to the hot bar this time, and our food was delicious. Mark was a bit disappointed in his chicken-fried tofu today, though, as it was a little cold. I told him to take it back to the hotel and warm it up in our microwave, thus saving the day. I do think he burned his mouth a little though, so maybe I’m not the hero he deserved, but just the one available at the time. That’s how the Batman quote goes, right?

Ripley had a large amount of ice from our cooler for a snack after her dinner, and she ended up shivering pretty violently. She kept running back and forth between Mark and I, who were sitting in the bed. It was clear she wanted to be cuddled, and she wasn’t taking no for an answer. Since I was typing away on the computer, Mark took puppy snuggle-duty, and he popped her into his lap and covered her with our sweaters. She almost instantly stopped shivering, which makes me suspect that she was manipulating us. Sometimes, when she doesn’t want to do something, she will shake to make us feel guilty. I think the first time was an accident, but now she knows that shaking like that breaks our hearts, and thus she’s learned to use it to her advantage. Last week she shivered at me when she didn’t want me to clean her ears after a shower.

Tomorrow we will get up early to run here in Nashville, then we have a long drive back home. We will probably stop for Whole Foods lunch one last time in Little Rock. It looks like a pretty long day, but the weather should be nice, and we will get to sleep in our own beds tomorrow night.

– Trip Total : 1,562 miles –