Black Lake and Beyond: Days 1 & 2: Destination Southeast

See you later, snow and cold.

With gas prices low and a couple weeks free between scheduled events, Ken and I decided to take a car trip we've been thinking about for some time and visit some notable locations in the Carolinas and possibly Georgia. First stop Asheville, North Carolina, a place recommended to us by multiple reliable sources. After that, depending on our mood and the weather, Charlotte, Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Savannah....we will follow our inclinations as the days unfold.

We set out on I-69 on a Thursday and drove as far as Lexington, Kentucky--just this side of the Smoky Mountains. I was a bit leery of the mountain drive, based on memories of my last crossing; it seemed prudent to break up the trip and be fresh on Friday for the ups, downs, and switchbacks.

This is our first car trip in the age of smart phones, so booking rooms and finding restaurants is much more high tech than during our trip to Maine. As we approached Kentucky, I began Googling for a dinner spot with both good beer and good BBQ. Seemed important to hit a BBQ joint as we went through this part of America's BBQ belt.

The place that kept coming up in the results was a humble little place called "Red State BBQ," right in the middle of horse country. Not far from I-75, but from the way we approached Lexington the drive took us past miles and miles of beautiful hilly horse farms. We saw signs posted marking the "Bluegrass Country Driving Route" and every farm we passed was prettier than last, all with long stretches of black wooden fences. (I snarfed this photo off the Internet--here's the source.)

As advertised, Red State BBQ was a humble little place about the size of our cottage, broken into two smallish rooms. The TV was tuned in to a quilting show. I had pulled pork with greens and coleslaw; Ken had the brisket with baked beans and mac & cheese. So scrumptious we over-ate a bit.

After dinner, off to the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Lexington, which had the best combination of price and positive reviews in my smartphone search. Good room, good night's sleep, good (and free) breakfast.

On the road at 10:10 a.m., 443 miles on the tripometer. Still really cold (20s) and still some snow in shady spots, but the scenery is much more interesting now. No more flat Indiana.

The roads are incredibly smooth and bone dry, but you can see winter is still with us on the rock faces alongside the road.

One of our first views of the mountains ahead.

I spent a lot of time on Tennessee and North Carolina's departments of transportation websites trying to ascertain the road conditions on I-40, the shortest route through the mountains. Finally I found "511," a number similar to 911 but for traffic and road emergencies. But it was the sunny, dry road we were on that ultimately convinced me it was unnecessary to divert to the longer, lower route. And as it turned out, I-40 was a relatively easy drive. The most challenging aspect was sharing the road with 18-wheelers, which were limited to the right lane. It was a bit claustrophobic to be driving between concrete dividers and big trucks, but not too bad. Certainly no big scary drop-offs as I had imagined. Anticlimactic, but happily so.

We were in Asheville by 2:45, and since our check-in at 30 E. Chestnut wasn't until 4 p.m., we parked and walked through Harrison Teeter (a big fancy grocery store) and Trader Joe's. At about 3:30 I texted David and he was ready for us, so we rolled down the block to our Asheville digs.

David's house was built in the late 1800s, he told us. He has done extensive work on the place, and we're quite content in our little apartment--two bedrooms, kitchenette, half bath, walk-in shower, and a little table and chairs at which I now sit to write this account.

After we unpacked (and when I say "we" I mean Ken), we got ourselves oriented and set out walking downtown. We explored a bit, and Ken chose our happy hour/dinner destination: Wicked Weed Brewing, a brew pub at 91 Biltmore. It was really cool, and he was happy to be sipping and noshing.

After dinner, we made the one mile walk back to the apartment. I finished up my 10,000 steps for the day by walking up to the Harrison Teeter for some morning coffee and a couple treats for Kenny: salted peanuts and donut holes.