Hungry Times Two

West Asheville has some big damn hills. I forgot about them after 15 years away, but my quads now remember. Yesterday I walked almost four miles round-trip to see my first West Asheville residence, on Hudson Street. In 2001 I split rent with two UNC-Asheville friends, paying less than $300 each per month for a three bedroom house. During my junior year of college, my dad came up to visit from Concord, NC one December day, bringing a Christmas tree and treating us all to a holiday lunch at Asiana Grand Buffet on Smokey Park Highway (now the Yao Buffet & Grill). He also may have gotten a U-Haul truck stuck in the front yard while backing into the very steep driveway. Hudson Street looks nothing like what I remember. Two-story McBungalows at the top of the street replaced the small cottage where a nice older man used to live, a man I once called 911 for when I saw him fall around the corner on State Street.  After Hudson Street, I rented my first solo place on Oakwood Stre...

Road trips in books and films always seem so fun, carefree, and adventurous.  Or they can be devolving nightmares that can't end fast enough. Our Oregon to North Carolina trip wasn't quite the latter, but it didn't nearly have enough of the former. Read on for an authentic account of Scott, Erin, and Loretta the dog, packed into a Ford C-Max hatchback for seven loooooong sub-caffeinated days. 

If you've kept up with us over the years (thanks Moms, for reading) you'll know we moved from Charlotte, North Carolina to Gresham, Oregon in April 2018.  Therefore, deciding to move back to North Carolina this summer definitely raised some eyebrows.  What can I say? When you know, you know. That female intuition is some powerful stuff.  It was harder for Scott to leave the Pacific Northwest. Have you seen that man around tall evergreen trees and all the IPAs one can drink? Yet my insistence that one more winter in dreary, dark rain would end me, coupled with the high cost of living and the diminished shine of his PNW college days, were the reality checks to help make this giant U-turn of life. This was no '90s free-wheeling Oregon. 2019 was all too real.  To quote Marc Maron , we don't know how much time we have left. Rather than harp on what Oregon didn't provide, I'd rather think about what our return to Asheville, North Carolina can. I'm ...

Last month we trekked with some friends to the Asheville area for some much needed R&R.  "R&R" = cheese, y'all.  We rented a cute cottage in Swannanoa via Airbnb  and planned a fun Saturday out on the Western North Carolina Cheese Trail.  Our trip planner extraordinaire friend J nailed down a few to try out -- we didn't want to overdo the cheese (I know, hard to believe, but that could get ugly ) and we also wanted to save a little time to check out downtown Asheville.  Our first stop: Hickory Nut Gap Farm in Fairview. Currently in expansion/renovation mode, the farm is the perfect spot to say hello to some horses, gape at the goats, and peruse a wide variety of area products in their store. I bought some local honey for our pet sitter, some Lusty Monk mustard,  the farm's salami, and a brisket.  Next we took a short drive over to Looking Glass Creamery , also in Fairview. It's a small adorable cottage with an adjacent...

I'm *thisclose* to 40 hours of freedom - yep, one whole week of vacation. Downright indulgent, right ? My Mother Dear invited me to tour Nova Scotia with her and we're setting out this Saturday on a plane to Halifax. Just picture it: Me, Mother Margaret, a subcompact rental car, a GPS that hopefully works, and the open Canadian roads.