Tuesday 12/17/13 Daniel Boone to Asheville
I woke up first and quietly rested until a woodpecker woke Riley. We stayed in the car and watched it hammer away at a few trees. Riley exclaimed "He looks like Woody Woodpecker. His head is really shaped like that, they weren't exaggerating!" I took a really terrible video of him that I'll post, apologies in advance. Woody's Cousin flew off and suddenly a ton of other birds emerged and began chirping, either because of WC's absence or because 8:29am is birdie time.
This time we found a towel to dry the condensation, which made us feel much better. We spat toothpaste on smoldering coals to put the fire completely out. Not ready to leave without seeing a few more sights, we drove to see the Sky Bridge, which was just how it sounds.
Headed towards Asheville, our first stop was at a gas station with a Subway inside. We ordered sandwiches (I had a gift card!) and the adorable older woman who applied toppings said "his'in" when referring to Riley. Oh, the magical southern drawls we heard! At the next stop, Riley saw what he was pretty sure was a real life truck stop hitcher/hooker headed South. Winding through the gorgeous mountains and sunshine, we went through Hazard (yes, that one) on the Johnny Cox All-American Expressway and drove past the Perry County Sheriff Outpost. Later we came upon an accident that warranted a blocked road where a helicopter had landed.
We rolled into Asheville and checked into the Super 8. After unloading nearly everything from Spaceship Blueberry and the rooftop box, we took SHOWERS GLORIOUS SHOWERS! We went out to The Vault and had the best burgers I've ever tasted with a Caesar salad and a bearded barman. It was a dark, lovely bar that was popular but not too crazy. We braved the wind and stopped in at another bar that had a secret music venue in the back, through a door marked "Private".
Exhaustion prevented us from exploring any more and we came back to the room and fell asleep on each other around 10:30pm. Pretty quickly after drifting off, the smoke alarm screeched us awake. Horror. Riley scoped out the situation and I called the front desk. After everything was deemed safe, we went back to sleep. Another horrible screech woke us at 6:58am.
