Asheville, NC to Asheville, NC
We slept in late and even the pups weren’t moving. Jason went down to check out the bathrooms and reported the low water pressure we noticed when we hooked up was true all over the campground. No problem, low is better than high. We do have a water pressure monitor on our water line so we can ensure we don’t blow the lines out with high pressure from the campground.
Jason went for a swim in the pool too and looked refreshed when he returned. I didn’t want to wait for breakfast so I had Trader Joe’s Crunchy Cinnamon Squares. Fun fact! The TJ’s version of these is vegan. The brand name is not. I fed the pups a good meal with a can of dog food for them hoping I would be forgiven for how long they were in the car the day before.
I went down and showered but it took a long time for the water to get up to temp. Brrrrrrr
We sat down to make a plan for the day. I have been very excited about Asheville. This was the place I asked to stop at. It has an amazing amount of good vegan food and we’ve been told by people who’ve been here that they could see Jason and I living here at some point in our lives. I wanted to get to know the city that made people think of us. I had a list of about 8 places I wanted to go to….all food related. My friend Jill Blake added to my original list when she was texting me about the trip. The Blake’s like Asheville too!
When trying to map out the day and which areas we wanted to get to, we kept encountering the same note…. closed Tuesday. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday. I was crushed. Most of the places I wanted to go to wouldn’t be open when we were here! Ahhhhh
Still wanting to get to know the city and figuring I could find something to eat somewhere, we set off. We parked over near the Grove Arcade with a two hour parking meter. Jason went into a hat store and tried some on. While I waited outside the store with the pups a little girl approached me and her mother asked if Patch was a blue heeler like the character Bluey. When I said yes the girl very excitedly asked to pet her and get a picture. She was happy to finally meet Bluey! Patch already knows she’s celebrity status so she gave the girl a lick and took a picture with her. So damn cute!
Meandering through this indoor mall a little further, I notice there is an instrument store. There is no doubt in my mind that this is where we’re going to be spending some time. We heard the music and Jason’s eyes perk up. The instruments are called Woodrows and we were lucky enough that the owner and maker of the instruments was in the shop today.
The instrument is a version of an Appalachian dulcimer. It’s a mountain sound, with a mix of banjo and mandolin with a little bit of guitar. Each instrument was handmade with different woods all milled locally. Because of this they all had a unique sound ranging from more banjo to more mandolin. The cut outs in the front also changed the tone of the sound. Dan put on a show for us and demonstrated that with a capo the sound can change even more drastically between major and minor. Jason is a lefty so he asked if these could be switched around and Dan said he could definitely do that for us.
Happy 50th Birthday, Babe!
Some of you may know that Jason had a big birthday last month! We had tried to make some plans with our friends but things in my life really weren’t settled at the time and we had to postpone to another time. I had told Jason that I wanted to buy him something on the trip that he wouldn’t normally buy himself. I looked over to him and said “Happy 50th, Babe!” and he knew he had the green light to go ahead and figure out which one’s sound was the one he was most intrigued by. Dan helped Jason out by playing each one right handed because it’s hard to flip it in your mind when you’re trying to play upside down and hear a good sound at the same time. We talked about the sounds we liked and Dan grabbed a few and played them so we could listen to the differences. Jason decided on a crystacello with black walnut and cherry woods. He describes the sound as more bluegrass. We picked up a case, capo, and new strings and Dan told us to return in an hour and he would restring it to be lefty for Jason. We returned to pick it up and Dan had signed the guitar for Jason and he was so grateful for that. I’m glad we were able to have such an amazing conversation with Dan over the course of the hour or so we were there. Such a nice man who is truly living his best life.
We walked around downtown Nashville for a bit and tried to grab a bite to eat at a place Dan had recommended but it was too long of a wait and it was closing soon. We moved the car to the other side of town and explored some more.
We stopped at Cultivated Cocktails Distillery. They had a rosé gun Jason wanted to try out so we grabbed a flight. The menu was leather and I did not like that part.
Finally we headed over to Rosetta’s Kitchen and Buchi bar. This is an all vegan restaurant that was on my list and the only one open today haha. Perfect! The menu had a lot to offer so we grabbed a little of everything.
We headed back to the campground and settled in for the night. We made a game plan for the next day since more things would be open. I was super bummed I wasn’t able to get to more of the places I wanted to but I knew we still had time. We had leftovers from Rosetta’s for dinner and got to bed early.
We’ll leave you with some sound advice we learned in Asheville….
Vegan On the Rhode 