I left in good time this morning with a final hug and 'until we meet again' with Wendy and Jerri. With hot coffee in hand, Fluff(Naked)Butt, Chopper, the Bendy Men and I began to explore the road to Asheville. I requested a route from Miss Charmagne GPS and even though she had been recently updated, I don't think she got the word that Route 40 had been reopened. It had been closed for a bit due to a rock slide from the winter storms and only recently opened back up. Instead, Miss Charmagne decided that the scenic route would be a good way to go so I decided to follow her suggestion. It was a bit longer, but quite beautiful!
I had a phone call from a friend around 11:00 and pulled off and parked in a Walmart parking lot while we chatted. The call took over an hour so by the time I was back on the road it was almost 1:30. I finally arrived at the Biltmore about 3:00 and realized I was pooped and decided to defer the visit until tomorrow. I drove on to the KOA, checked in, and took a rest. NakedButt immediately wanted to go out for a walk but I wanted to wait until the sun was lower. I didn't need the AC, so I just opened windows and turned on a fan that sucks air up and out. That was sufficient to keep us cool and I laid down with the ol' laptop and began processing the photos I had taken of the roadside flowers I had seen.
At odd intervals along 64 East, there were fields of poppies and wildflowers in gorgeous colors and I just about ran off the road trying to keep them in sight. Not really, but you get the point. One field had bright red poppies with gorgeous blue cornflowers and talk about bleeding eye colors! Wowee! There was no place for me to pull over so I couldn't take any pictures, dang it, but I finally found one field where there was enough room for me and the photos you see are from that field. I wish I could do justice to the colors I saw but the day was overcast and I couldn't seem to balance the exposure correctly. Oh, well, I tried. Perhaps tomorrow when I'm in the gardens it will be a bit sunny and I won't have to compensate for such things.
I also pulled over at a scenic turnout and the Bendy Men indicated that they'd like a look at the view also. The photo makes them look like they're getting ready to jump, but, no, they're just excited at seeing the beauty before them. One of them still has an injured arm that doesn't appear to be getting any better. Sad, that, but it doesn't affect his mood so we all just ignore it and move on.
I'm not staying up late tonight because I want to get an early start at the Biltmore tomorrow. I'm not sure if I'll stay over another night or move on down the road when I'm done. I guess it depends on my body's stamina, so we'll see!
Lessons learned:
Even though I've dumped the holding tanks, the black water tank still thinks it's 2/3 full. What's up with that?
The refrigerator really doesn't keep things very cool. I turned it to electric cooling as soon as I could plug in, but it was on 12 volt as I was driving. I kept it closed as much as possible but it still lost the coolness faster than I appreciated. This is a typical problem with RV fridges and the suggested bag of ice I stuffed in there hasn't appeared to do much to keep the chill down. The blasted thing is turned on and set to max, so another what's up with that?
Observations:
Although I bought a nice, new, cozy, high-walled litter pan for NakedButt to hide in when we would be on the road, she still thinks she's better off in the litter box. I even placed a ratty old familiar towel in the pan and scattered catnip on it. She sneered at it and crawled in the litter box. Sigh.
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Love the roadside flowers on 64E. Yes, they are deliberately planted. You'll see "Do Not Mow" signs posted for the road crews. Some are fields of poppies, some are daylilies, some are cosmos, and some are varied. It depends on the month. But it's always beautiful. In the fall, there are pretty wild blue asters on Chunky Gal to offset the fall colors.
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