Asheville North Carolina

 Paula located an Airbnb house that was about 10 miles out of Asheville for a reasonable price with pets for 2 nights.  We felt we needed a bit of a recharge after a stretch of van nights.  This place had a washer/ dryer plus we could dump our porta potty and give it a needed proper cleaning.  It was nice to be in a house where we all could chill like it was home.  Have to admit to hanging on the couch quite a bit with the TV on which has not happened much in the last 6 weeks.  On our way into town we stopped at the Chimney Rock which was an overlook from a 535 million year old monolith rock you had to hike up 500 stairs to.  Once up there you got a great view down a valley to a reservoir.  There was a secondary hike to a waterfall that was also cool.  Admission was $18/ head that Paula thought may have been too much.  I thought it was worth it and figured it would take quite a bit of money for the infrastructure of the stairs.  We didn’t actually book our airbnb until after the hike, then came some nervous times as we almost ran out of diesel.  We had stopped at the last station prior to the park, but the store you had to pay at was closed at 11am on Sunday. Our range seemed to be fine, but as we drove up to the parking of chimney rock it dropped to 28, then 95 on the way down.  Whose to know how much you really have left.  When the range got to 19, it would no longer tell me how much we had left.  It was stressful, we were very thankful when we rounded the corner to a gas station with diesel.  Now we were excited to get to the house.  It was perfect and was stocked to the max.  Anything you think you might need was there.  We barbecued 2 nights in a row, salmon the first night and steak on the second night we had bought at Costco.  We put the garbage in a dumpster further up the driveway with salmon skin and on my 2nd night of barbecuing I spotted a black bear investigating the dumpster.  We had planned on eating outside on the picnic table, but Mr Bear changed our plans.  We struck a deal with airbnb for 2 additional nights for half price since they were available.  We drove into Asheville, walked around the town, and found a park on the river to have a picnic lunch at.  On our way home, we stopped at another river that was right down the street from where we were staying.  A great stop in Asheville to re-energize, clean up, and relax.  North Carolina is a very pretty and clean state.