Navigating from Sevierville to Asheville was a relatively straightforward process as it was essentially a straight shot east along I-40 for about two hours. That being said, the route was anything but “straight” as this stretch of highway took us through some of the highest peaks in the Appalachian Mountains. By this point, Sam and I fancy ourselves as “mountain people” so it was nice to be back in our natural habitat!
Thankfully, we got to enjoy the mountain views for a few more days as Asheville and our encampment for the week, Mama Gertie’s Hideaway Campground, are situated right in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As I said at the end of the last post, this spot may be the most scenic campground that we have visited in all our time out on the road – just look at these views that were right outside our front door!
Unfortunately, these views came with a cost, as Mama Gertie’s was anything but cheap with a nightly rate north of $100 (don’t let the “down-home” name fool you). But, as the saying goes – you get what you pay for. We couldn’t have been happier with the service that we received during our time here and we would gladly pay these prices again if we ever find ourselves in the Asheville area going forward.
Our week in the area was relatively quiet and we spent most of our time just hanging around the campground which was located ten miles east of the city. However, we did manage to make it into Asheville proper a couple times – first for little exploration of the downtown area one evening after work and again on Saturday to score some high quality meats from the local farmers’ market. In addition to the great natural scenery, we also enjoyed the artsy feel of the downtown area which had fun restaurants, bars, cideries (pic below), etc. on every corner.
Unfortunately, you can’t have an artsy fartsy downtown area without attracting large numbers of progressives and all that comes with them – from mask/vax mandates to over-the-top virtue signaling from every brewery, bookstore, and coffee shop in town with “Black Lives Matter” signs outnumbering actual black people about 100 to 1.
Sam accurately defined the area when she said “Wow, it really feels like you can be whatever you want to be here! Well, except conservative.”
To celebrate our final evening in the Asheville area, we decided to have a quiet little cookout over the campfire back at the campground. We couldn’t think of a better way to say goodbye to this beautiful part of the country than enjoying a simple meal outside, next to the campfire, maskless.
