Day 17

 The next destination on our Southern road trip was Asheville, about 150 miles to the north.  The drive was beautiful, the antithesis of Atlanta’s interstates, as we meandered through the mountains of the Nantahala National Forest, parallel to the Appalachian Trail and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  

This road was very similar to Franconia and Crawford notches in New Hampshire, only the mountains here are taller.  A good part of our route followed a very popular whitewater rafting/kayak river, the Nantahala River, which had to have been a great way to escape the heat.

Around 1 pm we arrived at one of our favorite restaurants, the Sunnypoint Café, which is located in the artsy Bohemian area of Asheville.  The temp was now 90°, so we opted to eat indoors, away from the midday heat.

Our lunch began with mimosas, a specialty of the house.  Joni followed up with chicken and waffles, I think she’d decided on this well before we even left our home on the Cape.  I ordered shrimp and grits with a biscuit on the side.  Both of our meals were very satisfying; so there’s no doubt we’ll return.

Returning to our van, the 90° heat was really overwhelming us, so we scrapped our sidewalk shopping tour of Asheville, and headed 20 miles south to our campsite, at the North Mills River campground which is in the Pisgah National Forest.   

Several of our neighboring campers were fly fishing for trout.

Dinner was in the van...cereal with strawberries and blueberries.