Day 107: A visit from a pup and antiquing in Asheville.

I never thought I would be waking up next to a french broad in my lifetime but never say never. Good morning, French Broad River! What a view. And I am going to pretend that the campground is 100% perfect just like this view. What pile of trash and used mattress? I don’t see that sitting behind one of the full timing RVs across the street from us. The bathrooms are locked up for the season? I can’t hear you. The river is too loud. Haha.

Today will be another full day in Asheville for us. The weather is finally warming up a tiny bit and the kids are happy about it. They get to do arts and crafts outside and actually can take up as much space as they want on the picnic table. But given the choice, they still chose to sit close to one another. Love it.

Today we are all super excited because a fellow Airstream blogger whom we’ve been following is going to stop by to say hello with her pup. Her name is Terrah of lehowl.com. She lives in a 1978 turquoise and white Argosy Airstream with her 7 dogs and gecko.

Terrah runs a cute shop on Etsy where she sells super cute pouches, bags and necklaces. She was amazingly kind to bring some gifts for us. The girls each got pouch to fill with treasures they collect around the country and we got a sweet Airstream tote. Hmmm, how did she know we love Airstreams? I can’t wait to use it. Thanks again, Terrah!

Terrah also brought over the sweetest dog named Sally. She is a very gentle, toothless pit bull who loves kids. The girls immediately fell in love because pink is their favorite color, too. All of Terrah’s dogs are rescues. Most, if not all, were “unadoptable” and their time was almost up before she took them in. The love she has for animals is infectious. If you have a chance, go browse her Etsy shop to do some early Christmas shopping. And the pictures of her dogs on her blog are amazing. I wish I could hire her to take pictures of our dog, when the girls are ready for one. Maybe some day 🙂

When we come to Asheville, we like to eat. Yes, I know we like to do that in every city but it is hard to find a bad meal in this town. Trust me. Today’s lunch spot was Moe’s Orignal BBQ.

The pulled pork was amazing. They even give you warm BBQ sauce on the side. In case you are wondering if the kids enjoy this type of food, well they do. Ava loves baked beans and the pulled pork sliders. Mila prefers some mac ‘n cheese with some pork too.

But eating these days is a little rough for Ava. She has to be extra careful and chew with her back teeth. That loose front bottom tooth is starting to hurt a little. Growing up is tough work.

Next stop of the day was to an antique store called The Screen Door. It was the best antique store of the trip yet. Many thanks to my favorite Instagramer Joy for the heads up on this place! She is currently planning a cross country adventure with her family in a vintage Spartenette and I dare you to find a trailer cuter than this one.

My favorite piece in the entire store was this 1920’s pink metal dental cabinet. Yes, I have a thing for vintage metal. Come on, how could you not love this?!?! If it only didn’t weigh a ton, it would have come home with us… and if it didn’t cost a thousand dollars.

Dan was enamored with this antique book that he found. I guess he was drawn to the sailboat on the cover. Imagine that? He has been hounding me to sail the seven seas with him for as long as I can remember.

But this ended up not being a sailing book but an old geography book from 1907.

And you would not believe what was written in this book. After describing the black race, the book says “the black race includes some of the most ignorant people in the world”. Yeah, I know, isn’t it ironic? History is not kind to authors who write dumb things.

Since the kids didn’t break anything, we tried our luck at a second antique shop in town called the Tobacco Barn.

This place was not curated nearly as much as the last place. I was much worried that the kids would break something or that something would fall on the kids. So we stayed a safe distance from most of the booths. Dan did caught a glimpse of a surf board. Man, that guy sure misses his boards back in storage. Luckily this one was way over priced or it might have come home with us, too.

Mila loved this antique coal burning stove. It was actually a miniature version of the real thing that salesmen used back in the day to show potential buyers what they could buy as he went door to door. I guess it was a little easier to lug around but still a pain, I’m sure.

The salespeople were impressed that we got through there with no issues so they gave the girls quarters to ride the horsey and buy some candy.

Since today is our last full day in Asheville, we ate out once again. We try not to eat at a sit-down place twice in a day but Asheville is our exception. Our finally stop was the much anticipated Early Girl Eatery. The kids were not too happy with the choices we picked out for them. Sorry ladies.

But I was. I found someone who makes dairy-free shrimp and grits. No, it was not the goat cheese version that I still dream about from Tupelo Honey Cafe but it was still delicious. The nice thing about Asheville is that every restaurant is super accommodating about allergies. They will go out of their way to double check stuff without rolling their eyes at you.

After a full day of activities around the town, the kids were happy to back “home” in the Mali Mish. The rest of the evening was spent lounging around and skyping with family back at home. Hi Nona!

I think Yoda missed us today because when it was bedtime, she crawled up by Ava and fell asleep. Or maybe she was glad we didn’t adopt a dog today 🙂

the end,
marlene