Day 95: Ruby Falls and Rock City Gardens.
Let me start off with an apology. This will be a looooooong post. So sorry. Because we did tons of stuff today. Awesome stuff to be exact! Our first stop of the day was the famous Ruby Falls.
Let me start off with an apology. This will be a looooooong post. So sorry. Because we did tons of stuff today. Awesome stuff to be exact! Our first stop of the day was the famous Ruby Falls.
Today is the end of our 4 day stay here at beautiful Asheville, North Carolina. After we left Charleston, SC, we had originally planned to head along the coast into North Carolina’s outer banks. Even though I am already feeling a tinge of regret for not making it there, we are glad we came to Asheville. Even the family of ducks came to say goodbye to Ava before we left.
It is no secret that we do a lot of eating on this trip. If anything is going to make us end the trip, it is going to be that one day, we will get back from yet another delicious local restaurant and not be able to fit through the doors of the Airstream. Until that days comes, we will keep the sampling of local cuisines on our itinerary.
Mila, soon you will be able to join us on our binge across America. I promise.
After spending a good part of a day in town yesterday, we decided we would stay at the campground and just hangout and relax here. It is sometimes a difficult decision to make to not do any sightseeing because you are constantly nagged with the feeling that you are missing out on something. We figured since we are staying 2 more days here than we originally anticipated, we can afford to take things slow.
Last night getting to Asheville, North Carolina was another late one. Google Maps let us down again and took us to a Walmart that was not there. Running low on fuel and driving in the windy and narrow roads of the Great Smoky Mountains looking for an alternate boondocking place caused just a little bit of anxiety for Marlene.
We woke up in the morning and got a real sense about what the Great Smokies are all about. The fog sure makes everything a little blurry. Or maybe that’s just our camera..
Today, our Savannah food binge continues at the Pirate House. Located at the historical Trustee Gardens within a stones throw of where Oglethorpe originally set camp as he came ashore. The Pirate House has been serving food and drinks to its customers shortly after the founding of the city of Savannah in 1753.
We got back into town today in Savannah with one mission in mind, we were going to get into Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House Dining Room for lunch. Now that we have a pretty good sense about the city, we felt more comfortable just driving to where we need to go and begin our explorations from there. As we drove by to see how the line was looking, we were surprise to find that it had not reached to the end of the street and best of all, we got to park right in front of the restaurant.
Our night in the parking lot of the Flying J just outside of St. Augustine was great. We had obviously no hook ups of any kind but we felt safe and had a great connection with our Sprint Air Card which allowed us to get a bunch of work done. Thinking back, I don’t think we have boondocked in a parking lot since the night before our visit to Sanibel Island at a Walmart in Fort Myers. That was a month and a half ago.
Today was our last full day at our Disney campground, Fort Wilderness. So we did what we always do on our last day at a site. Live it up. Pool, water slides and plans for a little bbq at our campsite. On a whim, I went to talk to the folks at Fort Wilderness about the sold-out Mickey’s Backyard BBQ. And low and behold, they had a few walk-up tickets left. Ava’s lucky day! And you know what else? It was all you can eat and DRINK. Our lucky day!!
If you can’t tell by the smile on Ava’s face, today was THE day. The day we go to the Magic Kingdom! We woke and bright and early and headed to the dock. Not only does our Disney campground offer free buses all around Disney World, it also has boats too. In case you didn’t know, Florida is full of water. Don’t tell anyone, but I think Florida is slowly sinking into the ocean. Shhhh. And everyone thinks California will eventually end up under water! Sorry Arizona.
We woke up this morning at the Orlando Walmart parking lot ready to spend the week at Disney World. For almost the last two weeks, we have been telling Ava that we are going to Disney World. Something I do not recommend. Ever since we told her about it, she has been asking for it every day. “Can we go to Disneyland?” “I want to go to Disneyland now.” “When are we going to Disneyland?”
“Today. We will go today. And by the way, this is Disney World.”