The whirlwind of our first week on the road is coming to a close and I have a LOT to catch you up on.

Below is the complete blow by blow. It’s mostly a reminder to me. To you, it might be boring. 

Suffice it to say, after the closing we drove to Asheville, set up an apartment (mostly), drove to Oxford, NC to my mom’s farm four hours away, drove back to NY with no trailer, stopping in DC for a night and Baltimore for crabs, spent a day in Western LI, and then went to Sag Harbor to celebrate Christmas with family. Whew! That’s about 35 hours of driving? If you want more detail and to see photos, keep reading.

Immediately after our closing last Tuesday, Dec 14 (has it really been just 10 days?), we drove the truck down to Asheville pulling the Smouse trailer. It is a 20 foot-long enclosed trailer that we could put a car in, but right then was filled with things for our Asheville apartment and other goods to store at my mom’s farm. I call it Smouse because that’s the name of the company we bought it for and their name is so cute!

We stopped in Virginia at a nice Holiday Inn that night that accepted dogs. The western part of Virginia is beautiful, with views of old mountains the whole way. We stopped at our favorite coffee place in Staunton, VA, Crucible Coffee Roasters.  It’s near a really delicious restaurant that’s only open for lunch and dinner, but it has the unique prerequisite of having a spot for our truck and trailer combo. 

Continuing on our way, we made it to Asheville as the sun was setting. We managed to park the trailer near the apartment in Arden, an area in south Asheville.  David is an amazing trailer driver, but even he took a few tries backing in and took a couple of spaces. We took a few things into the apartment, but we didn’t attempt the mattress or box spring. Instead, we stayed at a Doubletree and had dinner at a local sushi place. 

The next day, David worked and I unloaded most of the trailer into the apartment. It looked like a bomb went off, both in the apartment and the trailer. I started putting things away in the apartment, made it to Home Depot for shelf liner and various odds and ends. David was excited and we had an early dinner at the local Mexican restaurant, Cantina Louie’s, which really has great food. Bouyed by a good meal (and a margarita) we attempted the mattress/box spring combo, found they weren’t that heavy after all and managed to sleep our first night in the apartment.

Friday, I scouted the local Crate and Barrel, West Elm and Restoration Hardware outlet stores. I scurried home to meet the people from Two Men and a Truck who moved some things that were just too heavy for us. I highly recommend them. After putting more stuff away, determining what needed to go to into storage at the Farm, and having a quick dinner, we flopped into bed.

The next morning we met with a guy about garage space for David’s dream car. It’s right up the road from our apartment. We thought it would be halfway across town, but we can practically walk to it! After that we hooked up to the trailer and hit the road for the four hour trip to my mom’s farm in NC.

We got there and said hi. We had some fun with my mom: went to an open house in an doors-flung-open catering space, had a special brunch with her boyfriend and his family, and generally hung out and talked. Over the next couple of days, we unloaded the trailer (mostly) into my mom’s garage attic and my dad’s old shop. If I didn’t tell you before, David collects old cars. He has a couple. We shipped two down and a couple are here already. On Monday morning we moved those around in one of my mom’s old barn spaces so they’d be covered, but the ’52 Dodge pickup decided not to turn over. New battery will help that out for next run there.

Heading out around noon, we made it to DC that Monday and decide to stay in the iconic Watergate Hotel. Yes, THAT Watergate. It is a mid-century modern palace that embraces its scandalous past (the last four digits of the phone number are 1972! It has “Scandal Tour!”) Quite frankly the facility has seen better days and they are trying to keep up with the physical plant, but during Covid, they’re not exactly raking it in. We ate/drank bourbon at The Next Whisky Bar downstairs which is delineated by a wall of lit bottles. The next morning we had a fabulous breakfast at their Kingbird Restaurant. I wish it were open for more than breakfast and lunch. The hotel staff was wonderful and very accommodating. When our toilet ran half the night, they had to put us in a new room.

Tuesday morning David had an important business conference call so we asked for a late check out. We then drove north and made it to Baltimore in time for an early dinner of crabs at our favorite dive in the Fort McHenry area. It’s right off 95 so if you’re ever driving by, we HIGHLY recommend LP Steamers. We continued on and made it to the Hyatt Place near Roosevelt Field. Dog friendly is our operating theme, so we were pleasantly surprised there. AND it was in walking distance to the iconic breakfast diner on Old Country Road, Thomass’ Ham and Eggery.

Our next stop was our old stomping grounds of Cold Spring Harbor to pick up the Subaru and get both the truck and small car an oil change. Afterwards we were supposed to meet friends, but between people being exposed to Covid and the outside areas of many of our old haunts closing, we had to skip seeing dear ones for now. Maybe the spring will be better. 

We headed out to Sag Harbor to visit with family. The Berkens welcomed us with open arms (as usual).  Nancy decorated the house beautifully for her holiday and we get to enjoy all the beauty and lights of Christmas. Brianna decided the holiday weekend was a good time not to be lonely in Boston and came down to join us on Thursday afternoon — taking a train and a ferry to be here. Grandpa Mitchell picked her up, took her to lunch and brought her back. Kirsten and her boyfriend Sam drove from KY that day (14 hours!). We’ve been eating, drinking, playing games, wrapping presents, and enjoying each other’s company.  We can’t ask for more than that.

Except that David had a repair on the Airstream. As he was leaving our house in Cold Spring Harbor before the closing, neither one of us noticed that we didn’t put the stairs up. Unfortunately, the stairs hit a wall and broke. Wouldn’t raise or lower. So my handy husband ordered a replacement and fixed it! Mitchell has the best shop so we had the right tools. See photos below. If you can tell what he’s doing, two points to you!

To all who celebrate, Merry Christmas!!