It’s hard to believe that we’ve only been in Asheville for two days. Feels like more, but just a metaphorical minute ago, it was Christmas in Sag Harbor.  Here’s what’s happened since. 

We spent Christmas Eve Day with the Berkens relaxing and talking, playing cards – and fixing the Airstream steps in the cold.  Maybe you saw the photos of my amazing husband using a lift to take off the old broken steps, drilling holes in the heavy metal and bolting the new steps. Not the cultural normal for a boy who grew up in our area of Long Island, he’s very handy. Luckily, Mitchell has a very complete shop with important tools we could borrow.

Later that day, Nancy, the hostess with the most-ess and one of two Christians in our cohort, led the rest of the night’s activities. We dressed up for a wonderful dinner of duckling (if you’ve never gotten it from Costco, you’ll also become a fan), wild rice and asparagus. So yummy! I brought a pie from Home Town Bake Shop in Centerport that we put in the oven while we opened presents as is the custom in Nancy’s ancestral home, Denmark. Lots of fun was had by all!

We woke up late on Christmas Day — and why not? — as we had no children to wake us. Even our furry children slept in a little.  We had a delicious late breakfast and again relaxed and played our family favorite card game, Wizard. We went to a fabulous Christmas feast at the iconic American Hotel and then went to the only store open in town, the book store.  If you are ever wandering around Sag Harbor, go to this new book store. It’s a fabulous compendium of rare books, a perfect selection of current fiction, and is dotted through with poetry and a wide range of non-fiction. Small and multifaceted like the diamond that it is. Of course, Sag Harbor has roots in great authors so this store makes sense. 

The next day was a whirlwind as it was the official start to our trip – at least in my mind. We got up relatively early for last shower before camping, stripped the bed, cleaned the cabin (not sure if that helps us win the good house guest award), hitched up the trailer, dropped Bri at Port Jefferson ferry, picked up quiche and headed off to see some intrepid friends who were willing to meet IRL. That’s not exactly true, but the time etc. worked out. We broke bread (and bagels) with the Smalls and Bichoupans. 

After a long good bye, we started the drive south.  This time, we had the Subaru and the truck and trailer combo and we can’t spell each other so we planned shorter drives. We knew we wanted to get out of the metro area, so we decided 3-4 hours would be the first day. We got a pretty good sunset out of NYC.

Our first night’s stay was at a Cabela’s just shy of Hershey, PA.  You may have heard that RVers know of some free places to stay overnight. While we’re not looking for a cheap date, we do find this parking lot convenient and safe. Some people stop in Walmart parking lots, but we find them often unsafe.  In the morning, David had some work to do and the cell service was optimal so we stayed a little extra.  Of course, we patronized the store to reciprocate their courtesy. 

Monday was our first full day without the chance to change relief drivers. I followed David most of the time, listening to a good book. I listened to The Personal Librarian by one of my favorite historical novelists Marie Benedict. She focuses on women’s history and my friend Leslie Lewit Milner recommended her latest book. David had a bunch of business calls to keep him busy. We stopped a couple of times and  made it to a KOA campground in Lexington, VA near Natural Bridge Park. Since we boondocked the night before (meaning we had no hook ups to electric or water), we were looking forward to recharging the battery. We have 5 solar panels on the roof, but it was cloudy and if the battery gets too low on charge, it can have permanent damage. We were no where near that low, but were happy to have electric. We were winterized, otherwise they would have given us a campsite with running water. 

Winterized, for those of you who might not know, means that we have removed the water from the Airstream. Usually, we blow it out, kind of like you would blow out your sprinkler system for the winter, and then add a type of antifreeze that isn’t toxic in small quantities. We run it through all our plumbing (except the hot water heater) so that the pipes won’t crack as it would when the water freezes in it. In the spring we drain the antifreeze and run water through the system until it is no longer the pink of the RV/watercraft antifreeze and we are good to go.

We got a pretty early start on Tuesday because David was meeting someone at 4pm in Asheville. David stopped for his 10 am call and since we were near Virginia Tech, I thought I’d do some exploring. I found the most delicious coffee shop in Christiansburg, VA called Brugh. It’s a small batch roaster and their decaf latte was amazing! My sister-in-law Amy is a coffee afficianado and told me I should ask if they have Earl Grey Lattes. It is her qualifying determinant as to the level of coffee shop. Luckily they carry it on their menu as a London Fog Latte. Suffice it to say they’ve got everything – and it’s great.

We stopped a couple more times, parked the trailer and barely made it in time for David’s appointment. We were happy to get home and have a quick dinner at the local Mexican and flop into bed with our wonky too-much-driving heads.

Wednesday was full of errands as was today. I managed to get to our slow down speed for data on one of the wifi hotspots by streaming video. We have both a Verizon and AT&T wifi “MiFi” so that we can get internet as long as we have cell service. Streaming over it is a total newbie’s mistake that I should have realized before I did it. Anyway, I finally got some cable internet today so that won’t happen again. 

We’re still settling in, but the apartment is getting more comfortable bit by bit. I’ve gone to the Asheville Outlets twice to see if there are any good couches, chairs, barstools and rugs yet. Looks like they get shipments on Tuesdays and Fridays to the Crate and Barrel, West Elm and Restoration Hardware outlets so I’ll be going again next week to see what comes in after the holidays.

That’s it for now. Missing all my friends LOTS. I’ve only cried three times this week so I guess that’s something. Maybe I’ll write about the inner thoughts and emotional roller coaster next time. Stay tuned!