Kudzu Asheville: Road Trip 2015: And We're Off!

4, 945 miles,

14 states and 1 province (with overnights in 12 states and 1 province),

5 Roadfood recommended restaurants,

3 National Parks,

2 Overnights with Friends (old and new),

2 Overnights at Wineries,

and 1 Oil Change.

Now that we’ve been back a week and are mostly back in the swing of things I wanted to share some photos and highlights of our trip to Glacier. My hope is to cover a segment of the trip in each post.

Departure

Our dear friend, Bekki, agreed to be our house-sitter while we traveled. Bekki’s a professor who teaches online in the summer, and loves Asheville, so she was up for leaving steamier climes to spend the summer in the mountains. Having a house-sitter had many bonuses. We wanted to leave things in good shape for her, so we left our house more organized than it has ever been when leaving for a trip. Unexpected bonuses included coming back to fresh-baked cookies, a sparkling clean house, a new coffee-maker, and much-needed new-casters on my office chair. There was more, but I don’t want to make you too jealous. There is a reason I’m leaving her last name out. She’s taken, people!

Nella and Bekki in Superhero mode. Halloween 2014.

We had planned to leave on Monday, July 6^th, but packing for a month-long trip is no joke, especially when you have lots of different weather to contend with. And if, like me, you like being prepared for every eventuality that takes on a whole other level of complexity. We were also taking our new kayaks for the first time on an extended trip which was a stressful notion for Barry.

Nella on our maiden voyage on the French Broad in May.

Making sure the kayaks aren't moving while in transit. So that's what a sunroof is good for!

We eventually realized we weren’t getting off early enough to make it there so we hoped to get at least a couple of hours down the road. As the day wore on, we wore out and Barry rightly convinced me to wait until the next morning so we could leave refreshed. We had a lovely dinner with Bekki and waited until Tuesday the 7^th to head out. We still didn’t get off bright and early on Tuesday, but we were in a much better frame of mind to hit the road.

My Dad was keeping an eye on the weather for us and texted to say he saw major storms moving through Kentucky and Ohio that evening and overnight. He and Mom offered to put us up for the night at a hotel, which we gladly accepted. The Alto does quite well in bad weather, and a rainstorm can be good sleeping weather, but not when it’s accompanied with lightning and high winds. We had hoped to get North of Cincinnati but the weather was looking scary, so we stopped at a hotel in Northern Kentucky.

We stayed at the Hyatt Place Cincinnati Airport Hotel, in Florence, Kentucky. Barry asked me to inquire about parking when I checked in. The hotel did not have any pull-through spaces, which meant we’d be parking perpendicularly across several spaces. We were told they were fully booked and we might not be able to park there, but could park at a nearby grocery store. We did not feel good about leaving Snug in a random grocery parking lot, so the manager reluctantly agreed that we could park there, but said they might call to have us move. We decided to risk it, and thankfully did not get any late night phone calls!