We Ran All Over North Carolina!

Since our last update, a lot has happened. As far as sleeping goes, we stayed one night in the campsite where we showered (we showered twice because it was just so nice to get a good shower), then found a free place right on the water. Look at how close our bed was to the water!

We even saw an alligator on our final night along the coast. We stayed deeper in the Croatan National Forest at a primitive camping area and, sure enough, right as we sat down to eat dinner at the side of a river we saw a medium-sized alligator just kinda lurking out in the water. It never got closer than about 100 feet, and that was OK with us.

Our next stop was Asheville, North Carolina. Everyone told us that we would love Asheville because there's lots of good hiking, lots of good vegetarian food, and lots of beautiful views. Normally when someone tells me I'll love something I kind of assume that I won't actually love it because sometimes I like to be contrarian, but I couldn't resist Asheville. We did a self-guided chocolate tour one night, so it'd be impossible to dislike the city. There were at least 3 chocolatiers within 2 blocks of each other in the center of Asheville. Can you imagine anything better? I cannot.

We also ate vegetarian biscuits and gravy more than once, which we did not know was a thing at all. Normally gravy is sausage-gravy, but Asheville had all kinds of goofy gravies (that word looks wrong - never had to pluralize "gravy" before) that were incredible. And then there was the hiking. 

Not bad at all. I started taking photos of all the USGS markers we come across on top of mountains, and at some point I'm gonna put those into a little album, but they're not actually that interesting to see 1 at a time. However, as we climbed Mt. Pisgah, I couldn't find the marker. I looked all over, but then a family (full of kids with weird names) showed up, immediately found it, and then sat directly on top of it for 20 minutes so I couldn't go see it. I was maaaaaad. 

But whatever, I got over it. 

Our Asheville time also included a trip to the wildly expensive Biltmore Estate, which is surreal. They bill themselves as "the largest house in America" but it's really more of a museum-vibe than a house. You can read about it on their Wikipedia if you want, but the point is that an unbelievably rich guy built an unbelievably huge (and fancy) house on an unbelievably huge plot of land. It was so big that they needed to build a brick foundry onsite in order to make enough bricks to build the house.

So whatever. It was a really cool visit. There was a wine-tasting included with your entry-ticket, and we both hate wine, so that was a funny thing to partake in. Wine is gross, but we tried 5 different ones. Turns out we were right and yes they were all gross.

One last night in rural North Carolina meant that we would drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway until we liked a spot to pull off and sleep. We were pretty deep in the woods down a gravel road, which could be a little spooky if you're susceptible to spooky-settings, but it was a nice place to stay. We made a fire, roasted some very old and stale marshmallows, and called it a night.

In the morning we went for a hike, and since we were 30 miles from the nearest town, I had the privilege of pooping in the woods for the first time. It really wasn't as traumatic as I'd expected, so that's exciting. I mean, I'm not going to choose it when I have options, but it was not the worst experience of my life.

But the strangest part of all of this is that woods-pooping kind of signaled the end of our first stretch of wilderness. We descended from the mountains and went into suburban Charlotte to stay with some (vaccinated) friends for a couple of nights. We've actually been sleeping in REAL beds for the last 5 or 6 nights. The freedom to like...move my arm at night without hitting a wall or window is very exciting.

It's the little things, guys.

OK. More to come later about some of the things we've done at friends' houses and some hikes we did and whatnot, but that's all for the camping part of North Carolina. I was thrilled to find out that the mountains of NC are actual mountains and not just a series of rolling ridges like they are in Pennsylvania. Knowledge is power, I guess.