Welcome to North Carolina...

When we left South Carolina behind, we headed north and west towards the Smoky Mountains.  We were only planning to go as far as Asheville the first night, so we took the time to make a little stop along the way.  I'm so glad we did :)...

The Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site was the perfect place to get out and stretch our legs...

I have to admit, I had never heard of this man before...but that's one of the reasons we travel and go to these places, is to learn.

This home in Flat Rock, North Carolina, was where the Sandburg family lived and raised goats.  Here Mr. Sandburg wrote his poetry and watched his children grow.  It is such a peaceful place...

We were super impressed with how friendly and helpful EVERYone was at this site.  Above and beyond.  We walked the grounds, checked out the house, and then headed to the best spot of all:  the barnyard full of critters :)...

There were goats, goats, and more goats.  They were so cute!...

I don't know what it is about petting an animal that is so soothing, but it just is :).  We lingered for a long while, the kids (my kids and the goat "kids", haha) running back and forth just enjoying each others company.  When it was getting close to time for the park to close, we made our way back to the house to finish up the Jr. Ranger books and get our magnet.  We found something unique in this gift shop...goat milk fudge!  I personally didn't try it, but the kids all said it was fabulously delicious :).

The trail that leads back down towards the parking area was so pretty, we walked slowly and just enjoyed the scenery...

Everytime we see a goose..."look, it's Helen!".  The name the kids gave our goose friend from AZ ;)

Down at the bottom we were greeted by a few Park Rangers that were getting ready to take down the flag for the day.  They invited the children to participate and learn the proper flag handling etiquette.  Very cool :)...

We had such a good time at this farm, but it was time to get back on the road.  That area of the country is so pretty, we really wanted to see it as we passed through.  So anyway, on to Asheville we went...

It was supper time when we got to town, so we headed for a Chinese restaurant that had good reviews online.  It was so gross!  Like wash your mouth out gross.  The servers were all sullen and rude, I think they were probably tired of not getting tipped (we tipped anyway, but not at our usual level...it simply wasn't earned) because it was all just horrible.  We could not get out of there fast enough ya'll :(. 

Ok, bad restaurant behind us and we headed to our hotel.  I had booked a place online that looked interesting and charming...and it had a room available that would comfortably sleep all six of us.  We pulled up out front and the first thing I noticed was a lady standing barefoot in the parking lot.  She just stood there watching us, so we smiled, said "hi", and headed up to the door marked "office".  It was locked, so we looked around and the lady was still standing there watching us.  We smiled again (what else you gonna do?) and finally she came over and unlocked the office (yep, she was the manager-should have been a clue of what was to come).  She was nice (just strange) and got our room keys to personally show us to our room.  Ummm...it was bad.  Real bad.  When the door opened the smell of stale cigarettes nearly took our breath away.  I had booked this room as a non-smoking family suite (haha!), so this was not going to work.  She asked if I would take the room if she brought in some fans.  Um, no.  Ok, so she then asks if we would consider a different room.  I wanted nothing more than to leave, but I didn't want to be rude so I agreed.  The next room was even worse...smoke smell plus black and red velvet everywhere.  Ew.  I told her (as nicely as possible) that it simply wasn't going to work and could I please have a refund.  She took me back to the office and a man came out of another room in the back, they spoke in another language and then he actually agreed to give me a refund (hallelujah!).  We power walked it back to the car and got outta there, phew! 

Ya'll, I am not trying to bash Asheville.  Not at all.  We have been to that beautiful city before...visited the Biltmore House, apple orchards, etc. and had a wonderful time.  This time, we were just not hitting the right places and the whole time we were there I just had an uneasy feeling.  But you know, I look at it like this...everything happens for a reason.  I believe that we were just not meant to stay there this go around.  That uneasy feeling combined with two places that were supposed to be great and were totally terrible...yeah, I got the message :).  Time to get back on the road.

Last minute adjustment to plans put us heading off into the mountains after dark..bummed that we were missing the scenery, but thankful to shake that uneasy feeling.  We ended up in Cherokee, North Carolina, and made a beeline for the closest Marriot...I had had enough "adventure" for the evening, thankyouverymuch ;).