So since we didn't have to rush to leave, we didn't have to get up early. Of course this means I was awake at 8:30 anyway, and the dog alarm went off at nine. The weather report said it was supposed to be in the high fifties today, but it was getting too warm for long sleeves already, with a pretty blue sky, when we headed out for breakfast. We ate at Trish's for the last time, then went back to the cabin to hang about. I took some photos from the deck, and then we started packing things up, arranging things so we would only have to bring the small suitcase and the toiletries case (and whatever small things, like the tablets) into the motel in Asheville. We both had noodle bowls for lunch with the last of the toast. Once again we tried to coax Willow up to the loft, but she wouldn't climb the stairs. It's as if to her once we got to the third step we disappeared.

About 1:30 we started loading the car and this took a bit long, fitting all the bags in like puzzle pieces. I had changed into short sleeves because it was so warm, and when we finally loaded Willow up and were able to leave, it was a great relief. We headed east on 321, toward the "back road" that we had used to get to Sevierville on Saturday, but instead of turning left, we turned right. For a couple of miles we though the GPS might have had a fit again, because we were directed to turn down a narrow paved lane called "Ground Hog Road," and it was evident that this was where the real country people lived, in old homes and mobile homes and cottages. But soon we were back on a two-lane road that turned to parallel I-40 and then we were ramped up to that same freeway at Hartford Road.

We were over the North Carolina border in minutes, and from there it was only an hour's drive to Asheville, the freeway in deep cuts between the mountainsides that must have been gorgeous at peak color, and in that short hour's drive, the temperature and sky went from a balmy 65 and blue and white to 50 and misty, damp rain--in short, much like last Friday driving up to Gatlinburg! Our hotel, the Best Western Biltmore East, was right off the freeway and in a trice we had Willow "aired" and what we needed for the evening inside the room. Wil was sorely puzzled, and we had to take her out at least one more time before we went out for supper. The Asheville Mall was on the other side of the freeway from us, and we figured we'd find a bunch of restaurants around it, like chicks around a hen, like at Town Center, but we only got detoured instead, and ended up eating at the IHOP. Neither of us wanted pancakes, but neither of us was quite happy with the entrees we got.

There was big Barnes & Noble across the way at the mall, so we went there for a few minutes, but didn't see any new books out and headed back to the motel to watch Big Bang Theory. Nothing much else on, so we are watching The Hobbit (part the first) on one of the HBOs.

If Willow is still with us next year, we need to find someone to take care of her. She's never traveled well, but usually when we got somewhere she would get comfortable. Now she just seems confused. Poor little girl.

Labels: books, television, travel, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:29:00 PM

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