Cool to Cliche!

K:




So the day started with a coffee with Dave, and then breakfast with Jas and Conner. I am so glad we got to stop there, even just four days into our trip it was so nice to get a touch of home. As we left Jas and Dave recommended we stop on our way to our next destination, Pigeon Forge aka Dollywood, in a town called Asheville, NC. They said it was a great town to visit. I remembered another friend, Al, had mentioned this town as a sight to see as well...so we slightly adjusted our route and headed to Asheville. When we got there what we found was AWESOME! A great town, lots of hippies walking around, vegetarian restaurants, art galleries etc. As we drove through town I was reminded of one of my other favorite hidden American spots, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Both of these towns have one thing in common... a lot, I mean ALOT of former deadheads and Phish followers missed the bus out of town somewhere along the line and ended up living in these towns permanently. Don't believe me...check out the photos below and notice the name, decor and slogan for a restaurant we found today! AWESOME! I swear I didn't see Jerry Garcia resurrected, I saw 10 Jerry Garcia's! Ok so even better though is not seeing Jerry alive and well...I swear he was there...it was another face I saw. D had gone to the Asheville visitors center for a map for us...while she was inside I started thinking Asheville, Asheville...the name was SO, SO, SO familiar, but why? And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. A colleague of mine/former Equinox member/all around awesome lady had recently moved down to No. Carolina to open a new Lululemon showroom...and I was pretty positive it was in Asheville. Well I grabbed Dee and started combing the streets, and low and behold, there it was. Sign on the door said the store was only open on Thursday-Saturday. DAMN, I thought. BUTTTT then I looked inside and there she was! KATE CARSON, LULU extraordinaire! I ran inside and just stood there. The look on her face was priceless; she just stared at me for a solid 5-10 seconds before it sunk in that it was really me. :) It was AWESOME! Such a great surprise, I know she got a kick out of it as did D and I. Soooo nice to see her again even for just 20 minutes! Anyway moral of the story is...go to Asheville sometime, it’s a great little town, and while you are there...go see my friend Kate at Lulu, and buy some Lulu stuff, you will not regret it!



Ok so from Asheville we headed to Dollywood. We got in later than we hoped, 6pm, but who cares right? This is not supposed to be a stressful trip...we saw a great little city unexpectedly, all is good. So we roll into Pigeon Forge all excited to spend the evening and tomorrow morning at Dollywood, maybe even see Dolly herself, WHO KNOWS? The world is/was our oyster! We checked into a lovely hotel called the Motrel, Mictrol, something like that...doesn't matter, it's gross. We dropped our bags, scoured for bed bugs and then then hurried back to the car, brochure in hand to get to the park. And then it happened, we looked at the brochure....Dollywood....closes...at 6pm. WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTT how can this be? 6pm? Seriously? What amusement park closes at 6pm? So we resign ourselves to only being able to go tomorrow morning. And then it happened again...we looked at the brochure and guess what...DOLLYWOOD IS CLOSED ON THURSDAYS! WTH! What amusement park is closed on Thursdays? Seriously!?!?! We didn't believe it, we went inside to talk to the front desk only to learn that yes, indeed...the park close stupid early and is stupid closed on Thursdays. Ugh! We contemplated going straight to Nashville, but that didn't sit well, so off we went to find other Pigeon Forge amusement. We were referred to a magic show, an upside down house of fun, and Joseph and the multicolored trench coat ( I do NOT care if that is the correct name or not, it's what I call it!) At Joseph I inquired about the cast, "Will I recognize any of the actors?"...The rotund, friendly gentleman in the multicolored, glittery, mirrored bowtie and vest replied, "Well only if you have seen our sister show The Miracle...BUT Melinda Dolittle from Amerian Idol kicked off the show when it first opened and sometimes...sometimes she comes back to visit. Surpringly this did not sell D and I on the show....we headed to Kickin Country instead. WHOA it was kickin. It was basically a really great cover band show of all modern country music singers, not impersonators like I first had assumed/thought/hoped. And they were good. Like really talented. I have a feeling they are all Nashville hopefuls that drive here for work. Sureeee there was a lady mullet in the band, and I think I saw a few flashes of beaver as well, but overall it was a realllly great show, and the audience watching was top notch. One older woman in the bathroom told me she comes to the show EVERY WEEK! D and I overheard another woman say that she had recently moved to Pigeon Forge after vacationing here for years.(Trust this is nowhere to visit more than once). OH and I forgot to mention....At Joseph, you would also get a camel ride. Yep, you read that right, a ride...on a camel...like in the parking lot. So I just imagined that this woman at Kickin Country came up to Pigeon Forge year after year, rode some camels, saw Melinda Dolittle in concert and said “I AM MOVING TO PIGEON FORGE!"



So there it is, our day. Check out the pics below, everything from Asheville and Carson to Pigeon Forge and Kickin Country. Talk to you all tomorrow in Nashville!

Carson!

Asheville!

Mellow Mushroom! "Feed Your Head" Do you see the psychadelic mushroom decorations?

My fav lady. She had spunk, she had a lady mullet, she flashed her down there lady mullet in the first act!

Charlotte Living

K:

Blurry cause Dave had me laughing!

Seriously? HOW CUTE!

Stayed last night with my cuz Jasmine and her family. Dave grilled up spme turkey burgers, I ate half of Jas's halloween candy, Bails played in the back yard, and we all just relaxed. They have a great house, in a great neighborhood...it was great to stay here! So here are just a few pics! :) We are off to the Smokey Mountains!

Duke Sux

So let me start by saying that D and I will BOTH post at different points of our trip...so at the top of each post we will try and make it clear who is writing etc. So far I, (K), wrote the OOPS post, and both D and I contributed the pictures. Ok, so are you clear?? :) And because we are committing to writing every day, you are just going to have to deal with spelling mistakes and grammar errors. We will clean it up when we can! Ok, let's go!




K:

It is no secret that I went to the University of Maryland...an ACC powerhouse. You may also know that the reason I went to the U of MD was because it was a big Division I school...I loved the idea of brick buildings, a huge campus, and watching GREAT basketball. What you may not know is that back in sixth grade Matt Kelly and I used to like to bet on college basketball games...I have no idea how or why it started, but we did...and I always rooted for UNC and he always rooted for Duke. So from the time of Hurley, Laettner, and Parks I have loathed Duke. Fast forward to my college years and it only intensified. Battier, Wojo, Boozer and forget it their fearless leader Coach K...ARGHHHHHHHHH. So FORGIVE ME if when I realized that our driving route would take us through Durham, if I immediately started planning a short bathroom break for Bailey...at Duke...ON Duke! :) Sorry it was a really a great moment for me, I felt some sort of validation, some redemption after years of watching that perennial powerhouse BUY their way to championship after championship. I went to a school that prided itself on paying gansta players like Joe Smith and Steve Francis to play a season or two for us. We make no bones about it, basketball paid for us to go to a nice school with top notch professors, tools, supplies, buildings etc. Our coach is a wee bit of a drunken sailor type....and most of our players never step foot on the campus, never mind go to class. Whatever, I always did like a bad boy! :) Duke on the other hand pretends to be something they’re not. For so long we were to believe that Duke's student athletes ALL graduated, were all perfect Southern gentlemen and ladies, were all upstanding members of society. UGH whatever. I believe it was ESPN and maybe 20/20 that finally shed the light on Duke's dirty little secrets…that most of the athlete's graduated with the same degree, and did it in 3 years, and did it through independent studies classes allowing them to concentrate solely on...oh wait BASKETBALL. Whatever...at the end of the day, Battier has an annoying wrinkle, Cherokee Parks has an annoying name, and Christian Laettner is just annoying. Duke sux...and Bailey shit all over your pretty little campus. TAKE THAT!

SUSPECT Sculpture at Duke Gardens

Oh and ps....I looked hard for a Main Gate, you know a front entrance...there is none.

How weird is that. This school sux! :)

Pics from around DC

Did you think we would take the standard old pictures???

Don't judge, I'm only half Yogi!

Sad that its pouring!

Don't be jealous, she works hard for tthose guns!

Oops

Hey remember when I said I was going to write a blog documenting my struggles, challenges, and success with staying fit...inside and out? And hey, remember when I didn't post again for 9 months? I mean...I could have had a baby in the meantime! UGH! Well I am going to try again...and it’s going to start easy...with me just writing and posting on my trip west as I move from East Coast to West Coast. I have my friend D and my puppy with me...and we are driving, sightseeing, laughing, talking, walking, running, hiking our way across this country. Staying with friends...bargaining our way into hotels etc. We are just trying to make it to San Diego without completely losing our wallets and/or our patience! Do you think we can do it????




Ok so story numero uno....I struggle with organization; everyone who knows me knows this. What other people find easy, I find hard. I can plan, and make to-do lists out the wazoo...it never works out. So I REALLY, REALLY tried to go against nature and try and get my shit together before this trip. Ask my roommate, I have been packing for a month, sifting through papers, packing boxes, getting trip tix, car checked at the mechanics, doing everything I should and I STILL ended up pretty much having to pull an allnighter to get myself out on the road on time. And if that chaotic sentence doesn't paint a clear enough picture, YES once again I ended up just randomly throwing my belongings in my car and rushing an hour late to pick up D for our journey. No surprise then that the FIRST thing that happens when I pick her up is I lose my own keys in the mess in my car. Yep we spent a whole 20 minutes searching for the keys that had JUST been in my possession 5 minutes prior. UGH! Anyway, we got on the road...made it to our first destination and all was well. Fast forward a short 10 hours, yep I said TEN HOURS later to DC (the same drive in college often took me 6.5-7 hours). We found our hotel and settled into the pet friendly Residence Inn. A hotel I had booked on Priceline a ouple of weeks prior in my big effort to be organized on this trip. I chose this hotel by filtering pet friendly first and foremost and then second location etc. on Priceline’s selection menu. So when we got a sweet rate on Priceline, and learned that our hotel came with free breakfast and dinner plus had a gym and laundry...well D and I were PSYCHED to be at this hotel. We checked in...we got a good night’s sleep, we had a great breakfast and then we left for a day of sightseeing and fun. So imagine my surprise when we got home and were locked out of our room. I went down to the desk and was promptly informed that "pet friendly" meant I was to pay a $200 pet deposit. You saw that right $200!!!!!!!!!! “What” I said “How can that be, Priceline said nothing about that.” They argued that I should have told them about Bailey when I checked in....I argued that I didn't think I had to cause I booked the hotel because it was listed as pet friendly...I didn't feel the need to then announce my dog when I checked in. They said I was elusive and dishonest because I didn't tell them. I said "Quite frankly there is a lot I didn't tell you when I checked in, however as you have an agreement to sell your rooms on Priceline, and you are listed as pet friendly...and make no mention of a fee, nor does it ask for a fee when you book on Priceline...how is it ME that is dishonest?" Well the front desk manager at that point made it clear her shift was over, and I was NOT getting back the $200 they had already charged on my credit card. As I contemplated what $200 meant to me on this trip...and pictured myself eating only the Isagenix bars I packed for the rest of the trip I asked to talk to the manager. Pat, the manager, brought me into his office, heard me out and immediately offered to split the difference. I decided at that point to just concede and head back upstairs for some R and R. But as I left Pat mentioned that Priceline DID list the pet fee on the site. I reiterated to him that in this case I was sure they didn't. I told him my whole story, about how hard I tried to be and often struggled with being organized, and on budget, and responsible....I told him how I was moving and how usually I mess things like this up, but that this time...THIS TIME I knew I was right because it meant so much to me to try and make this trip as easy as possible and how I had already disappointed myself with the last minute packing and the lost keys and the 10 hour drive. Pat stood there a little stunned, but said causally that he would double check with Priceline and give me a call back. Well to their credit about an hour later, Pat called the room and said he just got off the phone with Priceline andddddddddd I was right! He refunded the whole deposit, apologized and then thanked me for bringing this to his attention. Ok so I know this is not the most interesting story...however there is a lesson learned here. I may not have been perfect in my preparation for this trip...I may have been a little disorganized etc. BUT in the end the efforts I did make to plan ahead, to do the right thing to get my ducks in a row...well they paid off. LITERALLY! So Ash, had, Mel and all my other perfectly organized type-A friends...well I am learning! :)