Welcome to AVL!

Who knew that AVL is the abbreviation for Asheville?

Mark I arrived in Asheville, NC this afternoon—our first trip in  what seems like ages. We’re staying downtown in the Aloft hotel. It’s trendy and cool, but it’s showing some age (but not enough for me not to stay here again).

Tonight was just walking around to get a lay of the land, scope out the galleries, and grab a bite of dinner. We ate at Tupelo Honey. Mark didn’t realize we have one on Lane Avenue. It was a little divier than I expected, but it was fine. From outside, the one in Columbus looks like a dinner spot, so I was surprised by the one here. After looking at photos of the inside of the Columbus location, I see that it is actually more dinery than restauranty. We’ll have to try that one some time. I feel like our approved restaurant list in Columbus is shrinking.

We tried to have a nice lunch on the way down, but 23 does not have a lot of offerings. (The drive was, however, much more interesting than the interstate.) We stopped in a small town called Prestonsburg, but it was dead as a doornail. The only two table-service restaurants in town were closed for Labor Day. We ended up at an Arby’s up the road, and even there, we were the only customers.

Most Asheville shops were closed by the time we started wandering, but we did sneak into the Benjamin Walls Gallery (and accidentally kept the staff there 15 minutes past closing 🙄). He’s clearly got a great eye, but the photo that impressed me most was this one: Bonsai – Ghost: Landscape Portfolio – Walls Fine Art Gallery. The installation they had was 12 feet long over four glass panels. He’s exhibited in the Smithsonian, so I’m sure it would be out of my league. The gallery had a lot of his photography of animals in the Serengeti National Park.

Tomorrow will be a full day of gallerying, and then Biltmore on Wednesday. Thursday is not decided yet. Friday: back to Niles to help Mom get ready for her upcoming garage sale.

Elvis is staying with his Uncle Matt. He settled right in and was having fun playing with Uncle Matt’s tenant. My Movie-540p30