We’ve made it to one of our favorite places … Asheville, North Carolina.  Unlike some of our other favorite spots, Asheville is not a favorite because of friends or people we know.  Asheville is just great all on it’s own.  The city is full of culture, music, great food and amazing beer.  Last year we arrived here at the beginning of November, snow had just covered the mountain tops, the Blue Ridge Parkway was closed and the fall colors were almost gone.

Blue Ridge Parkway before the fall colors arrive.

Despite it all we had a great time and vowed we’d make a return, but even earlier.  This trip we arrived the last week of September and will stay through October.  All the reports before we arrived is that the fall colors were on track to be the best in years.  The dry summer is reported to give way to some of the best colors Western North Carolina had seen in years.  Of course when we get here we were reminded of my mother’s favorite motto, “You just can’t have anything nice.”   Hurricane Joaquin started to roll up the coast and has been sending us about a week full of clouds and rain.  The rain was so bad over the weekend that it closed the Blue Ridge Parkway and we had to devise an evacuation plan.

Storms moving in along the Blue Ridge Parkway

The good news is that great weather is forecast for the coming days and crews are working hard to clear and reopen the Blue Ridge Parkway.