Newfield Knews: Namaste y'all

We took off for vacation last Thursday evening immediately after work and managed by some miracle to make all the way to Harrisburg, PA some four hours away.

Friday was spent on Route 81

hightailing it to Asheville, NC.

The highway vistas were unbelievable and I could feel the outer layers of the year's wear and tear begin to soften and start to melt away. We had three nights at the Garden Retreat Cottage in Asheville and the company of our dear friends Tina and Tom to look forward to.

The cottage is situated on a very private wooded lot, on lake right in town, with a sweet little front porch and a dock nearby.

There are so many special restaurants in Asheville that eating our way through town quickly became a number one priority. Gallery hopping, boutique shopping and people watching came in a distant second, third and fourth. Seeing the guy riding on the super-duper snazzed up bicycle dressed in a full-blown old fashioned whimple, now that was something even we'd never seen before!

While packing up on Monday morning to head for the mountains I everheard our lovely Buddhist host say “Namaste y'all” to someone on the phone. I can't wait to come back to this peaceful, hip, welcoming town. Before heading up the Blue Ridge Parkway for the cottage at Blowing Rock we decided to take in a few antique shops in Asheville. Now I guess this vacation is officially a business trip!

The Antique Tobacco Barn is ten times as large as FOUND - that makes it whopping 70,000 square feet! It's located in a big old metal barn/warehouse and is likely a death trap in the summer since it has no AC (what were they thinking?). We saw all kinds of great stuff and a lot of it was BIG.

In fact you could use either a standard grocery cart to shop
or push one of these babies around...

Yep, you guessed it. This is one of those heavy duty carts you use when shopping for dry wall and 2x4's at Home Depot. We saw a lady pushing around a big old chair like it was a carton of milk and a loaf of bread. Funny!