There is a reason we have not done summer traveling (other than "the fun summer jobs) for years: the amateurs. Traveling by RV in the winter, you generally have the folks who know how to do it. Even in the spring and fall. But, summer RVing can be (this is a technical term) a shit show.
Last night was a case in point... the guy in the Newell next to us was out making noise in the narrow space between our motorhomes. Come to find out this morning that he was trying to figure out how to dump his holding tanks. And in the process, turned off our water. (???) He was not quiet about it.
Around the same time (now remember: after 10:00 pm is "quiet time" in every RV park we've ever been in), something small pulled into the site on the other side of us. Turns out, it was one of these cute teardrop trailers...
It has one door, on the other side. It was being pulled by a small SUV, with two doors. There were somewhere around 47 door slams while they were setting up. After 11:00 pm.
When I got up this morning, and discovered no water, I went outside to investigate... the Newell guy was out there pulling valves. I asked him, "Did you turn off my water?"
"Um, yeah, but that was an accident. I'm pretty sure I turned it back on." We visited for a bit... he was decent enough, just couldn't find his ass with both hands and a funnel. And was still not quiet about it. While on my way around to check out the water situation, I saw that someone had pitched a tent near the door of our coach. WTF?? By the time I got back to our side of the site, the tent was gone. It had been right here...
Literally, between that tree (on our site) and our coach entry door. I think they may have been with the people in the teardrop. The Newell pulled out. After running their engine for about 20 minutes. On the other side of where the Newell had been... another tent...
There is a tenting area here. This isn't it. Weird campground.
We went out explore more of Asheville, taking the hop-on/hop-off trolley. And seeing things we didn't see before...
The trolley company was in "emergency pick-up mode," because there were so many people wanting to ride. The driver, Mark, said, "I have never seen a summer like this one."
Or, as those of us in any tourist related business calls it: August.
We considered hoofing it around the River Arts District, but since that is spread out over a couple miles AND the temperature is approaching the upper 80s with similar humidity, our time there was brief...
The River Arts District has about 150 artists who display their wares or have studios in a bunch of different buildings that use to be warehouses and industrial buildings... buildings that got hit by a flood 20 years ago and had been sitting mostly vacant. Not any more.
There seems to be a lot of growth and new building in Asheville. And, a lot of restored historic buildings and homes. It is an interesting place, but we are both ready to move on. As near as I can tell, since the city is built into the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the streets are curvy and narrow in many places. A population of about 90,000, but we have been in cities that are much bigger and are still easier to get around... couldn't do it here without the GPS and a good navigator.
We took in a few more sights, had a late lunch, and are settling back in at our RV site. The "clowns and jokers" on either side of us have moved on. In fact, the park (that seemed over-crowded yesterday) looks to be about half occupied this afternoon. Maybe they have moved on to get closer to "the path" of the eclipse?
Because we are close to that area here (and will be closer tomorrow), all the local news is full of... "Countdown to the American Eclipse," as though it is a hostage situation. Literally, there is a countdown counter on one TV channel. They are talking about potential gas shortages as people come into the area.
Seems like a lot of hype to me. We didn't come to this area because of the path of the eclipse - we tried to get into RV parks in Nashville and didn't find anything available. So, we are taking our time to get there to let the crowds move on.
Did I mention: August? ;-) We did make some reservations to get us through Labor Day.
Rolling again tomorrow - see you down the road.
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