Great weekend in Asheville: Part 1

"He made it!"

I work from home. I'm really good at it.

In fact, I'm so good at working from home, I can do it with my eyes closed. And only rarely do I need a shirt.

Ask my neighbors. It's true.

But every once in a while, I need to dock with the mother ship.

So, I spent last week in Cleveland. Not to brag, but I dig my job. And the team I work with is awesome.

Thursday

Last Thursday, my team and I went to a Cleveland Indians baseball game. The Tribe won in dramatic fashion: A grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the 10th!

Right before that happened, I finally spoke up about the lack of representation in the upper deck of right field. I announced to everyone within earshot that since I had family in Cleveland, and that I had worked in the greater Cleveland area for the last eight years, I needed to do something about it.

I might have had to jump a few "thingies" to get there, but as one of my co-workers said, "He made it!"

Friday

Early Friday morning, I flew back home. When I landed and made it out the front door of the airport, I found myself pumping my fists like - oh, I don't know - maybe a baseball player rounding third after hitting a grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the 10th.

My wonderful wife picked me up at the airport and I finished the day working diligently.

That's just how I roll. In a diligent manner.

But when 5 o'clock comes around, I like to let my hair down. So we headed to a free street concert on a totally cool old-school street downtown.

I'm not going to post any of the pictures I took because they suck.

Saturday

On Saturday, we took a walk down to the Hominy Creek Greenway. Regular readers will notice this as my regular running route.

C-Mo

Lula Bird

Sunday

Today we went for a hike off the Blue Ridge Parkway. We left Lula at home (Spring & Molly's) and took Cricket the Mountain Dog with us.

There are so many good photos, I'm going to need three posts to make it through all of them.

Here's one.

Another waterfall!

As a bonus, I want to make sure you know there's a downtown area here in Asheville.

For some reason, that's important to me right now.

Downtown Asheville

Check back soon for Part 2!

Raft-a-mundo!

The French Broad River

When we moved to Asheville, I officially stated on this blog that I was going to make an effort to be more social.

You know, hang out with people and such.

Thankfully, Asheville is one of the easiest places to meet people on the entire planet. Everyone is so relaxed. In a big way.

Even the dudes with guns.

I don't think there's a better place to reboot your life. Not only are the people great - almost everybody would rather play outside than work inside - but the weather is fantastic.

Fan.Tas.Tic.

Please don't tell anyone

Unfortunately, the secret is getting out. Asheville is starting to become extremely popular. United recently announced more direct flights from Chicago, it's the hometown of the new American Idol, and it seems like newspaper and magazine editors - even the ladies - get stiff boners when they think about us.

And if the president moves here, it's all over.

But the best thing about Asheville is Madeline Avenue. In just six months, all our neighbors have become close friends of ours.

Which brings me to our awesome neighbor Spring who worked/works for Blue Heron Whitewater Rafting. Spring is awesome. When we asked her about a family rafting trip, she took care of everything.

So when our family came to town last weekend, it was time to ride some waves.

Good stuff

Sometimes things get a little dicey and your sister-in-law takes a header into the river, becoming a member of the French Broad River Swim Team.

Take a look at that foot over my shoulder. 

Woman overboard!

Outstanding.

Concerned wife, bro-in-law, neighbor

A Team

That's all I've got. I don't think I could love Asheville, my family, or my neighbors more than I do right now. 

Five-leaf clover

Can you believe it?

You've met Spring and Molly before. But you don't know their awesome back story. So here it is.

They moved in next door a week before we arrived. But they didn't come from up north, like we did. Quite the opposite. Before they lived here, Spring and Molly lived in the South Pole.

Or do you say they lived on the South Pole? Near it?

Who cares. The point is that they did a few stints working long contracts in a place that very few of us will ever see in person.

Most of their stories start out with "It was pitch dark for days..." Or "It was minus four hundred degrees for days..." Or a reference to a place called Hoth.

Three reasons why I'll never go there. I did a google image search, good enough for me. Off to the beach we go.

Anyhoo, in the last six months, Spring has found tons of four-leaf clovers. The other day, she brought over the five-leaf badboy pictured above. Can you believe it?

Some say the odds are one in a million.

She calls it her "unprofitable Rain Man talent."

I disagree. Since Spring gave Barb and me so many of these clovers, even though I was going to win the Megamillions lottery anyway, I'll share some of the money with her*.

Even if we don't win for a while, we're still the luckiest people on the planet.

Another backyard update: a world of green

Takin' over

Zucchini, kale, basil...

"Brad" the fire pit

Camp Spring

Fairyville

Friday: bikin' around the hood

After working diligently last Friday, I decided to reward myself with a post-work bike ride around Asheville.

West  Asheville yard art

Early in my ride, I passed by the yard art pictured above. Pretty cool, no?

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an older gentleman sitting out on his front porch, watching the suns start to set.

I Immediately wanted to take his picture. But alas, I have a hard time with that. 

Traveling as much as my wife and I do, we know you should always (yes always) ask people before you take their picture.

No matter how sneaky you think you are. Yes, this means you. You never know when the process of taking someone's picture is going to actually steal their soul.

In fact, I'm sure that technology is already out there. NSA, I'm looking in your direction.

More yard art

Worried about all this, but still intrigued by his appearance, I actually turned around and rode back up a giant hill, only to decide I would have ruined the older gentleman's sunset. Or somehow upset him.

But who needs an image when you have words, right? 

He looked like an old guy, sitting with his legs crossed on an unpainted wooden chair that's probably been on the porch since it was built in the 1950s. He gazed westward, contently watching the sunset over his neighbor's towering green trees.  

He wore jeans that hadn't been laundered lately - per Asheville regulations - and what I can only imagine was a blue flannel shirt, even though it was about 85 degrees outside. 

That's the cool thing about getting old: flannel in the summer. 

Also the name of my next studio album.

Sidewalk art

Natural art

For a few months now, I've been semi-obsessed with capturing an image of downtown Asheville from one of the mountain tops that surrounds the city. I've seen many of these images, but I can't figure out exactly which hill to climb.

Downtown Asheville is hiding in there somewhere

So, I rode up the most logical hill. It took about 20 minutes. And yielded the image above.

Close, but not the one I was hoping for.

At least the ride down was a blast. Winding my way through the trees, I made it back down in about two minutes. 

I suppose after five months here, that's my big theory. A biking theory. Any hill you climb, just lop a zero off the end of the time it took you to do so and that's how long it will take to get down.

For example:

• 20 minutes up, two minutes down
• 50 minutes up, five minutes down
• 10 beers up, one beer down

Once again, thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to purchase an FYiA commemorative cheese plate in the gift shop on your way out.