Small town 4th in the Mountains!
This weekend I did the unthinkable... I actually went out of town, le gasp! It was great. As I have been of very limited means as of late it has been hard for me to leave the triangle. Finally I made my way out to the mountains to see Rhi. I have owed her a trip out there seeing as how she comes to see me once a month (at least).
Rhi lives where I like to call, "The Freaking middle of NOWHERE," also known as Rosman (a super small town - aprox. population of 490). Basically for those of you familiar with the areas near Asheville, you go to Brevard (30-45 minutes south) and then go another 25 minutes from there up some crazy mountain roads and then you go down a dirt road followed by another dirt road... and then if you don't get stuck in a rut you are at Rhi's house.
The house itself is pretty awesome I have to say. It is her friend Rene's house that she is inhabiting for the time being. I have to say it is one of the happiest houses I have been in! The walls are mostly yellow, there are suns everywhere... just general merriment fill the walls. I immediately felt at home there.
The first night I arrived Rhi took me into Brevard and we went to her favorite bar/restaurant, Jordan St. It was super tasty. We had a delicious meal and an interesting convo with our waiter... he told us he had a tattoo of a fetus on his back. When we asked why (and double checked to make sure he did not say Venus) he said he doesn't want to have children in this already over populated world and that the fetus represents all his unborn children that will never be. Interesting. I think Rhi and I must just compel people to share information like this with us. After out lovely dinner we went back to the house and promptly fell asleep like little old ladies!
On Friday aka the 4th of July we decided to do it up going to the Brevard street festival downtown. It was a lot of fun - I
cannot lie. I love small towns and Brevard is super cute. We kicked the festivities off watching the kids patriotic bike parade with Rhi's friends Lisa and Keaven. Their daughter, Erin, was in the parade so we cheered her on. Then we wandered about. The festival was really cute. There was a reading of the Deceleration of Independence. Rhi saw lots of her students who were all running up to her and saying hi. It was very cute.
As the day wore on I quickly became obsessed with seeing one of Brevard's famous white squirrels. So the rest of the day I had my eyes peeled and my camera ready! We went down to Brevard College to watch the Rubber Ducky Race. We had some time to kill and found an awesome used book sale going on at the campus. I only have 2 dollars in cash but ended up getting 3 books! I was pretty stoked - 2 novels and a book about camera's and photography. The rubber duck race was super cool and i took lots of pictures (shocker).
Here is a short video I made from my pictures of the Duck Race:
Click to viewAfter our crazy day we settled by the creek and read for a while. It was super nice. Buck and his roomate
Adam then met up with us to come to Rhi's friends house and then eventually go see fireworks. Buck and Adam came up to Rhi's with us to stay over (since it was such a long drive to A-ville). We spent the evening chilling on the porch talking and watching Rosman's fireworks show still going on in the valley below.
On Saturday Rhi and I spent some quality time lazing about the house before getting ready and heading out to the "big city" aka Asheville. We went to see Wall-E, which was super cute and very well done. Then we went downtown for dinner. After all the meats and various other festival foods Rhi and I had been consuming over the last few days we decided a nice big salad was just what we needed! So we went to the Laughing Seed and had AMAZING salads and spectacular drinks.
Afterwards we went to meet some more of Rhi's friends at a Tourist game. We had an extra ticket in case Buck had wanted to come, but he was unfortunatly unable to since he was in the middle of a move. So... while we were walking to the ballpark we ran into this random dude walking down the street. Rhi and he waved to each other so I assumed he was someone that she knew. They started talking and I slowly realize that they don't know one another. Long story short, Rhi invites him to the game and he accepts. The rest of the time he was sizing us each up to see who he had a chance with. Somehow I got stuck next to him and had to make awkward conversation with him during the game. Sigh. Eventually he left but not without getting Rhi's phone number before he left (thank god I am not local)... I was not sad to see him go, I am not gonna lie.
After the game there were MORE fireworks! We all went and sat out on the ball field and watched them shoot them off. After all that Rhi and I got in the car for the big trek back to her house and went to bed... that is until the CRAZIEST thunderstorm EVER came and shock the house and woke us both up. My bed was in a corner with 2 windows so the thunder definitely woke me up. The thing that was so crazy was then the thunder would echo through the mountains and was even louder. I got freaked out and knocked on Rhi's door and we sat up in her bed till the storm died down. It was very cute and made me giggle that we were such big babies!
The next day I had to depart fairly early to head out to Asheville. Rhi and i said our goodbyes and I went to go see Sarah, the kid I used to sit for in college. She is 12 now and is almost as tall as me now. She and I went out to lunch together and then I got to see her family and catch up with them all. It was so awesome seeing Sarah and I definitely miss that kid a lot. We came up with a plan that when she is in college she will come live near me and babysit for my kids. After that all I finally hit the road and came home. Sawyer was glad to see me return (though he was spectaularly taken care of by his Aunt Kelli - who even gave him a bath - she is a saint!).
All and all my trip was wonderful. I loved getting up to see Rhi and see her town. Brevard made me happy. I honestly would not mind going up to see her again and just hanging out at her house! It is so calm and relaxing at the top of her mountain! I love it.
Of course there are MORE pictures. This is me of course. They are all posted here --> Brevard July 08 (click if you DARE)