The Drive to Asheville

A Monday afternoon nap.  It was wonderful! Now that is something I didn't do last week, nap.  Seems like I have the tendency to push myself beyond the parameters set for me at home but on vacation, a lot of down time was set in between the the sights and things we had signed up to do.  I have also come to the conclusion that no snoring and no nocturnal Buddy helps a lot.  Why I actually slept through most of the night on vacation. 

Dena and I left on Friday May 4 and drove to Hammond, LA.  The secret to I-10 would be, travel on it early.  We hit so many traffic jams and road work, most especially around Baton Rouge.  Right before we arrived in Hammond, there was a huge wreck just past Hammond and we were stopped right at our exit.  There is a really nice mall in Hammond, so after dinner at East of Italy, we discovered this place last year on the way to Rosemary Beach, we went to several of the shops.  Saturday morning we got up to have an early start since we would lose an hour once we got close to Chattanooga where we stayed for the night.  It was Cinco De Mayo and in Houston, I would probably not go eat  Mexican food because of the huge crowds.  But Cinco De Mayo is celebrated in Chattanooga and on a much smaller, more family oriented scale.  We ate at a place recommended by the Holiday Inn Express desk clerk.  She was so funny and dramatic as she told us about El Matador that we had to go.  Oh my, it was delicious.  The chili con queso was as good or better than Escalente's.  After dinner we took pictures of the huge moon rising about the mountains and got ice cream from Sonic. 

Sunday, we were on the last leg of our trip.  We followed the directions from Google Maps to take the back way to Asheville.  There are two ways to go on the back way and Roy and I have driven both.  The way we went on Sunday morning had a huge detour at the Tenn/North Carolina state line.  The blessing was seeing some of the beauty of rural Tenn but it was taking longer than we really wanted it to.  Tenn really needs to work on its detour signs because once we arrived at the main drag, there were no directions or signs to follow. So, I turned right.  Dena wasn't too sure that was the way we were supposed to go and had just said if we hit the Georgia state line, we have gone to far.  Hello Georgia!  That no sooner got out of her mouth that we crossed over the line.  We turned around in an antique store parking lot, which if they had been open I would have really wanted to stop and headed back the way we came and actually go past the road we turned from.  Ah, a sight for sore eyes, highway 64 and we soon found ourselves in the Smokey Mountains and surrounded by God's beautiful creation. 

We were ready for some chicken and we got to Granny's Chicken Palace just in the nick of time.  They closed at 3:00 and we arrived at 2:30. 

Oh the chicken was delightful and so were the veggies.  We had the strength we needed to go the rest of our journey to the Inn on the Biltmore Estate.  I'll continue the story tomorrow....