Day Two: Dinos, Skylines, Bugs, and Mountaineers

Day two of the excursion is now in the books.  We managed to get out of the Best Western in Luray, VA by 9am.  Not bad for some recent college graduates.  We got off to a great start as Co-pilot Johnny led us in the wrong direction leaving Luray.  However, the shame of this was soon negated by the fact that after turning around, we passed a large dinosaur outside of the Luray Zoo.  Ocho was super excited and many a picture was taken.  Princess quickly reigned things in and soon we were on Skyline Drive headed through the Shenandoah National Park.  The views were amazing and we stopped often at the overlooks to take pictures.  For lunch we picnicked out in a field in the park.  It was quite lovely and we even left a note on a sign along the Appalachian Trail for a fellow Eliotite to find along his travels.

After exiting Skyline we hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway and later I-81 as we made our way from Virginia, briefly into Tennessee, and then finally into North Carolina.  This was relatively unremarkable other than a near accident caused by a certain someone in the backseat freaking out about a bug, jumping across the row onto the lap of the fellow backseat passenger, and refusing to move back until the bug had been dealt with.  We in the front seat were told that it was at least 3-feet long and may have spit flames.  As we approached North Carolina we began looking for a hotel to stay at.  Our first idea was The Mountaineer Inn, but this was quickly passed over for being far too shoddy.  As we began to receive recommendations for places to eat and go out in Asheville, we soon realized that The Mountaineer Inn was the only place within walking distances of where we wanted to go that didn’t cost $20 more than The Mountaineer Inn.  We soon pulled our car into the parking lot immediately following a 20-foot tall neon sign of a shoeless cowboy, smoking a corn cob pipe, and holding a shotgun gracefully betwixt his legs.  It was glorious.  The room was so lovely that the Ocho immediately decided upon entering that she would wait until Jackson to take a shower.  Soon after arriving and connecting to the internet (we had to find out from the office that the password was “sourmash”), we headed off to find the pizza and beer place we had been told was great.  After walking for about half a mile and ending up under an interstate overpass, we decided we had gone the wrong way.  A quick turn around, which gave us another chance to enjoy the majestic view of The Mountaineer Inn, and we were on our way.

We had a late dinner at Barley’s, the previously mentioned beer and pizza place.  We sampled some Pisgah, French Broad, Duck and Rabbit, Catawba, and probably several others.  All were in agreement that the beers were great.  We followed this up with one last beer to end the night at the Asheville Brewing Company.  We couldn’t resist ordering the Ninja.  Once again, delicious.  We then hailed a cab back to our lovely lodgings, where we will reside for the next 8 hours or so.