Spring break in retrospect

After a drinky night at Fontana Village, spent with many of the same people whom I gathered with outside mine and Tintin's hotel room in Franklin, I got a shuttle ride to Asheville, NC with Gene Laney, 82, whose business card reads "A Hikers Friend from Beginning to End." I got mildly carsick twisting along the hills. The ride from the middle of nowhere to Asheville took nearly two hours.

In Asheville I stayed at a brand new hostel called Sweat Peas. I spent an hour or two waiting for it to open at Malaprops bookstore. Outside it was sunny, warm and young buskers stood on almost all of the corners, including just outside the bookstore, where a young bearded man played a mandolin for passersby.

At night I realized why the hostel gives guests a fresh pair of ear plugs upon check-in. Just below the hostel, which I shared with maybe five other people, a dueling piano night took place in Lab, a hopping brew pub. The pub owner also owns the hostel. The music traveled easily up through the floor.

The next day, Wednesday, March 31, Ashley arrived after noon. We booked a private room in the hostel, actually more like a windowless cell, but comfortable, and walked through the sunny streets. We ate the lunch buffet at the much-heralded Mela, an awesome Indian restaurant five minutes' walk from the hostel. The chicken masala was every bit as good as Miguel [class of 2010] said it would be. Then we got me a haircut. It was due. I was, as Ashley pointed out, getting the mad scientist look.

That night we met Johnny Thunder GA->ME '08, LT '09, at Barley's, yet another brew pub. Ashley and I did the alpine slide with Johnny and his girlfriend, Freefall GA->ME '08, in Rutland, VT last year when Ashley came up to visit me. Ashley gave them a ride while she was waiting for me to come down from the mountain to the Inn at Long Trail. That's when Ashley and Johnny realized they were in the same graduating class in college. Small world!

Anyway, the three of us went on to win 2nd place in the pub trivia contest. We dominated the whole game until the final round, when another team jumped from like 8th place to first with a 15-point wager. Our $15 prize made a nice dent in our bill for pizza and beer. Johnny gave me a bunch of tips for things to do and places to see on the southern half of the AT.

On Thursday, we went to REI and got outfitted. I got a warm jacket for the Smokies and inquired about swapping out my defective sleeping bag. Ashley got a pillow and a pack cover: She's getting prepared for the two AT ection hikes we plan to do this summer.

Next: Massages! We got a 30-minute couple's massage at a spa just around the corner from our hostel. I ordered the deep-tissue, she had the Swedish. It seemed over too quickly.

We switched to a downtown hotel that was the same price as the hostel, but which included a view, a private bathroom, fridge, TV and more space. It was a no-brainer. That night we caught a bluegrass jam at Jack In the Woods.

To be continued...