Asheville, NC - Part 2

Monday, April 29

During our travels, we’ve known there would come a time that Andi would need to travel back to Minneapolis for work meetings which would leave Tory, Aden and I on our own — we just weren’t sure where we’d be when that time came. As it turned out, the kids and I had two extra days in Asheville, North Carolina to adventure.

Andi took an Uber ride to the airport very early the morning of Monday, April 29. Flying out of a small regional airport meant he played planes, trains, and automobiles to Minneapolis in a reasonable time frame, but he willingly did so to maximize our family’s time and quality of life on the road.

Meanwhile, the kids and I made a bucket list of all the things we wanted to do when Daddy was away. (Aren’t we kind?!) Let’s be honest, there are activities the kids like doing that parents don’t particularly enjoy (like going to the kids play place at the mall, for example) so I figured we’d do those things while he wasn’t with us. And eat spaghetti. Andi doesn’t like spaghetti so that almost always makes the “Daddy’s Away” to-do list.

Aden wasn’t feeling well yesterday, and he slept in a lot later than usual this morning. Tory was the first one awake, so she laid in bed with her Kindle while I did my workout outside the RV. Surprisingly, this campground has a gym, but the door is locked until 9:00am and I didn’t want to wait around that long to use it.

I had a feeling of familiarity wash over me as I prepared the kids’ breakfast plates. Our family has been traveling together for close to three months now, but there’s something special about having Andi with us that makes everyday feel like a vacation. Now that he was at work and the three of us were on our own, it felt oddly like “real life” again — but this time, in our RV.

After breakfast, Tory and I did school and then we went to the West North Carolina (WNC) Nature Center in Asheville. It was a beautiful 75 degrees and sunshine day. 

The WNC Nature Center reminded me a lot of Como Zoo in Minneapolis. It was small and contained (meaning, I didn’t fear Aden running away and getting lost) and wasn’t very crowded on a Monday afternoon. Tory, Aden and I walked around the nature center looking at North Carolina farm animals, black bear, and raptors. 

At the river otter exhibit, the kids met a little girl name Una who was friendly and bright. Aden hit it off with Una immediately and the two began to play. Tory, Aden, and I followed Una and her mom to a climbing area within the nature center, and then we all attended a nature presentation about black rat snakes together. It was really fun! The kids were having a great time together. 

Before we knew it, it was 4:00pm. Tory, Aden and I said good-bye to Una and her mom, and then we drove straight to The Little Gym. The kids begged to attend another gymnastic class while we visited Asheville, so I signed them up for a drop-in session. Tory and Aden used to attend classes at a similar place in Minneapolis, so I figured it would be easy for them to jump right in. Wrong!

This Little Gym class was more of a dance class. Do you ever have nightmares about what it would feel like to be a performer on a stage, but you forgot the moves? Well, that’s pretty much what this was like. The instructor did her best to give Tory and Aden cues, but they had no idea what the routine was, where they were suppose to stand, or when it was time for them to do their part. A for Effort; they both hung in there and tried their best. Fortunately, the last 15 minutes of class time was open play on the gymnastic equipment so at least it wasn’t all for nothing.

After gymnastics, we drove to Whole Foods to pick up Andi’s Amazon package. The machine was fixed and I retrieved the package from the locker without an issue this time. 

Back at the RV, I re-heated the Instant Pot spaghetti with meat sauce I’d made earlier in the day and we ate that for dinner. Tory, Aden, and I snuggled up together in the big RV bed and watched a Nick Jr. cartoon until bedtime. It was a quiet ending to a busy day in Asheville.

Tuesday, April 30 

We have a new kindergartener in the family! After asking for weeks when it was his turn to start school, I finally gave in and started homeschooling Aden. Who says school has to begin in the fall? If he’s ready now, let’s do it! Staring his curriculum was as easy as enrolling him in the online program we use. Aden placed in kindergarten language arts, math, and science, and in first grade social studies coursework. I have to admit that having my baby start kindergarten was easier on this mama’s heart when I’m the one teaching him! I’m so glad he isn’t going off to a traditional school for 9 hours everyday.

After we finished school, the kids and I brainstormed a list of things we wanted to do on our last day in Asheville. In no particular order, they decided they wanted to ride bikes, run through the fountain downtown, see a movie, and go to the kids area at the mall. I wasn’t sure we’d have time for all of it, but I told them we’d try.

First up: running through the fountain in Asheville’s Pack Square Park. Don’t worry, we weren’t breaking any rules by doing this — the decorative fountain is called Splasheville which is an interactive splash pad designed for kids to play in and also serves as a pretty decoration in downtown Asheville.

It was a warm and sunny 83 degrees outside, so the perfect day to do this.

Next, we ventured over to the Asheville Mall. When I’d asked the mom of the kids’ friend at the Nature Center yesterday about fun things to do in Asheville, she mentioned the Mall Jump. Once Tory heard about it, she was intent on doing it. So, off to the mall we went.

Coincidently, there was a special on Tuesdays — 2 jumps for $10, so it was an inexpensive activity to boot! The employee strapped Tory and Aden each into a harness and then they jumped to their hearts content for a five-minute ride.

Next on our list — bike riding. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of hills in the Appalachian Mountains which makes it challenging for our inexperienced riders to bike any great distance. I’d read about a park in Asheville called French Broad River Park with a flat walking / bike trail perfect for kids, so we drove over there.

Traffic was terrible as it neared 5:00pm, so it took us longer to get to the park than I’d expected. By the time we arrived, Tory’s attitude turned grumpy and she was not cooperating at all. I was having a hard time splitting my attention between Tory, who was practically walking her bike, and Aden who was speeding off ahead like a bolt of lightening. Suffice it to say, biking was not my favorite activity of the day.

We finished biking just in time to make it to the movie Penguins playing at the Biltmore Grand in south Asheville. I made the kids promise to be on their best behavior as quite honestly, I was running out of parenting patience. Fortunately, we were the only people in the theatre for the 6:30pm movie so it didn’t matter if Aden talked through the entire show or spilled his popcorn everywhere which were both things that happened.

We were all in desperate need of showers by the time we got back to the campground, so I drug the kids down to the shower house at 8:30pm. It wasn’t an item on our to-do list, but I couldn’t imagine putting them to bed as dirty as they were from playing all day. There happened to be quite a few other campers in the building doing laundry at the same time, so we talked with a guy from Florida about his travels while we were there.

Tory and Aden practically collapsed into their beds after we showered and got dressed in our pajamas. I folded some laundry and waited up as long as I could for Andi to return at 12:30am. He’d taken an 8:00pm flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta to Asheville to get back to us tonight. Tomorrow, the four of us are heading onto Tennessee for the next leg of our adventure.