Off to Asheville

The Biltmore Estate

It's really spring now, as opposed to the false-start spring that we always endure in the mid south. But it is always worth the wait. In Kentucky the foliage is breathtaking, the blossoms on the dogwood trees were more profuse and brighter than I recall ever seeing them and the pastures of the Bluegrass are growing lush and are full of mares with new foals by their sides. Sunny seventy-five degree days are more the norm than not. As much as both John and I are not fans of winter I think we appreciate spring more because of it.

Mary had a nice rest at Prospect Lane in Versailles after we returned from our trip across the country and back. Tre and Emily put down some new gravel for her space next to the barn and John plugged her in and commenced his "piddling" (his description) with her. His first big project was to get her cleaned up. After 7,000 miles of weather and bugs she was pretty disgusting. We immediately eliminated a truck wash (we are talking about MARY here...no truck wash for her) and then discussed finding someone who details vehicles on site but John insisted that he could do it himself. "Are you sure you want to tackle that?" I asked. "Yep," he said with the kind of confidence that told me there was no point in arguing with him. After seeing Mary parked inside of the shop in Wakarusa I was awed (and terrorized) by her size. The difference between washing a car and washing Mary seemed to me to be the difference between washing a car and washing an office building.

John left the house that morning with a lilt in his step. He is very expressive with his body language and there was so much enthusiasm in his gait that I thought maybe it would be enough to get him through the washing project. I went on about my day which after returning from a long absence entails a lot of catching up. I was so busy that I didn't notice until 1:00 that I hadn't heard from him. That is unusual. Normally he will call me in the morning once or twice and if I don't see him at lunch time he calls again in the afternoon. "Hmmm..." I said after looking at my watch. I considered calling him but didn't want to interrupt his work so I moved on with my day. At 3:00 the phone finally rang.

"Hi!" I said. "How did it go?" He groaned. "I've been washing and rinsing for five and a half hours. But she's clean." I held my breath for a beat to stifle a giggle. "I suppose tomorrow's waxing project is out of the question then?" I said. Enthusiasm returned to his voice again. "Nope! Richmond and the guys are going to help me tomorrow." Richmond is Tre's right hand man at Prospect Lane and one of the nicest young men that you would ever want to know. "Did you promise him our first born foal this year?" I asked. "Nope. I told him I would do his colt's tail for free." Ahhh...a good trade. "And the guys?" (Tre's grooms). "I'll pay them," he said. It was a good plan and by the end of the next afternoon Mary was not only clean, she was sparkling.

The next Mary project involved shopping for new toys for her. After staying in campgrounds and RV parks across the country for five weeks John discovered a whole new world of goodies that more experienced fellow coach owners have unearthed. And while washing Mary he discovered some snap receivers that surrounded the windshield and side windows. It was time to call Dennis.

Sidebar: Hi Dennis! We are on the road again so you may hear from us. There has been real progress in our understanding of the coach...so much so that I actually (this is momentous) put The Bible away in the cupboard next to The Super Bible. We been gone for four days and haven't looked at it once!

So after making a few phone calls with questions about water filters and antenna boosters and snap receivers we began receiving daily shipments from UPS, FED EX and the post office. Mary's air conditioner shroud which was damaged by a low branch at the farm in Springfield arrived in a HUGE box. John took it to Richmond at the barn who gave it to a friend of his who owns a paint shop. It came back with a perfect match to Mary's paint. When she is parked she is sporting new sun shades that snap into place covering the windshield and side windows allowing us to see out but blacking out the windows to viewers from the outside. They are really cool. She has new water filters and she is clean inside and out. And the new-Mary-goodies wish list continues to grow.

One of the most enthusiastic (understatement) coach owners that we met while we were away was a guy named Phil. We were in Arkansas at the KOA just getting settled when I looked out the window and saw a Monaco coach pull into the camp ground. "There's a big Monaco pulling in," I say looking out Mary's window. John jumped up and out the door he went. He was gone for about twenty minutes before he returned with Phil in tow. Phil was a big guy with a big voice, a big head with a hole in his haircut and wearing shorts, knee high socks, atheletic shoes and a flowered shirt that stretched around his big middle. After the initial introduction he asked me if I had a checklist for departure, arrival and setup. Puzzled I said, "Yes, I created a list to keep us from doing anything stupid." He announced that he had one too and informed me that we had to exchange lists. I was a little put off by Phil's pushiness. He was more interested in dictating to us about things to do and not do than he was in any kind of conversation about coaching. I did what I do when I encounter someone with frantic know-it-all energy. I withdraw my energy from the conversation so that it peters out fast and they go away. After he left I looked at John and rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I didn't realize until it was too late," he said. Before we left the next day Phil had delivered his "Pre-flight" and "Post-flight" check lists. I consider myself a pretty organized person...not as good at it as I was before middle age memory deficit took over but pretty good. My list is about half of a page long. Phil's list was five pages complete with instructions on filling the fresh water tank half full and dumping a half cup of Calgon water softener in the tank before leaving each destination. As I was reading this bizarre document which included items as basic as closing the door (I can be a little dense at times but we have never driven away from anywhere in any vehicle with the door hanging open) John asked, "What is Calgon water softener?" I shook my head and put the list down. "Nothing that we need to concern ourselves with," I said. I'm still not sure what the purpose of the water softener was but Monaco didn't recommend it so I decided it was probably something that flowered-shirt Phil invented. We ducked Phil for the rest of our stay and drove away without water softener and with our door closed.

Back to Asheville.

Our plan was to leave for Asheville, North Carolina on Monday, May 12th and stay for part of the week. John judged the show last year and we made a trip up to The Biltmore Estate which was a wonderful and amazing experience. If you are ever in the area it is well worth the price of admission. Between trips we were able to watch "John Adams" on HBO (which is a series that I highly recommend...if you are interested in how this country was founded it is a must see) so I have a renewed interest in American history. Consequently we added Colonial Williamsburg and a trip to Monticello to the agenda. Stops at stables along the way were added and the plan was to end up in Pennsylvania at the Devon horse show at the end of May.

At the moment we are still at the Asheville show (its Saturday) and we had to eliminate Devon due to an inablity to find a place to put Mary. We leave for the Columbia, South Carolina area tomorrow to spend a little time around Lake Murray, see some horses in the area and then we'll figure out what the next stop is. We left Lexington a day later than planned due to some bad weather and Donnie Brookshire met us here in Asheville on Wednesday for a visit and to see the show. We ate our way through Asheville (Brookie is the best person on the planet to eat with because he is a foodie...an adventurous food lover and head chef of Chez Brookshire) while he was here and we shared some good laughs.

I've finally given up on driving Mary for this year. I figure it will probably take that long for the "new toy-ness" to wear off. Then there is the navigation issue. From the time that we begin our trip until we stop I'm engaged in navigation and various other duties. Those involve several things; maping distances, researching addresses, programming the useless piece of shit to see if by some miracle it has our destination in its data base, giving "all clears" during turns and stops, locating truck stops and rest areas and calculating distances to the next one, researching and booking spaces for Mary, researching possible future destinations and answering any of a thousand"I wonder..." questions that happen to come up for either of us. It's busy work. I couldn't do most of it without my laptop and the trusty air card. I try to take breaks to enjoy the scenery, make lunch, refresh water, lemonade or what ever the refreshment of choice is as we travel. So I have an important function. Breezy is the comfort dog. She provides blood pressure control (petting her regularly keeps it steady) maintains calm when we lose it in a crisis and makes sure that we stop and get out for fresh air and walks at regular intervals. She has a very important function. So for this year I'll stop complaining about not driving. I'm confident that in a pinch I could get us from point A to point B. I may take out a few cars, light poles and put a few dents in Mary and/or the Camry but we would get there.

I'll post again once we get to Lake Murray. It is a gorgeous day here in Asheville, which is a gorgeous part of the world, so I think I'll get outside and enjoy it. I hope your Saturday was a good one!