From South Carolina to North - April 23, 2024

Scott Farnsworth
Apr 23, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Apr 25, 2024

SUMMARY Leisurely day driving from Columbia, South Carolina to Asheville, North Carolina. Beyond that, I got nuthin’! - Karen

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DETAIL We wake up still in our pretend college dorm. Thankfully there are no announcements over the school PA system.

Today will be another driving day. 2.5 hours of driving planned, but alas no National Park. We pack, move everything to the car and drive off towards breakfast. We found a good sounding place: Breakfast by Ruiz. Well reviewed.

It’s down by the river. Not the Columbia River, but the Congaree River. We’re in the Riverside District and it looks hip and trendy. There’s new condos and apartments there that look nice. We can see people coming here in the good weather and thinking “I could live in Columbia”.

Breakfast is awesome. We split an omelette with spinach other sautéed veggies and gournay cheese. We’ve not heard of that one but we figure we’ll give it a chance. It is awesome. Great breakfast. Good start to the day.

The drive is boring, in terms of what there is to see. It’s exciting in that there are lots of big trucks, only two lanes in each direction and most of the way they’re doing all kinds of roadwork. Not fun. The wrong kind of excitement. Two hours in we pull into the parking lot of a grocery store (“Ingles”). We don’t really need anything, but want to use their bathroom and stretch the legs.

Having accomplished both we glance around for something to buy. Cheese and crackers maybe? Sure, why not. I grab Boursin, the one with garlic and herbs. Good safe choice. I look at the package and it says “Gournay Cheese”. Ohhhh, now we understand. We did know that variety just not its name.

We're not sure where we are. That is, what state are we in? We look at the license plates in the store parking lot and it doesn't help. We consult our iPhone and learn we're still in South Carolina, but just barely. Another mile or so and we'll be in North Carolina. A few miles northwest and we'd be in Tennessee. And a few miles southwest and we'd be in Georgia. We're almost in one of those "four corners" type of places.

We continue on into Asheville. It doesn’t look too big. Lots of cool old looking buildings. We find our hotel and pull into the reception drive through. Any self-parking? Nope. OK, valet it is. They take my phone number and message me. It says “Message the word Car to this number when you want your car”. Sweet. Everything’s getting automated these days.

Checking in they ask if we want glasses of champagne. Cool, yes, please!

At dinner time we walk to a restaurant called Bouchon ("cork", in French). It’s good and French. They have some good French wine by the glass. We approve. Afterwards we walk around town a bit, walking off dinner and the wine.

Back at the hotel we check out the gym, nice enough. We run into a jovial looking guy (Dave) who introduces himself and asks where we’re from. “Austin! I’m from Abilene!… Am here with my sister and husband from Plano, and my other sister from…” etc. etc. Friendly people those Texans. Turns out they’re all also going to the Biltmore tomorrow. Small world.

Finally off to bed. Big day tomorrow.

Photos

Yummy breakfast omelette at Breakfast by Ruiz. Better than it looks. Brioche toast.

A few hours later we're in Asheville, North Carolina. This is the view from our room. Elevation is like 2,200 feet. Rolling hills.

Walking to dinner we see some cool looking old buildings. This one's been repurposed into a small retail shopping mall.

One store had a string of these cools sparkler lights. Each maybe 6" across, sparkling. We asked if they sell them. "No, but just go on Amazon and look for Fire Work Lights."