WEDNESDAY 9/13/23. OUR LAST FULL DAY IN ASHEVILLE.

 The people in Asheville are the friendliest we've ever encountered. In every store and every restaurant every person we met went out of their way to be friendly, chat and help us with whatever we needed. Usually, when we travel, we meet one or two people like that, but in Asheville everyone was that way.

On our last full day here, we decided not to cook breakfast here in the motorhome, but to give the Moose Cafe a chance at wowing us with their breakfast menu. It was after 10am and since they served breakfast all day it seemed like a good decision. And it certainly was!!!!!!!!

When we got to the Moose Cafe, the waitress brought over 2 LARGE BISUITS with apple sauce. Again, with those big biscuits. They were fresh and delicious.

David ordered a Western omelet with hashbrown casserole, and I ordered the veggie omelet with home fries. Look at the size of these omelets!!! The omelet was bigger than my plate. And they brought us another biscuit each. And-----it was delicious. Needless to say, we couldn't eat it all and took more than half home.

When we left the cafe, we noticed right next door was a Farmers Market, soi we drove through to see what they had. We could not believe the size of this market. Dozens of vendors selling locally grown vegetables and other things. We wish we had discovered it earlier. Everything looked so good, and they are open every day, year-round. We will have to visit when we come back to Asheville.

Your Guide to Asheville Farmers Markets (Summer 2023) - When In Asheville (wheninavl.com)

Next, we decided to drive over to Black Mountain, a little town east of Asheville. We had visited here many years ago and stayed in a campground near there. I seem to remember visiting a small quilt shop there, but I don't remember much else about the town.

It was a cute little town with lots of small shops. They had a General Store, ice cream shop, lots of pottery shops, art shop, pet supply shop, dress shops, restaurants, and a yarn shop.

We ended up getting a couple of Black Mountain T shirts, a new coffee cup and of course visiting the yarn shop. The shop was very nice. It wasn't cluttered and had a good selection of unusual brands and hand dyed yarns. I bought a couple of skeins of sock yarn. It was a nice discovery. I wonder what happened to the quilt shop that used to be here.

After our little excursion, we headed back to the motorhome for time with the kitties. They both really enjoyed sitting out in their strollers and smelling the fresh air and we enjoyed sitting out with them too.

Abby and Bentley both just chilled out, sleeping in their strollers.

  Inside, Bentley was able to jump up in the back window to look out and see behind the motorhome. Poor Abby is just too fat and can't get there or up into the top bunk bed, which gives Bentley a place just for him.

We had the best sleep we have both had in a very long time. I don't know if it was the motorhome, the cool mountain air coming in the window, the Fall temperatures, or what. One morning we slept until 8am. At home, I'm awake at 3:30 and up at 4am. Maybe it's just that we didn't have anything on our schedule.

Our trip to Asheville was great and we wished we had scheduled more time here to do nothing.

HANGING OUT IN ASHEVIILE

 On Sunday morning we made a big breakfast in the MH with eggs, bacon and fried potatoes. It was excellent. We hung out in the MH and took the kitties out in the strollers.

 Then on Monday morning we went to the yarn shop. Friends and Fiberworks. The owner, Lisa was away with a yarn group on a cruise to the UK, Scotland, England and Ireland. What a lucky girl. The people in the shop were so nice and helpful in answering questions and finding what I was looking for. I bought a few skeins of yarn, but the shop was just overwhelming with 4000 sq ft of yarn. And the place was packed full.

After that we went to Home Depot to buy a new faucet for the bathroom. The old one worked fine, but every time you disconnected from the city water it got air in the line, of course and the next time you turned the water on, it blew water all over you until the air ran out. We were tired of being wet. The new one is much nicer.

Abby has certainly made herself at home in the MH. She is very relaxed now.

She loves sleeping in our bed.

And, she loves sleeping on the steps to get a nice breeze and fresh air.

She and Bentley are getting along better. In the past when we had 3 kitties, they always seemed to get along better in the MH than at home for some reason.

On Tuesday morning we went to Asheville Cotton, a quilt shop here in Asheville. I had been here once before when Chattanooga Quilts did a quilt bus tour last year and this was the shop in Asheville that we visited. It is a very nice shop. I found a few fat quarters for a quilt I'd like to make, and David found a cute little kitty panel with coordinating fat quarters. The people in the shop were all super helpful.

In the afternoon, Bentley went for a nice walk in the stroller and saw a few squirrels. he sure loves his stroller rides. Afterward I decided to get out the sewing machine and work on the quilt shop sunflower sample quilt for the shop. I made about 6 blocks and put it away for now. I just need more workspace to trim the blocks. I'll finish it when I get home.

For dinner, we went to Haus Heidelburg, a Germain restaurant for dinner that Cindy had recommended. 

The food was excellent and there was lots of it. David ordered the sausage sampler which came with 1/2 sausage links of all of their sausages, red cabbage and hot potato salad. I ordered the Octoberfest Sampler, which was way too much, but included, 2 sausages, hot potato salad, red cabbage, sauerkraut, spaetzle and a large piece of sauerbraten. Everything was so good, except the sauerkraut. The taste was a little too strong for me, but the sauerbraten was to die for. I forgot to take a picture of my meal, but this is what was left at the end to bring home. Good grief, enough for 2 people.

                                                           And David had a beer of course.

                It was definitely a great place to eat, although the interior was a little odd.

Afterwards, we came home and took the kitties out in their strollers for a nice go out to look for bugs, birdies and squirrels.

                                                                  It was a good day.

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Visiting Asheville, NC

 We have not had a MH trip since we went to SA in May, and we were due for one. After we got home from SA, the refrigerator in the MH would not get cool enough. After multiple attempts to repair on our own we called the service people we bought out home refrigerator from and they said there was a leak in the freon, and it couldn't be repaired. Well, it was 10 years old, and I guess that's about how long appliances last these days.

We ended up getting one like the one we have at home, but with a few more bells and whistles. It is another French door with water and ice in the door. At least we have a working refrig now. On with our travels.

We decided to go to Asheville, NC. It wasn't too long a drive, and it would be Abby's first trip in the MH and Bentley's first trip without his brothers. We hadn't been to Asheville in several years and it's such a nice place. I like it because they have a wonderful yarn shop that I go to when I am here, and they have moved into a new place with a 4000 sq ft shop. You can't beat that.

We left Saturday morning, driving down I -75 to I- 40. As we got closer to Asheville, the Smoky Mountains came into view. It was a beautiful drive, but the roads were a bit curvy for my taste.

Bentley was enjoying the ride up front.

Abby was riding on the steps, since she knew that was the way out. Every little noise was scary to her.

We were staying at the Bear Creek RV Campground. There were no bears or creek in site, but it was a good location as it was on the west side of Asheville. Our site was a back in and not terribly spacious, but we did have a mountain view as we were on the top level.

Home - Asheville Bear Creek Rv and Campground

 

After we settled in, we took the kitties out in their strollers. They both enjoyed the fresh air and watching the birds, bugs and people.

For dinner, we wanted to go somewhere close by, and we saw this place on the map called the Moose Cafe. 

Wow, I wish I had taken pictures of the food they served. It was kind of like a Cracker Barrel, but more Mom and Pop. Before we even ordered they brought out 2 of the largest homemade biscuits I have ever seen. They must have been 4" square and 4" tall. I ordered their meatloaf with mashed potatoes and collards. David ordered the spicy stuffed pepper with mac n cheese and pinto beans. OH LORD, the serving sizes were ridiculous. My meatloaf was almost 3" thick and 5" x 5". I couldn't eat it all. We bought the leftovers home and made 2 meatloaf sandwiches out of it the next day. Good grief it was too much food. We'll have to go back for their breakfast one day before we leave. LOL

A NEW ADDITION TO THE FAMILY

 When we lost Nickie and Finny, our hearts were broken. Bentley was just as sad and grieving just as much as we were. He went around the house crying out, calling them and looking in every space inside and constantly looking outside for them.

We thought another kitty, but not a kitten would help ease his sadness. We were probably wrong, because it was too soon, but we did it anyway because we were all sad. We went to the Naughty Cat Cafe, where they had cats for adoption in a no cage and relaxed environment. It was like a home with sofas, chairs, low level lighting and cats just laying around looking for loving and attention. At least you knew they were socialized and could mix with other cats. They would only let in 15 people at a time to love on the cats. The husband and wife that ran the place would share info about the individual cats to ty and help you find one that fit your needs. They were all nice, but none stood out for us. We spoke with Whitney and explained our situation. She called the Pet Placement Center, another rescue place and they had 4 cats 6 to 8 years old that we might look at and she told them we were coming over.

This place was nothing like the Naught Cat Cafe. All the cats, their litter boxes and food were in one room. The places smelled terrible, but all of the cats were getting along.

As soon as we walked into the cat area David spotted this cat high in the cat tree. As soon as he reached up to pet her, she started purring and wouldn't stop. He said, "she has Nickie's face". She was long hair, but not a Maine Coon.  I looked around at the others, that were all nice, but David had already chosen her. We spoke with the lady there and she said this cat, Bingley, was 8 years old and her owners had taken her to the vet to have her euthanized. We couldn't believe anyone would do that to a cat and neither could the vet that refused to do it. We wanted to pick her up, but she was high up on the cat tree and didn't want to come down. She looked very sweet and thought she might fit in well with Bentley. They told us we would have to fill out an application to adopt her and it would take a few days to process. So, we went home an filled out the application on-line. As soon as they got the application----in minutes------they called and asked if we wanted to come get her, So, we did.

They got her down from the cat tree and she was a BIG GIRL 18 lbs. Her normal weight probably should have been about 8-9 lbs. They gave us her paperwork which had records from 2018 to present. She was spayed and up to date on all her shots and no diseases.

I sat in the back seat with her, so she was more comfortable and read through her paperwork. THEN iI discovered why the previous owner wanted to get rid of her. It was a husband and wife with a 3 yr. old, a 4-month-old, 2 dogs and another cat. Bingly had an ongoing problem with pooping outside her litter box. Good grief!!!!!!!!!!! She was on shaky ground with us already with that info. We thought the problem was most likely stress related since they had had her since she was a kitten and now the kids and other animal were taking her attention and space. Plus, they had moved back and forth from Chattanooga to Oak Ridge and back to Chattanooga. Well, we would give it a try and see how it worked out, but if not, we would bring her back for sure.

We put her in our bathroom for a few days until Bentley could get used to her. She was definitely affectionate and talkative. Due to her huge size, she was very hard to pick up, but she was happy and used her litter box at first.

On the 3rd day, she pooped in the bathtub and then on my dining room carpet. We changed the cat litter to unscented and added a litter attractant to it. She did great for a few weeks. Then it happened again. I noticed she seemed to be constipated. We had a free visit with the vet at the Cat Clinic where the owners had taken her to be euthanized and she said to give her 1/4 ts of MiraLAX. Unfortunately, she doesn't eat wet food at all, so I put it in some broth and give it to her before she has access to her dry food. She has been drinking all the broth and doesn't poop on the floor. She is a super sweet cat. She still doesn't get along well with Bentley, but maybe time will help that.

We couldn't call her Bingly, because we already have a Bentley, so we named her Abigail Cleocatra and we call her Abby. She looks like an Abby girl.

                                                 She and Bentley both love their cat grass.

We have to get her used to all of our routines, like stroller rides and nail trimming and camping. 

So far, so good for Abby Girl. We haven't had a female cat since Jennifer. It's going to be hard to get used to after so many boys.

THE LOSS OF TWO OF OUR PRECIOUS TRAVEL COMPANIONS

It is with very heavy hearts that we have to post about the loss of our two beautiful and sweet Maine Coon babies, Nicholas Samuel Adams on the right and Finnegan McAllister on the left. 

They were both 17 years old, born 5 days apart and they died 4 days apart. 

Nickie was born on May 5th, in Myrtle Beach, SC. The breeder we got him from was Paul, and he called Nickie, Tobey He cried when we drove away with baby Nickie. He told us to look him in the eye when we were talking to him, and he was right. Nickie loved to get in your lap and stare you in the eye. when you were talking to him.

He was the cutest kitty and was so laid back. Nothing bothered him. You could run the vacuum cleaner right up to him and he would just sit there. He loved people. He loved everyone, even kids that he didn't see very often.

Nickie was a Daddy's boy. He insisted on getting his lap, no matter what, and he wanted his FULL attention, even if he was driving the motorhome, typing on the computer or watching TV. It didn't matter. Nickie would sleep every night with his arm wrapped around David's RT arm, so that David couldn't move at night. All the kitties got brushing before bed and Nickie would take a few bites of his dinner and run to get in bed for his brushing and special time with his Daddy. It was Daddy's special time too. I don't know who enjoyed it more. 

And Nickie loved his brother Bentley. He would wrap his arms around Bentley and sleep and he would follow Bentley everywhere.

Nickie never, ever gave us anything, but love. He was a big boy, which is typical of Maine Coons. When he was young, he and Finny loved to play together, but as they got older, they grew apart. Every night David would tell him how special he was. And he was,

Finnegan was born May 10th, 2006, just 5 days after Nickie. His breeder, Maggie lived in Franklin, TN, just outside of Nashville. When I found out about him being available, I drove to her house after work to see him. He had 3 other siblings, and he was so precious.

                                                                     Here he was at 4 weeks old.

                                          Here he is in his Star Wars tent with his siblings.

Finny was so different from Nickie. He was always nervous. Everything scared him poor Finnigan. He would throw up when riding in the car, which we thought was car sickness, but later realized he was just nervous. Eventually, I got a Cat In The Bag which he loved. It made him feel safe and secure. He would ride in the car and look out the window as we rode along, and he never threw up again.

Little Finny was long and slim, with huge ears and paws. His coat was longer, and sleeker and silkier than Nickie's. They both needed regular brushings as they would mat, so you have to stay on top of that. Sometimes we would get Nickie a Lion's cut in the summer. 

                                 Finny always looked like a little fawn to me, sweet and delicate. 

He was a beautiful boy. He loved to lay in my arms like a baby and knead my face and neck. At mealtimes, he got so excited, running to the kitchen, anxiously waiting for his food.

This was after I trimmed him. As he grew older, he wouldn't groom himself and he also would get mats.

All the kitties loved to travel with us. This blog is filled with picture s of them on our travels. They were part of our lives for 17 years and we loved every minute of it. 

Last month we noticed Nickie wasn't very interested in eating his treats or eating as much at mealtime. They were all scheduled for their annual checkup and rabies vaccines the next week, so we thought we'd have it checked out. Then I noticed Nickie was grinding his teeth when he ate. I called the vet thinking him might have a tooth that was bothering him and could we bring him in sooner? Our vet was booked, so we saw one of the other vets. She checked him over and tried to look in his mouth, but he wouldn't cooperate. She wanted to give him some gabapentin so she could get a better look and asked us to leave him there until she could have the gabapentin take affect & check him over. They would also draw his blood.

We left him there and she called in the afternoon and said his teeth looked good, but they did a chest x-ray and she saw a mass in his chest. It could be a lymphoma but she wanted him to see an internist at the ER hospital in downtown Chattanooga. This was Thursday, and that Dr would not be back until Monday. She had already sent him Nickie's x-ray and he agreed he thought Nickie had a mass which could be lymphoma or Adenoca. If it was lymphoma, it would be very responsive to chemo. Our vet gave him a steroid to see if he had any improvement afterwards and told us to keep him hydrated.

We needed to stop at Petsmart to see if we could get him some liquids that he could swallow. We couldn't leave him in the hot car, so we took him with us.

His was in Finny's Cat In The Bag. He was so heavy that I couldn't carry him all around the store, so I put him in the cart. He had a great time riding around in the car looking at all the food choices and all the little kitties up for adoption. He was interested in everything. He didn't appear to feel sick or bad.

When we got home, he laid on my chest with his arm wrapped around mine. The gabapentin was still wearing off and he was so sleepy. He slept like that for a long time. Sweet boy.

The weekend was horrible. As we went through each day Nickie could swallow less and less, until he could only swallow a pea sized amount of a gel type treat. The worse part was that he was starving. He would run to the kitchen looking for food, but as soon as he swallowed it, it came right back up.

On Monday morning we didn't wait for a call from the ER hospital, we headed right down there. It looked like a new facility and the people there were all very nice. The vet told us that they had looked at his x-ray and agreed there looked like a mass high up in his chest and after going over their plan of a CT, ultrasound & paying $3000 they took him in the back to get him ready for the tests.

This was the las time we saw Nickie. Later that afternoon the vet called us to say they had done the CT and the tumor in his chest wrapped all around his esophagus which explained why he couldn't swallow. They didn't know if it was a lymphoma or Adenoca and couldn't risk a needle biopsy because it was behind some major vessels. She said they could try him on chemo to see if he responded to it. Our vet had already given him some and it made no difference, so it probably wasn't a lymphoma since he had no response to it. In that case he would have to go to Georgia for radiation. I told the vet that he couldn't eat NOW, we couldn't wait to see if chemo kicked in. She said they could do a tube feeding through his side. We said, "NO". We couldn't do that to him. She wanted to know if we wanted them to wake him up so we could say goodbye. We said, "no", he would think we were there to bring him home. We had to let him go. 

It was horrible, he was our baby, our sweet boy, that loved everybody. We were so sad and heartbroken.

Four days later, I got up to feed Bentley and Finny breakfast. Finny ate and then a few minutes threw everything up. He went out onto the screened in porch and I heard a thud and him screening. I ran out and he was on his side panting, unable to move his right leg. I called for David to get up, that something had happened to Finny. Finny never blinked, he just panted and screamed.

David came and picked him up and we jumped in the car headed to the closest ER vet. It was about 5:45 in the morning. We got halfway down the road and realized neither of us had our cell phones, David didn't have his glasses or wallet. We couldn't turn around and go back. When we got to the ER hospital (a different one from Nickie's), there were no customer cars in the parking lot, but the lights were on. There was a sign saying they were open 24/7. I dropped David and Finny at the door, but the door was locked. David pounded on the door and shook the door calling for help with Finny in his arms. No one answered the door. We had no choice but to get back in the car and drive to the other side of town to the same ER hospital where Nickie died.

As soon as I got out of the car with Finny, David left and went home to get our phones, his glasses and wallet while I took Finny inside. They got us in right away. The vet took him to the back and a few minutes and came back and said that there was nothing they could do and that he would probably pass on his own. They put me in another room and brought Finny to me. He was still breathing, but very shallow. He was drooling and I don't know if he knew I was there hugging and kissing him or not. I told him how much we loved him and what a great and special kitty he was. After a while he seemed to be choking on his saliva, and he started to have convulsions, so I called the vet, and we laid him down on the table. He was still breathing but just barely. I wanted to wait for David to get back, but I told them to go ahead and let him go. I didn't want him to suffer. David got there about 20 minutes after he passed & was able to kiss him goodbye. The ER hospital was so nice. They let Finny stay in the comfortable room with chairs, tables and soft lights with me until David arrived. One of the girls offered to stay with him white I left the room to go look for David, even though Finny had already passed. They were so nice there. Everyone that worked there signed a beautiful condolence card and sent it to us for each kitty.

This was the saddest day. We couldn't believe they were BOTH gone. For 17 years they brought so much joy and happiness to us. If we had seen it coming, or if had known they were sick, it would have helped a little. Poor Bentley had no idea what had happened to them. For weeks he wandered around and around the house looking for them in every room, every cabinet, behind every piece of furniture. At night he would cry out like he was in pain, as if he were calling for them to come out. In the daytime he would go around to the windows and sit and stare out, scanning the landscape for them. I think he thought they had gotten out and couldn't find their way home. He has been with them almost their whole lives.

Our 2 boys will never be forgotten. We think about them all the time and all the things we did together. They can never be replaced. They were the best kitties ever.