Traveling to Asheville, NC - December 9-11, 2010

The months of October and November have been extremely busy with work.  Since I now work on a federal grant, our fiscal year starts October 1.  Once we receive our official award letter, it's a race to Thanksgiving.  During those two months we are printing curriculum, ordering supplies and making sure appropriate logos and non-discrimination statements are on any materials we are developing.  This year was difficult because the program doubled in size and the team of 5 increased to 7.  As a result of this increase, several of my travel experiences in the past two months have included large cargo vans with several trips to Rocky Mount, NC - an hour away.  I also had the great pleasure of helping to drive the 4 hours in a cargo van to Asheville, NC.

The only fun trip I've had in the past two months was a short Thanksgiving break where I did too much traveling.  It started with an hour flight to Boston and an hour drive to RI on Thanksgiving Day followed by a 3 hour drive to Albany on Friday.  Saturday was a day of rest.  Sunday was the 3 hour return trip to RI, with the 45minute drive back to Boston for my 1 hour flight first thing Monday morning.  It makes me tired just writing about it.

All of the hard work our team has done since October (and developing curriculum before then) was completed with two culminating events.  The first on December 2 with a training here in Raleigh and was the larger of the two the second on December 10 with a training in Asheville.  Today's post is about the trip to Asheville.

While driving a huge cargo van 4 hours is not ideal, the trip did not seem so long while in the company of good coworkers.  Thankfully, the weather cooperated all three days, and it wasn't until we were coming back, and an hour from Raleigh, that we saw any precipitation.  Since the Asheville training was the day we gave out the last of the supplies, it was a time for celebration when we finished.  Our boss was kind enough to buy us all tickets to the Biltmore Estate candlelit tour, which also allowed us entry to the grounds during the following day.  So, after the full day of training, we enjoyed exploring the Biltmore Estate, enjoyed a wine tour and tasting, and ended with a dinner at the Bistro, one of the Biltmore restaurants.

Upon reaching our hotel, we realized the Clarion Hotel in Fletcher, NC has a club where the locals visit on the weekend (it was a Friday night).  A few of us decided to explore the attraction and enjoyed the metal band mixed in with a DJ that had a difficult time transitioning songs.  The locals were typical of a small town - 20 year olds mixed in with 60 year olds - at the "club" to get wasted and pick someone up.  We quickly realized we were tired and headed back to our rooms.

Saturday morning we enjoyed the Biltmore grounds and Biltmore Village before returning to a rainy Raleigh.