Discovering Asheville: Stunning Views, Festivals, and Tapas

we're going back to Asheville we're finally going to visit the Grove Park Inn and enjoy wonderful views of the Blue Ridge and the downtown Skyline we'll eat at a great authentic Spanish tapas restaurant we'll stumble upon a pride festival the Grove Arcade the Pinball Museum we'll even go back to hingu Cuba for a Mojo and there is more as we wrap up this early fall 2023 road trip [Music] I'm writing ringing writing in my RV my RV wherever I want to be guys I'm free in my [Music] RV we're staying

at the Asheville East KOA holiday and we've been here before several years ago in 2017 it used to be $40 per [Music] night this is by the way a lovely Campground with several Lakes it is actually very [Music] nice this this our sight not bad not bad at all all right let's go into town hello hello there he there's another one back there yes that happened as we were leaving the camp Gra around and I feel I must apologize for the video quality I think it is time to retire the old Sony x3000 it is m

ore than 6 years old so I think I got my money's worth anyway here we are we're going to try and see if we can get a table at the Sunset Terrace from where you get great views of the Blue Ridge and downtown the hotel was built in 1933 out of rough Granite stones in the Arts and Crafts style H the more you know [Music] I think this view is what the hotel is most famous for we're having an IPA of course chickpea soup and the Smash Burger just to not the best view from our table well we just had lu

nch here at the at the famous Grove Park in and uh maybe we'll have a a dig St here sitting down with this view oh is here too by the [Music] way here we are it's called an old Cuban A variation of an oldfashioned I suppose with rum instead of bourbon well here's an old Cuban drinking an old Cuban a view it is a great place to relax and admire these beautiful views of the Blue Ridge not cheap but then again you only live once they even have a robotic lawn mower that's what we need at p [Music] c

amp here's a Ford modl te in the lobby and the historic elevator here's the view from a different angle and I think this is all we're going to do [Music] today well good morning let's walk around the campground a little bit [Music] yeah it is definitely a great setting here with all these lakes and there are hiking trails around the Lakes it is definitely more than a place to park your RV with a view of your neighbor sewer by your picnic table this is definitely an idelic Place nestled in the fo

ot hills of the Blue [Music] Ridge [Music] okay let's go back to Asheville [Music] so [Music] hm there's some kind of festival happening here [Music] today okay let's park 7 ft clearance so no problem Starship is [Music] 67 here we are last time we were here we wanted to eat at this Tapas restaurant called kurate but the wa time was ridiculous so today we made a reservation and we still have some time to kill and here we are in Asheville North Carolina and there seems to be a Pride Celebration t

oday going on we're going to go eat and then we might uh walk around a little bit that's a cool sphere as I was saying let's go eats and we'll come back later yeah it's one of those serendipitous things that you can't plan for you know coming into a town and there's a celebration there it is coming up ahead kurate which in Spanish means literally cure yourself alluding to the Curative effects of sharing good food and wine with family and friends we begin with a good Roha and some olives with lem

on Rosemary and Thyme chor and chips and cettas the hamong M there's bread of course sauté shrimp potatoes and spicy sauce a Spanish coffee that was truly outstanding and very authentic but this place G exceeded my expectations and I had high expectations it was very good this video is sponsored by surf shark VPN and I've said it many times a VPN is an essential tool for us Travelers you know we're always connecting to a different router you know Wi-Fi router here and there at the campground res

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considers the fastest server which in my case yeah in Miami we're at the flagami studio right now so it's connecting to Miami and now I know that whatever I do on this phone is secure for my eyes only it has this other feature that is great because as you know the internet is not the same everywhere and some countries have certain content blocked for example today I feel like being in the United Kingdom and within seconds I'm in Manchester as far as the internet is concerned so I could watch you

know like the BBC or something that that is available to our friends in the UK but not to us and uh and that is very convenient it has many other features it has this H incognito search like a true incognito search um it has um and it has several packages you know some of them include like the clean web feature that gets rid of unwanted ads possible malware and uh anyway I could be talking about this all day just go to Serv shark. deals myrv and you enter promo code my RV at a checkout and you'

ll be you're going to be welcomed by a screen like this one as of right now this recording 80% off and up to 3 months for free the boring always good to see Street [Music] musicians all right [Music] see here's the courthouse building and it looks like there's going to be a live band here at the main stage y'all these folks are from Charlotte and they play all over the region any yall like the Red Hot Chili [Music] Peppers always fun to listen to a live rock and roll band although today I can on

ly share Snippets of their performance for obvious reasons Ashville is a very musical City and also very walkable so let's explore a little bit on foot the blue glass sphere or orb on display here outside the Asheville art museum is a work called Reflections on Unity by Henry [Music] Richardson here's perhaps the world's largest iron one of the largest for sure very appropriate since we are in front of the flat iron building which seems to be undergoing Renovations M clutter box neurodiverse Uni

verse interesting here's the Grove Arcade dating back to 1929 it was one of America's first indoor shopping malls but first let's go to Hemingways Cuba for a refreshing mojito it is a rooftop restaurant here in the Cambria Hotel with spectacular views of the Blue Ridge and if you recall we came here at the beginning of this [Music] trip very nice views all around and a good place to take a break and probably a great spot from where to see the sunset over the Blue Ridge H it's 7:15 we might come

back you never know oh this is that famous Grove [Music] Arcade the architecture is Tudor Revival or late Gothic Revival it looks very very cool it almost looks like something you would find in [Music] Paris let's see this side yeah it is built on a hill so there is a slope that's unusual let's see what else we can stumble upon well Asheville is home to the Pinball Museum here's the Pinball Museum world famous that's what I'm talking about I decided to just take some pictures instead of video bu

t it is a very cool place it almost feels like we've traveled back in time into the mid 19 [Music] [Applause] [Music] 1980s actually very cool place it wasn't exactly what I expected I expected to see like a museum museum you know and it's like an arcade you know you can play with all the pinball machines and they have like all this vintage video games and I'm very impressed a lot of them there're they're still you know keeping those old CRTs alive a lot of these vintage machines you know they h

ave replaced the screens with LCDs but a lot of them they're still using the original CRTs that's very cool um now let's check out the the cathedral check it out party bike well if you're going to drink might as well burn off some of those empty calories right speaking of the cathedral it is the basilic of St Lawrence completed in 1909 it is supposed to be very pretty inside with Italian statues of saints beautiful stained glass windows two different Chapel it is closed apparently beer City Comi

c Kong is happening this week too no wonder we saw someone dressed as Batman earlier [Music] well Serendipity as is happening today we've got Comic-Con back there we've got the the briide festival let's see what else we encounter here here we've got a community garden check it [Music] out pretty [Music] [Music] cool want to see you're selling all kinds of stuff here we have 5 Seconds gra [Music] [Music] UNO let's do it more Street musicians and they have a washed up base I would love to hear the

m play you know I love the music of Appalachia you take it on your B and uh let's end our day at the coffee bus well you know I have to have my midaf afternoon espresso especially after that meal and the wine yeah you order outside and you pick up inside he yeah cheers it's worth pretty good yep yeah I'm a simple man I just like my espresso plain and strong this days I don't even put sugar in [Music] it [Music] and that's all we're going to do in Ashville this time around if you want to see our

2017 video where we did a lot more and I looked a lot younger well there will be a link somewhere let's go to the main building because they are supposed to have live music tonight this is the swanana NOA River here such a great location this Campground dancing round and round but my heart can take no more I'm what a great way to end the day listening to live music and then enjoying the great afternoon weather asil will return [Music] soon well today is just going to be a driving day and once we

get away from the mountains and not so scenic drive so I'll spare you the details we're going to space stock to finally fix the issue with starship's running lights in an older vehicle it would have been just a fuse but in this one is a whole computer module that needs to be replaced so we're staying as usual at Santi Lakes KOA and tomorrow we're going to Ferry Chevrolet in Orangeburg South Carolina to get all that taken care of this is by the way a very nice Campground as well next to a lake a

nd they even have pizza [Music] [Music] for I hope you have enjoyed this late summer trip the last one of 2023 on the next one will be station of sorts we're going to spend some time in South Florida preparing for the next adventure we're going to get on a boat and we're going to walk as well and eventually we'll clean up B Camp which as you can see is a little bit of a mess still until then thank you so much for watching and see you on the [Music] road I'm riding riding in my RV