Work Travels: Clay County and Cherokee
I am traveling all week for work. The last time I posted about my travels, I was in the Outer Banks of NC. It was tough when I realized I would be heading through the Blue Ridge Mountains and into the Great Smokey Mountains for this trip.
I sure wish that the view was more scenic ( 
) on the drive from the hotels to the schools ! The fun part is being able to explore towns and see things I haven’t before! We arrived just before dinner time and walked around downtown Asheville for a good 30 minutes. The Battery Park Hotel is now apartments (as I saw on an advertisement).
Apparently, Walt Disney worked here but was fired for doodling too much (pre-Disney success). Across the street is the Grove Arcade (Apartments are on the upper level now), which has cute little shops inside.
It was originally built in 1929, housing shops and offices totalling 269,000 square feet of indoor commercial space. This was one of the first indoor public markets in THE COUNTRY! It was a center of commercial activity in Asheville until about 1942, when the government took it over for WWII related duties. Local support persisted and in 2002 renovation was complete. The inside of the arcade is full of light and has a variety of merchants now from a wine bar, restaurants, and grocers, to local antiques, furniture and a clock shop too.
It was time to eat and one of my co-workers chose Nine-Mile, a cute rastafarian eatery in the heart of the Historic Montford area. I chose “The Meshach”, which came with a salad to start and His Majesty’s dressing on the side ( a Tahini & Garlic dressing)
My entree, “The Mescach” ( “mee schawk”)
Cremini mushrooms, grape tomatoes, rasta peppers in a white wine cream sauce…
with lemon pepper chicken and raw zuchinni pasta
Even though this meal made me feel like I had a food baby… It tasted pretty awesome. I think there must have been 4 servings of vegetables at least, which made me feel better about the white wine cream sauce (though I think the sauce was the culprit of my food baby).
We headed to Cherokee after dinner to stay halfway between our programs.
The hotel just happened to be across the street from the Harrah’s Casino..
This morning I was happy to get in a 3 mile run at the hotel gym. I couldn’t manage more than 3 miles though, only one of my earbuds is working and the TV attached to the treadmill only played one fuzzy cartoon channel.
Anyone else get outta whack on a workout when something is off like that?
I love to see new places but it really makes me look forward to coming home too!
