5 Days in Asheville, Charlotte, and Durham, North Carolina
Day 1: Drive to Asheville
Our next stop after Tennessee was Asheville, North Carolina, but we couldn’t do that without stopping at Bush’s Visitor Center along the way. Keon is a huge fan of baked beans so this was one of the few places we planned in advance to visit prior to starting our trip.
Outside the visitor center, we were greeted with cut-out photo opportunities with Jay Bush and Duke (yes, from the commercials) and a giant can of baked beans in the distance.
The visitor center itself consisted of a gift shop where you can get all sorts of Bush’s cans, branded merchandise, and even non-branded general kitchen and homes items. The rest of the building was like a museum, where you walk through multiple rooms that share the history of canned food, Bush’s as a company, and random bean facts.
I asked Keon a few questions so we can see how it was through a fan’s point of view:
What were your first impressions of the Bush’s Visitor Center?
First impressions? It was amazing.
Did you have any expectations going into it, or was there anything specific you were hoping to see?
I thought that they’d have more crazy flavors of beans.
They didn’t?
No, they just had regular flavors that could have been found in any grocery store.
What was your favorite part of the museum portion?
I guess knowing how they started. Knowing how their family started, the business, the cannery for the war.
I guess… no, I think my actual favorite thing was the original labels from cans made years ago.
On a scale of 1-10, what would you rank your experience and why?
It was a 7. It was fun—I liked seeing the vintage items like old can openers, how to can, the fact that it was an old market where they used to sell their beans. But there was really nothing that blew my mind.
Why’d you get a “Beans” hat then?
Because I just love Bush’s Baked Beans.
We ended up grabbing lunch at the restaurant, which actually surprised me. They give you a small sample of the “bean of the day”. I forget which ones we had, but just like eating the beans from the can, there was certainly no more than 1 piece of bacon per serving.
Once we got to Asheville and checked into our Airbnb, we decided to go to a shopping mall nearby because I wanted to look for a loose dress. That was one thing I didn’t think I’d need on this trip, but realized that I want. I packed mostly fitted clothing and some days wanted to wear clothing that was looser. It was a pretty sad mall. About 60% of the stores seemed vacant and there were only a few sections of the mall that seemed decent.
We also grabbed a quick dinner at Blaze pizza and picked up some items we needed from Target.
Day 2: Asheville
Our Airbnb had a dartboard and we spent a lot of the previous night and this morning playing. It was pretty fun and gave us something else to do than be on our phones or laptops.
We got in a quick morning workout and then went out to explore Haywood Street in West Asheville. It was only a few blocks away from our Airbnb and seemed like a more local neighborhood compared to the downtown area (which we would later visit), with vintage shops, bars, small cafes, and more.
It started sprinkling while we were walking, but we figured a little rain would be tolerable. That thought lasted for about 10 seconds before it started to downpour and we learned then that the rain hits different in this part of the country. We took shelter in a nearby thrift store but could only stay there for so long so we ran across to the bar across the street and grabbed a drink while waiting for the rain to die down. Surely enough, the rain stopped and the sun was out by the time we finished our drinks.
We walked back to our car and headed downtown to explore for the rest of the evening. It was a cute downtown area with a lot of restaurants and shops. I’d heard really good things about Chai Pani so we ate dinner there. The food tasted good and we ended it with some ice cream from the shop next door.
Day 3: Charlotte
We went to the gym and drove straight to Charlotte after our workout. As with most driving days, we had some time to kill before check-in and stopped by another mall to see if we could find that dress I wanted. We did and then grabbed some poke for a mid-day meal and it sure hit the spot.
Another downpour happened while we were eating, and we got worried about whether it’d affect the concert we were going to later this evening. Earlier today we bought tickets to see Luke Combs, as we had planned to once we found out we’d be in Charlotte the same time he was, but we didn’t think about weather at all. The rain was wild and lasted longer, unlike the other day. We ran across the parking lot to our car and were drenched.
We desperately needed to do laundry so hand-washed some clothes in the shower and hung them to dry. Our system is different in every place due to whatever is available to us. Most of the time it does just look like random things hanging everywhere.
Finally it was concert time and the sun was shining brightly again. We took a Lyft because we didn’t want to deal with the headache of finding and paying for parking. So glad we did because event parking a few blocks away was $80!
Lainey Wilson and Riley Green opened up for Luke Combs and both had good sets. Apparently Lainey Wilson’s band’s equipment got struck by lightning earlier so she had to switch to an acoustic set. It still worked out.
We took a restroom break in between the openers and Luke Combs. My trip took forever because women’s lines are always insanely long (like come on, ladies, do the thing and keep it moving). I heard him sing one song and started hurrying back, but by the time I was a few sections away from mine, I saw people pouring into the concourse. Turns out there was a lightning delay and the stadium was under storm protocol. I read earlier at the poke place that this could happen if lightning is spotted within 8 miles of the stadium, and I guess it had been. Everyone had to clear the bowl and move to the concourse and wait for instruction to return. We waited for about an hour and a half before we were able to return to our seats.
The concert resumed and it was a freakin’ blast. Luke Combs is such a good performer live and both he and the crowd had a lot of energy. The whole experience was memorable and I bought a t-shirt as a keepsake.
Day 4: Charlotte
We got Korean BBQ today! We missed Asian food a lot over the past few weeks and fortunately there was a spot not too far from our hotel. Even better, after our lunch I said I craved matcha soft serve from Matcha Cafe Maiko—a place we liked to go to in San Francisco. I decided to see if they had other locations and luckily for us there was one about ten minutes away from us. It was a nice surprise and the soft serve hit the spot. We took it to a nearby pond to eat where we saw geese, ducks, fish, turtles, one giant turtle (see picture below), and a blue lizard. Afterwards we drove around South End and other neighborhoods to see what they were like.
At some point on our trip we started doing something that we call “AC tours”, where we drive through neighborhoods and “explore” them from the comfort of our air-conditioned car. Towards the beginning of our trip we were getting out and walking around a few neighborhoods a day, checking out stores and walking by eateries and bars, but never really shopping or eating and drinking. While we love checking out new neighborhoods, shopping, eating, and drinking all day everyday just isn’t realistic for us and we were getting really hot and sweaty from it all. So we started doing more “AC tours”. We can see what types of spots an area has, try to imagine how fun it could be if we lived in these cities, and appreciate it at a glance. And if there’s ever anything that seems super interesting then we don’t mind finding a parking spot and going to explore on foot. For the most part, these driving tours have given us the gist.
We ended the night relaxing in our hotel and ordered banh mis for dinner. I wouldn’t consider them authentic, but they were still tasty.
Day 5: Durham
Another day, another check-out to gym to road combo. We headed to Durham and grabbed lunch at Pizzeria Toro. It was recommended to us by a few folks and did not disappoint.
We learned the other day that both UNC and Duke have NCAA basketball museums so we checked those out. It was really cool to see the history of their basketball programs and the achievements the teams have made. Also really cool to see the NBA players who have come out of those schools. UNC’s museum had more artifacts, such as the letter Michael Jordan sent to Duke letting them know he won’t be attending their school. My favorite thing I learned, though, was the tenting process for getting tickets to the Duke v. UNC basketball games at Duke. I’d heard before that it was intense and required a lot of dedication, but reading the exact rules really was fascinating!
Remember how we spent a day rebooking some hotels but there was still a non-refundable stay we couldn’t change? Well that stay was here in Durham and we didn’t have high expectations going into it.
Right when we walked into the Sleep Inn, we were hit a musty smell that made us look at each other with a look saying “alright, here we go.” After ringing the bell at the front desk, we were met with a desk attendant who was really rude and seemed like he had something better to do. In either case, we took our key and went to our room. We thought we were done dealing with the desk attendant until we realized that our room key wasn’t working. So we went back down to the lobby and the same attendant looked annoyed as he was scanned us new keys.
We weren’t expecting much when we went into the room, but there were definitely some things that were off putting—the dirty carpets, dusty curtains, moldy lampshades—but we were thinking to ourselves “it’s just one night.” So we relaxed for a few hours and were starting to fall into a midday nap until the building’s fire alarm goes off. We evacuated the building and stood out front with the other hotel patrons. Once the alarm stopped, everyone was looking around waiting for an “all clear” until the same annoyed desk attendant came out and said we can go back in without giving an explanation.
Once we got back into the room, there was a big surprise: the power went out. We again thought to ourselves “it’s just one night.” By now, it was just about time for us to leave to meet an old co-worker and his family for dinner, so we thought to give the hotel some time to get the power back and go about our day as usual.
We went to a Mexican restaurant called Mamacita. The food was alright, but being from California and growing up on Mexican food, the bar is admittedly pretty high. We ordered enchiladas, fajitas, and ended the dinner with caramel churros with ice cream which was the highlight of the meal.
On the way back to the hotel we were thinking of options if the hotel still didn’t have power. Check out and find a new hotel? Stick it out and sleep early? We thought to figure out when we get there. We found an open space in the unexpectedly full parking lot that broken glass on the ground, which gave a very uneasy feeling, but thought it’d be fine. When we got in, the power was still out and were told it wouldn’t be back on until 10:30pm (which would have been a total of a 6 hour power outage). We made a decision from there to leave the Sleep Inn and check into the Hilton Double Tree that was down the street. Yes the room was a bit more expensive, but we were welcomed with warm cookies, a clean room, and electricity. We comfortably hung out in the room charging our electronics and watching tv until it was time to turn in.
And that (we hope) was the last of our budget stays. It doesn’t need to be fancy, but staying somewhere comfortable and clean makes a huge difference!