New ride

A few months ago, I started having some trouble with the transmission in my car, so I parked it and started driving Chris's truck. I had been trying to decide to fix the car or buy a new one. I didn't want to make a hasty decision so I kept driving the truck.

I finally decided that I wanted to start looking at new cars. Had no idea what I would even want. The first car I ever bought was a 1980 Cutlass Calais. Then, I had a 1988 Toyota Camry, a Honda Accord, a Toyota Avalon, a Nissan Pathfinder, a Nissan Maxima... so I wasn't sure. I think the Avalon was my all time favorite, but the Maxima was a close 2nd.

I missed having an SUV... so, what to do?

Chris and I went out to eat last week, and on a whim stopped at the Nissan dealership. I sat in a Rogue and didn't like it at all, the top of Chris's head was brushing the top of the ceiling - way too small.

He said there's a Murano... I almost said no right away, because I have never really liked them. But, there's a new body style, and we sat in it, and took it for a brief test drive. My mind was starting to change some.

Well, we left and talked about it, and did some research, and then on Friday my friend Edna and I went out and had another test drive.

Yesterday Chris and I went back, and did an extended test drive. I was seriously considering walking away from the whole thing when I realized it doesn't have a heated steering wheel which I am used to in the Maxima. It's a feature I love. Long story short, we did the numbers, and then Chris and I walked around the lot and talked over all of the pros and cons. And, at the end of the day, we made the deal.

I ended up with a 2009 SL Nissan Murano. Loving it. All sorts of bells and whistles. Haven't had time to really let all of the stuff it will do soak in yet. I watched the video they gave me, and in a little while, I think I'm going to have to go run an errand or two, or maybe three... LOL

Grove Park Inn

We stayed at the Grove Park Inn, our room was in the historic part of the Inn, with a mountain view. The room was nice, but the bathroom was very small! It was a retro-fit obviously, and had nice fixtures, but it was uncomfortably small. From talking to others attending the conference, not all of the bathrooms were like that.

Me on a break between classes.

One of the photographs Chris shot. I thought it was a great shot, so I thought I'd post it.

Rustic Lodging

We found a cozy little cabin to stay in just outside of Asheville, NC - in Newbridge I think was the name of the town. We went in search of a German Restaurant we had found on the Internet. We didn't have reservations anywhere, so after finding the restaurant, the next order of business was to find a place to stay. We happened to see The Log Cabin Motor Court directly behind the Bavarian Lodge Restaurant. We decided to see if they had a vacany - they did, so we found ourselves in Kozy Korner #2, about 100 yards away from the restaurant. It may have been a little rustic, but it was clean and had wireless Internet!





You can see from this photo how close the restaurant was from the Motor Court. The food was wonderful!! The Wiener Schnitzel was the best I'd ever had, so tender, I could cut it with my fork. Chris said his meal was great also. We meant to get back there to eat before our trip was over, but we just didn't have time. We decided it was worth a trip back to eat there. We also didn't make it to the Biltmore House like we'd planned - Chris got a cold and the day we had set aside to go was rainy and overcast, so we decided that was 2 good reasons to make another trip. It was only a 4 hour drive.



We had great food every where we ate the entire trip. We had Mexican, Morroccan, Cajun, and fine dining.