We were in Asheville in January 2024, as part of our Tucson for Christmas trip. Read about our Asheville Favorites here.

Last stop for the Tucson trip! We were ready to get home and return to a more manageable eating and drinking schedule. Atlanta to Asheville is a 3.5-hour (without Atlanta traffic) interstate journey; our trip was uneventful but upon arrival in Asheville we saw we’d lost a rock guard (again) and had a very droopy tire.

We’ve written about Asheville so many times now that this will be listier than posty. See our Asheville favorites here for a more comprehensive Asheville post.

Campground

Normally, we stay at Wilson’s when in Asheville because we love the location on the river. The only availability at Wilson’s that night was a no-hookups spot. We wanted power and water because it was really cold out and we’d be doing lots of cleaning in the morning in preparation for storing the trailer, so we chose a spot at Bear Creek Campground instead. Bear Creek is a very nice campground, with more amenities than Wilson’s, and almost as close to town–and it’s MUCH quieter than Wilson’s, being farther from the highway. We might stay at Bear Creek more often just for the higher quality sleep we get there!

Eating and drinking

As has become our custom, we ordered Chai Pani delivery to the campground for dinner the following night in our house-home in VA.

After dropping the Airstream off at Bear Creek, we took Bugsy to New Origin Brewing, our #1 Asheville brewery, for a beer. The taproom was bustling on a cold day, but Bugsy was tired from hanging with her cousins in Asheville and so didn’t mind the hubbub. I was thrilled that my current favorite beer, a blueberry cinnamon sour, was on tap and in cans!

We took Bugsy home and headed back into River Arts for the evening. We stuffed ourselves with deliciousness at Bull and Beggar; the cod dish was especially notable, and their bread is so good.

Bottle Riot, a bar/music venue next door to Bull and Beggar, called out to us as we left dinner, so we stopped in for a nightcap despite being uncomfortably full. We hadn’t been there before and it’s a cool spot!

To do

Our Asheville to do list is a mess, because it’s spread across too many posts and Evernote notes. But I think we’ve checked off most everything that’s been on it over the years. Here’s our current list, with a couple updates from this visit:

• Dilbar, the sister to Chai Pani, for a drool-worthy array of Indian street food
• Cultura, a fine dining restaurant from the Wicked Weed folks, from a Southern Living article
• All Day Darling for breakfast
• The Market Place, 2024 James Beard Outstanding Restaurant nominee
• Plant, whose chef is a 2024 James Beard Best Chef Southeast nominee (don’t tell J it’s a vegan restaurant)
• Diatribe Brewing Co in West Asheville, reco from the New Origin beertender
• Do a French Broad kayak trip, like this one past the Biltmore and River Arts District (and potentially past our Airstream!)

And with that, we’re done with our Christmas Trip to Tucson. Well, almost: remember that sad, droopy tire? We re-flx-a-flatted it, re-inflated it, and drove cautiously down the interstate, until BANG! A different tire exploded!

We hobbled home to VA with the spare and the questionable tire and made an appointment for five new tires. And as I type, the Airstream is at the dealer getting a new rock guard and having body damage from the blown tire repaired. Hopefully we’ll be ready to travel again! And hopefully I’ll have a retrospective post written before it’s time to write posts about the next trip!