JULY 5, FRIDAY

WEST ASHEVILLE

Susie came to Asheville and spent the night. First we went out to eat. Nine Mile, among the stately old houses on Montfort Avenue near downtown was our choice, but when we got there the wait time was an hour, and then only for a place at the bar. So we went to Gan Shan in West Asheville.

As we were driving down Heywood Street past the funky stores and restaurants of West Asheville it occurred to me that while downtown Asheville is beginning to slide into being a tourist area expensive shops along with dopey souvenirs and taffy shops, West Asheville was still a hangout for people who live in Asheville. There are restaurants of all sorts and shops with comic names aimed at young people, but there didn’t appear to be many tourists.

We had a good rice bowl for Susie and Manchurian beef with rice for me. And then we decided to drive down Heywood Avenue and back. I took photographs with my iPhone out the car window (not the way to take good photographs) as we drove of street paintings on the sides of buildings. West Asheville in the 70’s first decayed with the rest of Asheville and then began to attract young people to the affordable housing and new trendy shops. The huge churches from the prosperous days remained through the hard times and still line the now thriving streets. West Asheville is no longer affordable so everyone who bought a house early is doing very well.

Because we were having fun driving around we decided to take narrow windy back streets down to the River Arts District on the French Broad river. The steep hillside down to the river is not suited for large houses and wide lawns. The houses here appear to have been built recently, small multi story houses built on tiny plots of land often crowded together. The designs are all different and idiosyncratic and lively. I took more photos out the car window. Neither of us knew that this part of Asheville existed. We drove round and round on narrow lanes that had signs discouraging you from entering. It was great fun. We had such fun that we are going to explore other sections of Asheville that we have never visited at a later date.