LOCATION: Black Mountain, North Carolina

WEATHER: Like spring! Sunny. High 60

We enjoyed the last sightings of the cardinals from our deck at our housesit..

We are sad to say goodbye to our charges – dog Abby and Maine Coon cat Kevin, who likes to sit on my lap while I’m reading. Somewhat trapped here….

Our homeowners are arriving later this afternoon. It has been a very nice 2-week assignment.

We couldn’t find any reasonably priced hotel in Asheville, probably due to the New Year’s weekend, so planned to stay overnight in Black Mountain, about 20 miles from Asheville. We said good-bye to our daughter Meredith. There was a water main breakage in the section of town where she works, Biltmore Village, and they were out of water for about 3 days. She had to deal with irate hotel customers angry that they were paying about $700/night for a hotel room, and couldn’t flush the toilet, take a shower, or eat/drink anywhere near the hotel as everything was closed. It was a mess.

We went on to Black Mountain, another cute mountain town. We went to the Ale House there, and shared a pimiento cheese brulee for dinner. Southern, with a twist!

Now we will head to the airport to Charlotte. We will fly to McAllen via Houston, arriving about 11:00 PM.