Summer lovin'

The weather tonight has to be one of my favorite things about Asheville. Does it get any better than dark storm clouds thundering their way through the mountains? The sound as thunder echoes through the peaks and valleys is like nature's surround sound. Mix that with the percussive melody of raindrops falling through treetop canopies and it is my favorite soundtrack ever. Seriously. You know those little noise machines? Most people like the setting that is supposed to sound like waves crashing on an ocean shore. (I don't really think it sounds like that hardly at all.) I know a few odd ones who actually like the white noise setting. (What...?) Me... I will always choose the rainstorm. If that is not available, I will happily make due with the babbling brook. 

I added something new to my "things I must have visitors experience in Asheville" list. Some existing items include pizza and a movie at the Brew and View, picnicking along the Rocky Bald River in Chimney Rock, an ice-cold adventure at Sliding Rock, and coming to Highland. Sadly, I had to retire spelunking in the fissure caves at Rumbling Bald, because the bats are dying of something called White Nose Syndrome that nobody knows anything about, but humans are probably part of the problem so no more disturbing the bats in Western North Carolina. Boo, hiss. For their information, I only ever saw one bat at Rumbling Bald... although come to think of it, I think it might have been sick because Joshua came awful close to picking it up off the wall and it didn't even put up a fight or flap a wing. Whatever. Save the bats.

New adventure: Tubing on the Green River down in Saluda. Normally, tubing down a river is something that you might classify as relaxing and fun to do with a group of friends, but not an adventure, per se. Might I ask you... what if said river had... rapids? 

The Green River is not your Granny's river, especially with the amount of rainfall we've had in the past year. There are whitewater rapids interspersed with calm flowing waters that make the three-hour float down the river a bona-fide adventure. Add in the snakes and that takes the adventure rating up a whole 'nother notch. 

The bathrooms at the tubing rental place leave a LOT to be desired, so I would suggest being dressed for the water when you arrive (I wasn't) and peeing in the river instead of chancing one of the toilets. But overall, it's a great way to spend an afternoon, especially since it's just $7.00 per person. And I didn't see one snake, which I count as divine intervention because God knows how I feel about those creatures. 

So, next time you come to visit me in Asheville during warm weather season, you can bet I'll take you tubing. What's fun to do in your neck of the woods?