Asheville, NC

Thanks to @rivitedtodd and friends for sharing their 20 years of Merlefest experience and making our first one so fun.

We also had such a good time hanging out with Tiffani and Deke (@weaselmouth and @dekew). We'd only spent a little time together on a caravan of eight Airstreams to Canada back in 2013, but knew immediately we wanted another chance to get to know them better. As the rain fell last night, we retreated to their trailer yet again for more conversation swinging wildly between thoughtful and hilarious while Tiffani made us s'mores over the flame of their gas stove. The fact that @advodna_ann stayed up until 1:00 am (and not under duress) was a clear indication of how much fun we had. Can't wait for the next time!

#airstreamfriends #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #wynnehangingwiththefamily

Tight squeeze while #moochdocking at @ruined.adventures' house! #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #nomadiccommunity #overlandcommunity

This afternoon, we moved from town up to some of our friends' family property nearby where we'd have a little more room to spread out. So that's what we did. Great friends, camp chairs, baby pool and not much else we could need. #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife

Spending some time on a friends' parents "Farmlet" reminds us a lot about what we left back at home (link to our Farmlet stories on the blog temp in profile). Wynne spent her first year and a half holding chickens and running around a big property, and Mae has spent hers in the Airstream driving around the continent. I know a lot of other travelers have ideas of a homestead with animals and a big garden, but it's pretty hard to balance that with travel, and it's a big world out there to stay in one place. For now, we're happy with our choices and current plan and appreciate so much the generosity of friends who can share this kind of property with us. #moochdocking #lifeontheroad #travelwithkids #familytravel #familyroadtrip

One Yelp review of the Oscar Blues Brewery said "it might even be too kid friendly" with all the wheeled toys they provide. So we went there. I asked @ruined.adventures which was a bigger challenge, the 20 or so border crossings on the Pan American Highway or taking a toddler to a brewery. Before he could a answer, Emmeline made another run to the fire pit. #takingbabiestobreweries #beertourism #beerparenting #beertravel #overland #overlandcommunity

Moochdocked for one more night with good friends and gracious hosts. Here Mae is walking back to the trailer with her hands in her pockets and saying "Pockets! Pockets!" and I'm just waiting for her to fall flat on her face in the gravel. Oh, another funny kid story from today at dinner. Wynne super casually turned to @advodna_ann and said, "So like, did someone just like introduce me to you one time?" #notexactlyhowitworks #airstreamwithkids #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #moochdocking

I may have just completely revolutionized road trips with kids, but whatever. #attentionnobelcommittee #patentpending #patentedparenting #roadtripswithkids #tripsareforkids

And you thought Mae was cute...😍 #cuteoverload #turningonthecharm

I'd read something about this campground being mostly first come first served and figured we'd have no problem arriving on a Thursday. When we pulled up, however, the camp host at the kiosk told us "We only have one full hookup site available and just for one night." Turns out some other folks had come first and gotten served all the way through the weekend. Plus, we needed an extra site for @livingistheadventure and @h_livingistheadventure.

I returned to the driver's seat defeated, started the car, and then thought, "Wait, full hookups?" I walked back sheepishly and asked for clarification. "Oh yeah, we definitely have *dry sites* available." Uh, okay. We then proceeded to discuss the length of each available site (at length), and I assured her I'd generally found listed driveway lengths to be a bit on the conservative side. And though I hung the bumper over the back wall, it was just to make room for @ruined.adventures tomorrow night and the 25 foot site I got for Heather and Kurt fit their 27' Airstream plus 18' truck.

Okay, if you're still reading, you might be interested in this. We find that we have a 0.7 amp base draw while dry camping, mainly coming from the DC board on the fridge and the propane detector. Our JetPack pulls 0.3 amps and each LED puck light 0.1 amps (and each "bank" of lights has about 3 pucks). Our new Wilson 4G-M booster pulls a full amp. So just hanging out in the evening, we're using maybe 3 amps. When the furnace kicks on (it's in the mid 40's outside!), it adds almost 6 amps, but only runs intermittently. If we say it runs 20 mins out of every hour and we have it on from 6 pm until 9 am, it's responsible for 30 amp hours of battery capacity by morning. We'll also add 4 amps for an hour a night running the inverter to watch a show. Totaling it all up, we tend to burn 60-80 aH a day in colder weather (the higher number is largely the booster) and have about 180 ah of battery capacity. We'll see what we can get back via solar or (cringe) run the generator a couple hours in a couple days if needed.

#airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #rvpower #drycamping #techtalk

Spent the afternoon with @livingistheadventure/@h_livingistheadventure and @ruined.adventures at the new Sierra Nevada Brewing Company outside of Asheville. What a dump. #beertravel #beertourism #beerparenting #takingbabiestobreweries #asheville

Two epic @toyotausa adventure rigs together for the first time. @ruined.adventures' '86 4Runner driven 2 years along the Pan American Highway from Washington state to Tierra del Fuego and our '14 Sequoia driven, well... also almost 2 years along some less adventurous American highways. All we need is @lostworldluis and @lostworldlacey's LandCruiser and @livingistheadventure and @h_livingistheadventure's Inferno Orange TRD (parked two campsites over), and we'd have a rally! Though they got on IG post PanAm, Ruined Adventures at least *started* to blog at the beginning of their epic trip. Link temp in profile. #Toyota #overland #overlandcommunity #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #nomadiccommunity #nomadfriends

Reunited and it feels so gooood🎤 So glad to have @livingistheadventure and @h_livingistheadventure back with us! #grouphug #littleairstreamfriends #sisterhoodofthetravelingparents #friends

Another crappy #almosttookidfriendly Asheville brewery. #workingonthesparetirewithafattire #newbelgiumbrewing #asheville #beertravel #beertourism #beerparenting #takingbabiestobreweries

Mother's Day: Achievement Unlocked. #mothersday #nomadfriends #nomadiccommunity #wegotthis #actuallyforgotsunscreenandhatsforthebeach #anddiapers #anddryclothes #hopetheyrebackfromyogaandlunchsoon

The best mom ever, @advodna_ann, on Mother's Day at Downton Abbey... er, I mean, the Biltmore Estate. Come on, Asheville, step it up. What. A. Dump. #cuedowntonabbeythemesong #mylady #mothersday #roadmoms

Over the past couple days, we've been visited by two future full-time Airstream families and have done our best to help them set their expectations and answer any questions they had. Often, these questions have to do with battery and holding tank capacity or the day to day logistics of living in a small space with kids, but sometimes they're just an opportunity to get the real scoop on something they read somehwere. Like one family was particularly worried about getting mice in the trailer. We assured them it had only happened to us once a long time ago and it certainly wasn't something we thought about regularly. And then this morning we found some strange paw prints and tongue marks in the bacon grease we'd left out overnight. #dontbelieveanythingwetellyou #getthetrapsout #tinyhousetinymouse #everybodylikesbacon

So great spending the week with Brenton, Shannon and little Emmeline of @ruined.adventures on their home turf. The bond of travel experiences is incredibly strong, and it's so comforting to be able to share crazy ideas with friends who won't bat an eye.

And yet after we said goodbye to them today, we got an unsolicited text from a friend in San Francisco checking on our next dates in town and inviting us to use their in-law unit so we can spend quality time while home. It's this balance that we strive - and it takes work and prioritization on all sides - to maintain between the freedom that nomadic life gives us and the solid ground of our friends and family at home.

#nomadfriends #nomadiccommunity #overland #overlandcommunity #lifeontheroad