It was an off day of travel today so I sought out to find a couple of interesting people to talk to during my wandering around Asheville, North Carolina.

The first was in my campground in the campsite across from where I was parked. I first noticed his Airstream trailer when I pulled in yesterday and was hooking up my utilities. On top of his rig was a series of solar panels normally used in what RV’ers call “Boondocking”. Alaska had many people who boondock in the parking lots of Walmart or other public parking areas. Boondocker’s find free places to park for the night or two or three, maybe even a week. Walmart and Sam’s Club allow campers to use their parking lots all over the country and many people will stop in for the night, restock their groceries or other needed items before hitting the highway once again. There are many full time RV people who do this all year long crisscrossing the country to stay where the weather is warm and there are new places to see.

Andy and his wife (mid-thirties) have been living in camping trailers for over four years now. They started out in a little “Skamper” travel trailer and lived in it for three years before upgrading to an Airstream trailer. They were also working on remodeling another Skamper trailer in this RV Park and hope to have it finished shortly and will move back into it and sell the Airstream.

They both work full time with their computers and use the 400 watt solar panels to power all of their computers, phones and several appliances. They have a passion for rock climbing and travel all over to pursue that endeavor living and working out of the camper. I think he also does photography as he had just returned from Spain. They work and play hard mixing their passions and free lifestyle not boxed into a “normal” office type setting. He said they normally spend time in the southwest part of the country around Utah and Arizona but work brought them to the eastern part of the country right now.

Another interesting person today was my friend who lives just outside Asheville who came over to have lunch and spend the afternoon visiting. Mike is one of my online gaming friends who I played with for several years before finally meeting at a gathering of friends in Orlando several years ago. I came up to his house last year on our way to Kentucky to another annual gathering of gamers so it was great seeing him again.

Mike is what I would call a typical southerner, accent and all. He has a great heart and spirit who has lived the American life. He loves to cook BBQ and we made a batch of pulled pork last year that we took to Kentucky. We slow cooked it for hours and it was tender, juicy, and the flavor could win contests if he wanted to enter. Mike cooks for several places each week making BBQ meals for an elderly home and his lodge meetings.

Mike is from the old south and worked his life as a mechanic, whether it was cars or trucks he fixed them. Back in his day he worked over twenty years as a mechanic in NASCAR for Junior Johnsons’ racing teams. He has some interesting stories to tell back in the early days of NASCAR’s beginnings. I think Mike can spin a story as well as I can and when we get together we can spend hours swapping lies, I mean stories about our lives and times past. Those are the best days and I was glad we spent some time together while I was passing through Asheville.

The last person for today was a fellow named Steve who worked at the Biltmore Estate winery. Originally from New York in the financial business he tired of the hustle and bustle of big city life and relocated to Asheville. He took one of the Biltmore wine tours as a tourist and later on answered an ad and now gives the behind the scenes tour at the winery. He has worked there for over a year and is getting ready to start learning to give tours at the main house. He is cross-training to work in both locations.

I am finding what I wanted on this trip, those real people that make up America, the hard workers, the creative workers who can combine their passions both in and out of the workplace.

Hopefully during this adventure I become a better listener as everyone has their story to tell and I just need to put it to paper and share it with ya’ll.

From Asheville, North Carolina, goodnight.