The first snowfall of 2025
January 10 brought the first winter’s snowfall to the mountains of western North Carolina. Six inches of beautiful white slippery powder. Cabela and Ravyn were both sitting by the door gazing impatiently out at the layer of white powder that had blanketed the forest floor. When the old man finally got ready, “geeeesh old man!!! ….what’s with all the layers of clothes?” “Hey! I don’t have the fur you girls have”, the three of us bounded out the door and off they went, dragging me behind.
It wasn’t but 5 minutes out and Ravyn already had her face buried in the snow searching for whatever was moving below the white surface.
Her head popping up with icy snow stuck to face and a wonderfully content smile. One thing huskies love is digging for anything living small enough to chase. Mostly moles burrowing underneath the powdery surface.
Cabela was having fun maneuvering through the tangles of grape vines along the edge of the trail.
We continued up the trail along the edge of the National Forest Service property, me hanging on for dear life hoping they would not pull me down the steep slope. I have always loved watching the two of them maneuver the narrow trails side by side.
We reached the far corner of the property and stopped a while to enjoy the view. Cabela sat for a while in the snow while Ravyn did her usual digging for anything that moved.
We had a really great walk in the woods on the first snowy day of the year. It always puts a huge smile on my face to watch Cabela and Ravyn running and jumping and playing in the snow. It’s even better when we get to meet my neighbor on the trails with her dog Baloo (an Aussie) and her husband’s dog Button (a Pomeranian). At first there were a lot of growls and lunging, but after several walks the four of them have gotten along very well and are cautiously playful together.
An overnight trip to the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville.
The last couple of days of the year we took Cabela and Ravyn to Asheville for an overnight trip. We wanted to see the Christmas lights at the North Carolina Arboretum. Though dogs were not allowed to enter the actual Christmas exhibit of lights, I did walk them around the perimeter that still had a pretty impressive display of lights.
I was pretty impressed with the display of lights. It was hard to believe that anyone could actually put something like this together. Lucky for us it was a delightfully mild evening out. Fairly crowded but still able to get around to all the displays. I was kinda sad that the dogs were not allowed to wander around with us. I know they would have really enjoyed it. The arboretum is generally a very dog friendly place and Cabela and Ravyn have been to it several times, so I could not get too worked up about it so I made sure they had a good walk around the perimeter.
We booked a room at the Hilton Biltmore Park hotel in the Baltimore Plaza for the 4 of us (my brother was with us). The Hilton is a pretty fancy place but they actually allow you to bring dogs to stay with them which I was pretty impressed about. Of all the places we have been, Asheville is on of the most dog friendly places to visit.
My brother rushed up to the room so he could get first pick of the two beds before Cabela rushed into the room and took the one she wanted. Quickly we all settled into the room. Cabela took her spot on the bed and Ravyn wanted to see what was on TV. This was the first time Cabela and Ravyn stayed at a fancy hotel which they seemed to like, except when it was time to go out and pee. We had to take an elevator down to the lobby which they did not like one bit!!!!!
At 3:00 AM they decided they had to go out and pee. Both of them!! At 3:05 we were standing in front of the elevator door, Cabela refusing to get on the elevator. As the elevator door kept opening and closing they kept running out of the elevator refusing to take it to the lobby. So off we went around the halls to find the stairs. But Cabela decided she didn’t want to pee that bad that she needed to walk down this creepy stairwell. After convincing her that she needed to walk down we went out the door only to end up in the basement with all the washing machines, maintenance rooms and boiler rooms. We took a tour of the basement trying to find the exit door. When finally we found our way out onto the street both Cabela and Ravyn realized they needed to pee really bad. The first shrub we came to worked just fine for them.
So at 3:30 AM we decided to walk around Biltmore Plaza with all its high end stores and beautifully manicure streets. The only one out at this time was a lone security guard who looked at us and decided he was better off to just drive away and not tangle with two freshly peed huskies.
In the morning the old man got his wish and got to go to Another Broken Egg for a deluxe breakfast. A fine payoff for a night of little sleep.
After breakfast we headed over to Barnes & Noble bookstores where Cabela just started to get all excited…. WOW!! Look at all these books I could eat!! (Cabela has eaten several of my books when she gets mad at me.). After that my brother decided it was time for him to drive back home to South Carolina as the 3 of us went off to REI outdoor store.
My hats off to the staff of the Hilton Biltmore Park in the Biltmore Plaza in Asheville. They do an awesome job there, are very pet friendly and have super nice accommodations. When we went to check out in the morning Cabela and Ravyn jumped into the elevator and as we descended to the lobby Ravyn looked at Cabela as if to say, “Cabela, isn’t this much better than taking the stairs?”