Arriving in Asheville

We woke up with the sun (aka Amanda woke up and said "lets go lets go lets go lets..." and Eric groaning and saying "but where is my coffee...?" We packed up the car and hit the road again. We took the highway all the way south, and began to see the mountains peeking up from the horizon. We toyed with the idea of taking the blue ridge parkway, but had difficulty deciding what road to take. We knew that if we took the highway all the way there, then we would arrive in a timely fashion, and be able to explore a few breweries before bed. But if we took the parkway, think of all the gorgeous scenery and photo ops along the way! And so clearly we chose to be late (I mean really, come on, we all saw that coming) and took the parkway. The views were breathtaking, the serotonin was pumping and then we saw the first sign, "180 miles to Asheville." Oh man, this is going to take a while.

We cruised on, Amanda occasionally grabbing the Oh-Shit-Handle, Eric refocusing on the road with an "oh come onnn." We came to the next sign "165 miles to Asheville." WHAT? Thats it?! This is going to take a while.

We did finally arrive in Asheville where we met Jordy, our host for the next few days. We went on a 2 wheeled tour of downtown. We ate at Barley, an incredible tap room and restaurant with hundreds of beers both bottled and on tap. We had our waitress create a flight of beers to our specification and she was spot on.

A few brown ales, IPAs, and even a coconut beer later (oh and a large vegetarian pie...with sausage added) we continued our tour of the town.

We arrived at a chocolatier/coffee house that was totally unique. They specialized in truffles and "sipping chocolate," or more simply 5 delicious truffles, melted with other flavors (in our cup, maple and salt) and served in a warm mug. Needless to say, death by chocolate does exist. We sat in total food coma after the delicious escapades of the night. Again we mounted our trusty steeds (mongoose, miada and trek) and rode through the hustle and bustle of the city back to house 320.

This morning we write from a funky coffee shop downtown filled with eclectic decorations from the world. Indian music satisfies our auditory sensors, lemon poppy seed and crisp ice water our gustatory, a chilly air conditioner with the rays of sunshine our tactile, and the african tribe masks our curiosities.

We are ready to explore the rest of Asheville and sip our way through the city. Back to the steeds to make more adventures, be sure to check in later.

cheers,

E and A

...and they're off! The E and A Brew Tour of 2010!

As most people who read this know (does anyone actually read this?!?), our new adventure is a 10 day, East Coast microbrew tour. Why? Because what's better than mixing hundreds of miles of driving with great beer! For the Moms reading this, don't worry, we brought our bikes!

Our first stop was not too far from Saratoga in a town that we have always wanted to visit, New Pulse. I'm not sure if it was the hippie draw or the town's wild obsession with the outdoors, but we both approved. While driving on the thuway, we called the infamous Jan (of Jan-Clean) for some help finding our first brewery. Out of all the websites of breweries in New Pulse (we found out later there were 3), the Gilded Otter Brewery looked the best. Jan explained that this was one of the better sites she had seen!

Our first impression was a massive brewpub hustling with the Friday night crowd. Amanda assumed that with the crazy amount of hub-bub, no would connect with our adventure.

We couldn't have been more wrong!

Sitting at the bar seemed to be the best idea to get full brew knowledge instead of a hurried server. Todd gave us some great hints of the town (like all of the beer names come from local road names and landmarks). AND he came our home-sweet-home, SARATOGA. He spent his life there before moving to New Pulse to climb and become a park ranger.

We split a burger and had a flight of beer. We tried the following beers:

• Huguenot St. American Lager
• Dusseldorf Altbier
• New Paltz Crimson Lager
• Three Pines India Pale Ale
• Stone House Oatmeal Stout
• Back Porch Summer Lager
• Hefeweizen
• Rail Trail Pale Ale

Out of the 8 beers that hit our palate, the unquestionable winner was the Rail Trail Pale Ale. Eric explained that the sweet toasty malts were in perfect balance with the fruity American Style Hops (probably the cascades??). Amanda could have drank it all night long...too bad for an upcoming 3-4 hour car ride! Some of our other favorites was the Oatmeal Stout and of course, the IPA.

Overall, the duo concluded that not only did the Gilded Otter Brewery have a rockin' website, but the beer, food and company were exceptional!

We ended the night sleeping on a utility road under a massive radio antenna...how romantic! Roxie (our Subaru Forester) provided us with the perfect den. Tomorrow...Asheville, NC here we come!

We made it! Complete!!!

After a long week, we made it! In fact, we were so tired and sick of food on Friday we forgot to blog. Saturday, we were so excited to eat that we forgot to blog. And then we had to work and you know the rest.

BUT after much deliberation, here it is, the grand finale.

Friday was just like all the other days, but a little more exhausting. We are used to wrapping up our Friday's downtown at a bar, maybe a little D'Andrea's pizza, but we were still slaves to our project. Jonathan provided some needed distraction by entertaining us with a game of monopoly (pirates of the Caribbean version, obviously). Even when the clock struck midnight we held strong to the decision to eat nothing until breakfast even though the night was technically over. And when breakfast came, how sweet it was. Literally.

We are lucky enough to have friends that understand our irrational ideas, like Tony. We were treated to a breakfast in our own home of homemade cinnamon swirl bread cut texas style and fried up into some of the best french toast ever. And nothing could have been better than soaking it in home made maple syrup. And then the bacon. And the coffee...everyone indulged, maybe over indulged, in all of it.

We would have never guessed how difficult this week could have been. Although we never felt exceptionally hungry, it was so tiring to eat the same stuff ALL THE TIME. For Eric, giving up coffee was the most trying part of the week. Monday and Tuesday were borderline dangerous because of the amount of driving he does. Not to mention the headaches and sleepiness! We also figured out how much we take snacking between meals for granted. We missed being able to pick up a handful of almonds or just an apple or banana. In addition, after dinner there was no cup of tea or ice cream.

We also figured out how much of our life is spent creating masterpieces of the palate. Making slop provided us with no such satisfaction. We had no spices to experiment with or new flavors to indulge. Okay...we also missed the Uncommon Grounds bagels!

Being a week while Eric and Amanda both had meeting that provided free GREAT food also made it difficult. It was such a tease to see our co-workers eating great food at the hospital or Longfellows! Just one bite please?

All in all, we are so happy to have experienced a life with no frills. Good planning and a positive attitude made it bearable. We have so much more appreciation for the flavors and lifestyle that we live and have so much more respect to those living a no frill lifestyle not by choice. Next time you drink your $4 cup of coffee from the bucks or just buy a piece of meat at the grocery, look at the price. Think about how that could fit into a dollar a day week and consider the fact that you don't have to choose enriched white rice over more nourishing brown rice because the price.

Thanks to everyone who has followed us during this project! It sure was interesting! Let us know what you think!

-Eric and Amanda

Thursday

The much anticipated "something other than slop day" has also come and gone. We expected spaghetti day to be a breath of fresh air, but as we slurped our pasta with plain tomato sauce we both grimaced and decided that our slop might be better. The sauce was horrible. We have been used to our home made sauce loaded with garlic, oregano and whatever else we could find in the cupboard. Today our appreciation for our normal food is growing less, and an irritation with ourselves for deciding to do this is what is overriding those feelings. Especially when Eric spent the day at Longfellow's restaurant for work practically drooling over the free food. But, we had decided that free food would not count because not everyone who is forced to eat for this little has that access (such as a job that would offer grilled chicken sandwiches). Friday brings another day of bread and slop, and we are counting down the minutes to Saturday morning!

Day three...hump day

Day three has come and gone. At this point, we are being forced into some creativity. After 3 days of the original slop, we decided to try some new things. Instead of cooking our rice right into the bean and pea mix, we cooked it on the side to keep it fresh and used the bean/pea mix as a topping. In addition, Amanda used a handful of the garbanzo beans to make a peanut butter hummus. Surprisingly good! In the future, with a few more ingredients, we will make it again.

Each day we realize more and more how much we love and appreciate our food and drinks. It has been an interesting study so far, and we have crossed the midline with few troubles. Today, Amanda believes she may have hallucinated when a strange man walking through the hospital hallway with a box of cookies stopped to offer her one. Why are there cookies everywhere? Just because we can't have them. Or just because we are paying so much attention to them now!

Tomorrow is spaghetti day, and we are looking forward to something new. We'll be dreaming tonight of Ben and Jerry's and the Oatmeal Stout resting in the fridge. Goodnight!

Day....two.

Well, we made it through day two! And not in too bad of shape. Eric had less of a headache today from the withdrawl, and Amanda's day wasn't too far out of the usual besides being forced to turn down free cookies at work and not eating a late night spoonful of ice cream. Having fewer food items at our fingertips, we have realized how much we rely on snacking. We have both noticed being hungry more frequently as well as having variations in mood. Food and everything that goes along with it is an enormous part of our lives, and giving up that portion, just for a week, makes us really appreciate that part of our culture. It has only been two days, but already we have found ourselves looking at recipes, eyeing restaurants, turning down invites for home made meals, and being forced to find recreational activities besides coffee shops and bars. Even the restriction of beverages to water has made us appreciate the daily glass of milk or oj, or the freedom to savor those tea leaves shipped to us from so far away. And yet it is still hard to appreciate having clean spring water that we collect weekly from the local spring, to think about how many people live without even that is astonishing.

Today's meals consisted of the same as yesterday's. For breakfast, Amanda had a few pieces of home made bread with a generous amount of peanut butter. Eric had the same, but a bowl full of "slop" (our split pea, garbanzo and rice creation). Lunch was a larger portion of slop with a slice of bread, and dinner was straight up slop. We are already looking forward to Thursday's dinner plans of spaghetti with canned sauce.

Another lovely day of slop tomorrow, and certainly more lifestyle changes to be commented upon tomorrow night.

Day One...Monday, March 8th. Dollar a day? Does that mean no coffee for Eric??

Oh boy...what a day. Although Amanda is used to a carb rich diet, the complete lack of protein during the day caused a significant crash at around 4. For breakfast today, we had some homemade bread with peanut butter. As it turns out, the type of flour used (we used the ghetto Hannaford brand) makes a huge different. The "bread" turned out tough, crusty and tasteless. We bet you can guess what we had for lunch, too!

For Eric, Monday was more of a test of whether he could go on without coffee. Being the first day in probably 5 years made it extremely difficult. He never knew how hard it would be to completely get rid of the drug. The entire day was filled with severe headaches and feeling completely drained. For those who thought coffee and caffeine was something that didn't really affect their daily lives, try giving it up!

For dinner, we had split pea and garbanzo bean soup. We boiled them both with a half a bouillon cube and added some corn and rice. Although it was not very flavorful, Eric felt like he had done a 180 from the way he felt before. The "slop" should last us a few days. Amanda hit the wall and never turned around! Side note....Amanda was only awake for half this post...she is now asleep on Eric's arm. She did try!

Here we come day two!