Day 2: Western NC/Winston-Salem

The haze quickly formed over the mountains surrounding Asheville and gave the region a warm, humid, yet comfortable temperature. After waking up in Asheville, rural North Carolina became the featured backdrop of choice over interstate asphalt and gas stations.

The downtown of a small, metropolitan Asheville gave a great, refreshing urban feel to an area defined by the Appalachian mountains. The small city acts as a jump-off point to the many small towns and activities along the Blue Ridge Parkway and around the Appalachians.

One of these places is Chimney Rock, a small town and namesake state park, which is home to one of the nicest viewpoints in Western North Carolina. The almost 500-step walk gives way to an amazingly beautiful view of Hickory Nut Falls, the tiny tourist town of Chimney Rock and Lake Lure amongst the Blue Ridge. This area of the country on the other side of the Smokies from Knoxville is a peaceful, serene area of the country. Simply beautiful. I can only imagine what Max Patch looks like.

The night was capped off with a game in Winston-Salem. The A-Advanced affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. the Dash play in the new BB&T Ballpark just outside of downtown. The majority of fans come in from center field and the fans can see inside the stadium as they are weaving their way along the manmade path of cones to the parking spots. The field is gorgeous, but it's built in a hole. I can only imagine what happens when in rains and all the water seeps downhill into the stadium.

The game itself was a pretty steady moving game until the 5th inning when Dash pitcher Andre Rienzo threw a high and inside pitch to Potomac (Washington's A-Adv. affiliate) batter Stephen Souza created a bench-clearing brawl for all of five seconds. The two created a mob at the mound, the mound dissipated, and then Potomac manager Matthew Lecroy argued for a good ten minutes too long and was ejected, along with Souza. The baby Nats went on to still win 8-5.

Justin Bloxom and Jeff Kobernus each had 2 RBI's for Potomac (19-34, 4th in Carolina League North), while Tyler Saladino, Ian Gac and Daniel Wagner each hit solo shots for Winston-Salem (24-29, 4th in Carolina League South).