sheep vs. driving

After reading about the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival on Ravelry, I started to reconsider. Everyone was writing in with suggestions like bring your own water, bring your own food, bring your own wetnaps, bring your own tp, wear sturdy shoes so you don't get hurt when people run over you with their wheelchairs (?!?!), wear sunscreen, bring chapstick, bring a camera, don't bring a lot of heavy stuff or you'll hurt yourself lugging it around all day. It started to sound...well, unpleasant. 11 hours to drive up there, two days of heavy crowds and mania, and then an 11-hour drive home... Also, my dad was going to meet us there, but he can't go. I would have liked to see all the sheep and demonstrations and all that glorious fleece, but it sounds really exhausting. I think instead I'm going to take the fine suggestion of Meg from Yarn Expressions and go to Earth Guild in Asheville instead. It's half the drive, and if the website is anything to go by, it looks like I could spend a whole day or two there drooling over all their stuff and meanwhile not worry about getting stepped on, dehydrating, or waiting two hours in line for a Porta Potty with no tp. And it looks like they have all the spinning wheels I want to try. Plan 2.0: better, cheaper, and more peaceful. 12 hours less driving is 12 more hours available for spinning and crochet!
Also, I found a fabulous deal on a B&B. The Dry Ridge Inn is having a special: $99/night for weeknights in April! The Super 8 is within $10 of that! And it looks gorgeous. They have a nice garden and even a hot tub. I'm so psyched.
The plan is to drive up Sunday afternoon, stay the night, have some nice breakfast, and then head for the Earth Guild to check out the spinning wheels. Oh yeah. And if somehow one should tire of that, they also have tools, equipment, and supplies for 16 other crafts! I'm not even exaggerating. Heck, I'm not even counting knitting and crochet as two separate crafts. This is going to rock!