NC

Greetings from North Carolina! We made it through Kentucky (which is BEAUTIFUL; red-carved-out-rock should always sandwich the highway, mmm,) through Tennessee (the most winding and majestic presentation of the Smokey mountains I've ever seen,) and to our destination, North Carolina, giving us a taste of the Blue Ridge mountains.  The entirety of the trip was graced by sweet tunes and 5 chapters of Stephen King's The Stand. Yes, Sarah appeased my pleas and gave-in to burning the entirety of the epic tale of contagion, apocalypse and good-ole-country-travelin'--------amounting to 46 CDR'S ;).

NC's welcome center

Not too long after crossing North Carolina's genial arms we entered Asheville. While waiting for our gracious and lovely host, Miss Lila--- Sarah and I took separate blade/bike trips through our new territory.  Later in the evening, Lila took us to her boyfriend's record store. Mark has owned Harvest Records for the last 7 years... If you're ever in the West Asheville area, make sure to visit!  http://www.harvest-records.com/recordings.php 

In fact, it was so awesome a store I felt compelled to buy a Gang of Four record--despite having no record player of my own. 

Finally today, Sarah and I got down to business, each with our own respective mediums. Lila directed us to the Blue Mountain Parkway which, I think, yielded fruitful results. I nearly finished a painting but the rain got the best of me. 

We'll have to return to that beautiful, ascending strip-of-road tomorrow (which, on an overcast day like today, had us quite literally driving through the clouds.)   

I'll leave you guys with some nice photos and maybe a video or two. 

-aj

Lunatics on the road: 

Excerpt from The Stand: