Day 119 - To Asheville

Distance - 314 miles
Time - 6 hours

Caitlin had to go off to class nice and early, dropping her Mom off to catch the bus back to Kentucky. Daisy and I were a little slower off the mark, taking some time to have coffee and take pictures of the cats. We took Caitlin up on her suggestion to go have breakfast down the road at the Crepe Myrtle Cafe. As the name promises, they do serve crepes that they fold in half, roll into a cone, and stuff with all manner of tasty things both savory and sweet. It's a great place to stop if you're in town!

Our drive to Asheville was fairly uneventful, we chatted and listened to podcasts, stopping for lunch in Lula, Georgia. Have you ever been to a place where it's obvious that you're out of place? Everyone was very polite and friendly, but we were immediately sized up accurately as "not being from around here", which was an interesting experience, and it did lead to some nice chatty conversations with people.

By 5pm we arrived in Asheville! We were looking at house numbers and then realized we didn't need to see the one on this house because there was a huge welcome sign! We're staying with my friend Alynn, another wonderful Peace Corps volunteer who I met in Burkina. She had started in Niger and was evacuated when they closed that country due to increased unrest, and after 6 months in the US she agreed to go through training again to begin a new 2 year stint in Burkina as a non-formal education volunteer (because she's both brave and a glutton for punishment - going through training once was crazy enough!). In a small world moment, we realized that she when to school with one of my cousins growing up, which was the only time I've ever had anyone recognize my last name. We worked together on the Volunteer Advisory Committee, which meant that even though we lived in completely different parts of the country we still got to see each other somewhat regularly. She's now hard at work on her latest project, starting her own business as a facilitator/mediator/motivator; Flip Charts and Smelly Markers should be making its web presence debut very soon, and she's already working with several organizations in and around Asheville.

We were greeted with big hugs (and an amaretto chocolate pie!) from Alynn, and a curious sniff by her cat, Aaron. We took a peek around for Sioux, her shy calico, but she was already in hiding. We went out for an amazing meal at India Garden, then headed home for some amazing pie (Alynn - can I get the recipe for that?) Upon hearing that we'd started House of Cards in Auburn, Alynn set us up with her Netflix account and the three of us sat and watched and talked until we were all falling asleep where we were sitting.

 We had to say goodbye to the kitties in the morning! Milo looking pensive

 Kagen

 Breakfast crepe cones :)

Tasty and easy to eat thanks to creative use of water cooler cups

 Driving through Atlanta (this and the following 5 photos were taken by my awesome co-pilot, Daisy)

 Hey, look at me go!

 Still in Georgia - it was a very pretty drive

 Colorful roadside things that caught our eyes

 Hello North Carolina!

 What house number is this one? Wait, I think this might be it...

 Yep!

Fully prepared for New Years Eve in Asheville - champagne, pie, and chocolates, plus a toothbrush, chapstick for the cold weather, and a lint roller for the cat fur ;)