Hi Ya'll!

                                                      Giday from North Carolina!

After leaving Baltimore we headed straight west for the mountains. We passed through Frederick, Maryland, the middle ground in the civil war, then headed up to Harper's Ferry beginning our drip south along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I finished reading Bill Bryson's 'A Walk in the Woods' last week in Jay, and it came alive again straight away as we were passing through all of these little towns. Stopped at Front Royal, the entrance to the Shenandoah National Park, and reaped maxi benefits from the thrift stores there. Southern opp-shopping is outta this world.
We got a Chevvy from Baltimore--who we named The Ponce because we thought it was gonna be a Pontiac...but alas twas not to be. Still, The Ponce has been mighty faithful, and has been a noble steed in allowing dad and I to drive on the wrong side of the road and not sustain fatal injuries, yet. It was weird to get my eye muscles back into driving- I felt like I was going cross-eyed whenever I'd try and focus on the ashphalt. Maybe a trip to the optometrist is in order back home.

The driving has been friggin great. We took the Skyline Drive through Virginia, which is a thin little strip of National Park mountains, and the road weaves you around to views of both out west to west virginia and east to virginia and to the ocean beyond. We stayed at 'skyland' on our first night amid comments of 'Bill Bryson was here with Katz!!' from le farzha constantly. We dined with lots of old white people in the restaurant overlooking the setting. One particularly outstanding comment was from a morbidly obese old man chowing down waffles and a coke was that 'hey, I reckon there'll be a sunset tonight'. Gr7 one m7.

With a gift card from best buy that i found on the ground ($25- WIN!) we bought an ipod jack for our sweet tunes along the way. hank williams, band of horses, elvis, sufjan, bon iver, gillian welch, alison krauss, america, simon and garf, muddy waters, seeker lover keeper. Le pops is gettin a real treat.Any more suggestions for roadtrippin around america music would be grouse.

Last night we stayed at a place called 'Peaks of Otter' GEDDAROUND IT. It overlooked a huge lake and looming above was this triangular mountain called 'Otter'. Orright. Yesterday's weather was pretty bad so we got off the mountain and took the interstate through Virginia, Tennessee, then landing in North Carolina.
We had lunch in a tiny town called Erwin, and were treated to real southern hospitality by a crazy/enthusiastic lady who had a christmas themed model train cafe, with a bed in the middle and who made us a delicious strawberry salad (supposedly this is a southern thing). AND we had fried green tomatoes.
I found me a mad-ass tshirt from the 49th annual 'Autorama' in Erwin, TN and i plan on rockin it out today.
We drove 45 more minutes after lunch to Asheville, North Carolina and were met by a 5k running competition in the carpark of the visitor information centre where every ashevillian decided to run. It was drizzly but packed and there was lady gaga pumping and a sausage sizzle- i oddly realised how absent from small-town america my experience thus far has been. That community event where everyone is there, so different to the urban context. Found a room for the night, decided i should better start looking at anu subjects and enrolment for next semester. then we went out to a pizza restaurant/brewery where there were some finger-pickin hillbillies with big ears with banjos and a double bass. there was also a REAL LIFE COWBOY which made a table of kids sitting next to us gasp and turn wide-eyed when he swaggered into the room. A great night. Then we headed into downtown Asheville where a drumming circle takes place in the town square every friday night. EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT! a drumming circle! So dad and i shook it, no doubt the best groove we've both had for a while. There were old people, young people, tweeny boppers, dogs, hippies, you name it. There was that smell of freshness after rain, warm earth, coffee and food, and sweat. Today we're heading to an alternative university where part of the deal is that you have to put in hours on their farm to get your degree. Cool, no? They've got a music day lined up. Then we might head out and hit up the mountains again. I'm so close to tennessee which is where i'm heading next week for bonnaroo, but i decided to head back up to the City, leave dad, drop off the car, and come down REAL PROPER with the roadtrippin crew.

So, the next few weeks:
Bonnaroo
Austin
Mexico
and the final month of my trip in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras.

Chauuuu! Stay warm xox