Things start to get warmer as I drive long and hard through a sunset-tinged southern Virginia and the strip malls and chain restaurants of North Carolina, pushing west (at last!) toward Asheville, NC, where a former college roommate is completing an Americorps program. I had no idea how much Asheville makes one think of the legendary Berkeley, CA (where I’ve come from and where I’m headed). I could swear I recognize those dread-headed women with dreamy eyes and lip piercings and Tibetan scarves, waiting tables at the nearby brunch place featuring vegetarian and vegan options. It’s true, though, that you can’t beat a well-made plate of huevos rancheros, even if it’s made with soy chorizo. Asheville is an isolated liberal pocket in the middle of a typically conservative North Carolina… or so they say. It’s still remarkably racially segregated, but nevertheless appears to possess that same relaxed, open, hippie-ish vibe that so characterizes Berkeley and other liberal college towns. West Asheville is like a whiter version of Berkeley, but with at least as much to boast of: cute local pubs with open mike nights, delicious and veggie-fresh lunch stops, left-wing book shops, and sunny cafés with plush armchairs, unique baked goods (such as spicy red pepper scones), and friendly clientele. I’ve been spending time doing freelance work at both the West End Bakery and Ideal Market Café while my host is at her job; the weather, though cold, is quite sunny, and the style is somehow southern, though few, if any, have strong accents. In the evenings we watch movies, try each recommended restaurant, drink local beers and listen to local voices at the Westville Pub. We go grocery shopping at an outlet store called Amazing Savings – and it’s not just a cheesy marketing ploy, they really do mean it. It’s full of the whole-grain, soy-rich, flax seed, organic and interesting products you’ll find in the bougie markets of the San Francisco Bay Area, but they’re all either a bit past the sell-by date or in boxes that are a bit too beat up to sell in typical venues, so everything is between 50 and 75 percent off its original price. Amazing Savings indeed. We go home with boxes upon boxes of cookies, granola, soy milk, pasta, vegetables, juice, and energy bars.
Since Asheville is nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, we set out one day to see a tiny bit of
it. A little one-horse town called Hot Springs lies a bit to the northwest; not quite in the state park, but surrounded by layers of rolling mountains nonetheless. We hike up a jungly forest trail until it starts icing a bit (pinhead-sized hail that whispers onto crunchy leaves), then pay ten dollars to spend an hour in one of the local hot tubs. Though they look like your typical chlorinated tub, they’re filled instead with the sulphurous, earthy water that jets from the ground and gives the town its name.
December in the South is interesting – though you want it to be warm, it rests right on the cusp of freezing. It’s not so cold, therefore, that towns are likely to cough up a budget to deal with snowdrifts, as in New York State, but not so warm that you don’t risk ice from time to time. I left Asheville a good eight hours after I intended to because of the horrific freezing rain that covered every branch, leaf, rock, and inch of paved road. It lent itself to some gorgeous photographs and some very, very scary driving. By midafternoon, things were melting enough to let my tires grip the road. Along the winding Highway 40 that cuts directly through the Smokies, the freezing rain stopped freezing and sent great swathes of mist drifting across the rolling layers of wooded mountains. It suddenly made sense, the name Smoky.
I drive the longest and hardest between Asheville and Kansas City, where I meet up with another friend who’ll accompany me through the canyons of the southwest. We drive and drive as the slow hurls down, staying with my relatives in Kansas and then Colorado. It’s zero degrees and the snow is piling high as we leave Boulder, CO, but we’re heading south again and pray for sunshine. |
