We have arrived! First destination down. I guess actually, we get to count two destinations because we stopped to drop off goodies for Bonnie in Asheville. Unfortunately, we only stopped for a second and had to skeedadle to Tennessee. But, relax, because we're here and we're safe! We took a good number of pictures for your viewing pleasure, and then forgot to bring the camera cord inside and now I'm too lazy to go out and get it.
Some highlights, later to be expounded upon by photos!:
Instead of leaving before 11 as I'd hoped we would, we left at 1. WHOOPS!!! And then, to be true to our roots, we stopped and got hot dogs all the way from Allen's.
I got gas from one of those super old pumps where you can still watch the numbers turn in Black Mountain. Honestly, I didn't really know what to do and it took me a second to figure out how to make the damn thing work. Then I got nervous because I couldn't pay at the pump and how the hell do you know how much gas you're going to buy if you have to pre-pay!? I never do that! Correction, I don't think I've ever done that for a full tank. Gah, my naiveté. (Mom totally took care of the whole thing, so I shant have worried. Yep, I just typed "shant" and yep, you know what it means.
We stopped at the Tennessee state line, said goodbye to North Carolina (at which point I started thinking about the fact that a) I won't be driving BACK through this state for quite some time and b) I've got to fly home just to be here for Christmas. I'm starting a whole different life and I haven't even thought about what it might look like and feel like to be in a place that isn't this glorious state.
But after saying goodbye, we said hello! To the volunteer state. Which I totally appreciate, seeing as how I'm going to be a volunteer for a whole year starting in 3 weeks. Anyway, we both got hungry and picky about food in Knoxville, and tried to use Urban Spoon on the iphone to pick a place to eat. What, you might ask, did we come up with? First try: Waffle House. Second try: Chick-fil-a. Third try: Cracker Barrel. After this blasphemy, we just decided to wing it, and we're lucky we did! We ended up at a restaurant called RouXbarb. Its local cuisine, cooked up just right. I had smoked duck with pepper jelly and pimento mac and cheese, and mom had flounder filet with heirloom and zebra tomatoes, corn and cole-slaw (it actually was far more decadent than it sounds). We split a "tomato stack" which was heirloom tomatoes, fried greed tomatoes, goat cheese, bacon pieces and blue cheese dressing. It was fantastic. We also met some very nice people who told us no matter what we ordered, we couldn't really go wrong. And they were too right (although not going wrong cost me a pretty penny...).
Don't worry, we took pictures to send to Urban Spoon.
Other highlights include: listening to a bawdy book by Christopher Moore, called Fool, and driving through the mountains. I forget sometimes how incredible they are (even though mom made me drive and I didn't get that good a look around) because they're right here beside me and I take that for granted.
On a small side note - I've driven from one end of the state to the other in less than 2 weeks! I'm glad I got to go to the beach with Hil because now I'm literally driving from coast to coast. WHOOOHOOOO!!!!
I feel like I probably forgot a thousand things, and have remembered far too many things that are completely useless and unnecessary, but thats probably life and will be fine in the end, right?
Dan Kelo's voice makes me cry. Seriously.