From Maryland we headed to Virginia, and visited the colonial town of
Williamsburg, which was an interesting look back in time. Our favorite
part of the town was the little garden and nursery we found, full of
rusty old tools, cute sheds, drying flowers and herbs. After a day of
exploration, we decided to spend the night in Charlottesville, a college
town. We sampled some beers at Three Notch'd Brewery, and then wandered
around a bit before climbing up onto a stone wall overlooking a
bustling street to drink beers and people watch. We ended up making
friends with a few chatty college students that climbed up to talk with
us about our adventures for a while.
We were urban
camping in front of a fratty-looking college house, and when we returned
to the van there were ton of bros milling about on the front lawn, so
we figured we should check in about camping out, and while they didn't
seem to mind, they did mention that they'd spotted Finn and were
plotting about how to "break him out" of them van. We reassured them
that Finn was quite set with food, water, litter, and toys, and that we
figured if the van was enough space for us to sleep in nightly, it
seemed to us that he was fine to hang out for a bit in there as well. We
put Finn on his leash and introduced him to everyone and they seemed
convinced, as well as a little incredulous about our whole set up.
Kelsey's
aunt, possibly one of our most enthusiastic supporters, Carole, lives
near Asheville with her boyfriend, Danny, so we headed there to hang out
with them. They have a beautiful hilltop property with an amazing view,
and took us driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway and then downtown for a
zesty "thai-dye" pizza and some beer. There were SO many cute dogs in
downtown Asheville, it was hard to contain ourselves. That evening,
Kelsey baked a scrumptious apple cake and we had a relaxing movie night.
After a leisurely morning breakfast and some much needed
van-organization, we said our goodbyes.
Our next stop
was Charleston, West Virginia, where we were excited to meet our
couchsurfing host, Justin, and his canine companion, Pearl, who he said
would be fine to hang out with our feline Captain! We had a chatty
evening with Justin and Pearl, sipping on Sierra Nevada and watching the
two critters get to know each other. They got along marvelously, and
Finn was quite bold, batting at Pearl from beneath the couch at first,
and eventually coming right up to her and giving her a careful sniff.
The next morning, we attempted to take Finn for an autumnal hike, but
were thwarted by rain, so while Kelsey jogged, Tressa holed up to work
in a little cafe, where a few people spotted our van decal and
eventually we were chatting with a man named Charles who had returned to
West Virginia three years prior, as an experiment in rediscovering what
it meant to be West Virginian, and had been thinking a lot about home
and place. We ended up meeting up with him and a friend later at a
nearby bar, to drink beers and discuss West Virginia, which they were
incredibly enthusiastic about, as well as disappointed that our time
there was so limited. As the night drew to a close, Charles took us to
Tudor's Biscuit World, a West Virginia standby that consists of tasty
biscuits topped with greasy breakfast food.
Our host
in Lexington, Kentucky, was an incredibly cheerful Japanese translator.
His name was Chuck, and he had a big ole ginger cat that Finn was soon
chasing and romping with in some truly glorious wrestling matches. Chuck
has a radio show at the WRFL college radio station, so we accompanied
him to the station and even got on the air briefly to promote our trip
and play some California tunes (California Honeydrops)! When the show was over, we drove around
Lexington for an impromptu night-tour of the local street art, and then
headed back to the house for a dinner of tortellini with some fresh
herbs from Chuck's garden. In the morning, we decided to go check out
the horse races, and afterwards we headed to Red River Gorge, which
Chuck said was one of the most beautiful places he'd ever been. It did
not disappoint, it was all autumnal colors, breathtaking views, and
gorgeous rock formations. We didn't quite realize how much we had been
missing the woods until we got to stand beneath the deciduous trees,
listening as the leaves fell all around us, and we felt a great sense of
peace.
We were a bit torn about where to go in
Tennessee, but ended up Knoxville, where we ran some Halloween-related
errands (it's hard to get costume crafting time in when there's so much
to do and see!) and then checked out the Sunsphere at the World Fair
Park, where we even sneakily harvested some chard that was growing in
planters which appeared to be mostly decorative, and then had some work
time at Old City Java, which is apparently the oldest coffee shop in
Knoxville and is also adorable, found some dollar pizza nearby, and then
meandered around Market Square for a bit. We decided we'd attempt to
return to Tennessee to check out Memphis when we explore Mississippi
and Arkansas. The next day, on our way to Charleston, South Carolina,
we stopped at the Smoky Mountain National Park, which Justin had highly
recommended to us. We made breakfast in a picnic area and let Finn
explore a bit, before heading out on a little hike, where we met a
gregarious retired military pilot, who had spent the last seven years
living in his motor home and was looking for an adventurous older lady
to share his life with.
In Charleston, SC, we met up
with Ben, an old high school friend of Tressa's who had moved to the
area for Navy training. We hung out at a dive bar that is the
self-proclaimed #2 seller of PBR, and the next day went for a beach
excursion with Finn, who we even let romp around sans-leash for a bit.
We were a bit pooped, so we meandered lazily through town, lounging for a
bit in a park where a few men were yelling at each other, before
checking out Pepper Palace, where we did some extensive hot sauce
sampling, and then returning to Ben's to make an epic lasagna and watch a
movie.
We're writing you now from the Blind Tiger, a
cute little pub we were recommended by a gorgeous lady that lived in the
house we were parked in front of this morning, who popped out and asked
to say hello to Finn and then informed us that her pub was
animal-friendly. We spent our day wandering through Battery Park and
checking out the historic water-side houses and cannons, before coming
in here for wifi, coffee, and fried green tomatoes — perhaps an odd
combo, but a delicious one. Finn is a bit of a celebrity, of course, and
even the waitress keeps taking his photo.
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