Wild wind in the Woods

We are hanging in Asheville for a few days with our new friend Tommy. Asheville is a beautiful town in the middle of the Blue Ridge mountains where wealthy folks have come for years to enjoy it’s beauty and laid back style. There are several colleges in the area. Tommy is a 3rd generation Ashvilleon and we have been enjoying his stories about its history from a native’s point of view. Here’s something not everyone knows: NASCAR racing’s nascent beginnings began with the moonshine runners during prohibition. Tommy grandfather was an circuit preacher just like Mark’s grandfather so they are having fun exchanging stories about people who knew their ancestors. On Sunday, Tommy took us on a tour of Ashville and we went and looked at the scene where “Thunder Road” was made which is a 1960’s movie about moonshine runners. It is funny because the city has re-routed the road since the movie was made but the over pass is still sitting between two new businesses with trucks parked around it. Tommy, Olivia and I went walking around one the first race tracks that drivers like Richard Petty got started but the wealthy didn’t like it’s location so it became the center of a river park on the French Broad river. Tommy told us about past drive through drinking establishments that had clever names. One was a gas station/bar called the Coast In – Stagger Out and another was the Toot and Tell (you toot your horn and then tell ‘em what you want).

I have been having fun making myself at home in Tommy’s kitchen and cooking for everyone. Last night we had a major front blow through and one of the trees outside Tommy’s home came down and took out a power line about 100 yards from the camper unit. We watched as the fireworks from the transformer lit up the night sky. About an hour later we lost power too. We had the kids stay in the house but Mark and I stayed in the camper and I had to put in earplugs to quell the fear of every branch breaking in the gusts. We spent the next morning removing debris from the road and cleaning up the branches we could move without a chain saw. Tommy had gone off to work but came home and ‘caught’ us cleaning. He called his boss and said ‘I can’t come back my guest are cleaning up my war zone.’ We explained to him how we missed working but he stayed and we had a community effort at making everything right.

A perfect evening for us consists of a nice New Mexican dinner and an evening playing music which is what we got to do. I had looked in the local paper and found an open mic in downtown West Asheville and we made red chile enchiladas for Tommy and then arrived at the open mic around 8:15pm. We had no idea how hot the music scene was here, every space was taken- shoot. We spent an hour in a smoke free pub enjoying the locals who got up and played and I was delighted by one of the cleverest ideas I had ever seen. In the bathrooms, the walls are all chalkboards and there are pieces of chalk everywhere for those graffiti artists with an Aristotle urge. I hope we can talk the Capital Bar in Socorro into doing this!

Sometimes things happen but not the way you expect. A friend of Tommy’s who is in the music business and was at the pub told us about a private jam down the street. We grabbed our instruments and played with some very friendly and excellent musicians. There was a fiddler there who played harmony fiddle to Mariah’s licks that sounded terrific. Asheville is the most community oriented town I have seen so far. They have several food coop and everyone is into supporting community agriculture and helping those in need and it is easy to understand how in a recent quality of life survey, Asheville rank very high. I saw a bumper sticker that I would love to get and it said “Buy locally, 1000 miles fresher”. That sums it up in my mind.

The morning of our departure we spent touring the downtown and went into the City Hall which had a very art deco feel and then into the Grove Park shopping area which was built long ago and is very decorative and detailed. The building was the center of downtown shopping until WW2 when the government took it over then put a weather center in it. In the 1970’s Asheville decided they wanted it back to a shopping area and have done a great job at remodeling it and putting in local businesses. I am very sorry to have to leave Ashville, I like it a lot.
The great Smokey Mountain National Park is the most visited national park in the country and we are going to see why.
Hugs to all, The Meanderthals

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