Arrived in Asheville

A view of the hills just before leaving Tennessee and crossing into North Carolina

We arrived in Asheville early this afternoon after spending the morning driving the last leg of our trip. We left Brooklyn 22 hours earlier on Thursday afternoon, first driving to Washington for a brief visit with Sarah's Aunt Hilda. Then back in the car to continue our journey through the dark Virginia night, passing familiar place names from American history - Manasses, Bull Run, and Shenandoah. By the time we fell into bed at our less than luxurious Super 8 roadside hotel, it was about midnight and we made it to a point a few miles west of Roanoke, Virginia.

Today's road trip was beautiful, the air unseasonably cold and clear with a bright sun. Our route took us by surprise as we didn't expect Google Maps to direct us through a corner of Tennessee. We couldn't quite believe we were actually in Tennessee! On the Al Gore Highway no less. We just had to celebrate by stopping at the Fireworks Supermarket (purchasing some black cats and sparklers) and to a liquor store to acquire two bottles of official Tennessee sipping whiskey.

Fireworks Supermarket in Blountville Tennessee

We turned South off of Route 81 and took the more scenic Route 26 to Asheville. It traversed the rumpled worn hills that were distinctly different than our familiar Catskill foothills. We passed between the Great Smokies and Roan Mountain, touching on part of the Cherokee National forrest. Appalachians on one side, Blue Ridge of the other. Our weather remained unseasonably cold with a temperature hovering around 23. Shady sides of the hills had a light dusting of overnight snow but there were also signs of spring with daffodils, pear trees and forsythia beginning to pop open. We descended into West Asheville and found our little red rental cottage in a suburban wooded neighborhood. Our place is neat and has all the comforts we need for a couple of days.

An easy drive downtown for lunch at the Laughing Seed Cafe, brought us to the River Arts section of studios and working craftspeople. We strolled through this arts district, a collection of old warehouses between the railroad tracks and the river. We saw a few interesting things, looking for the extraordinary in form, or surface treatment, function or imagination. Mostly there seemed to be a commercially available production area, offering the artists a community but producing more product than art.

Work by Akira Satake, one of the more interesting potters exhibiting in Asheville 

Tomorrow we travel to Hickory, 83 miles East of us, to take in the Catawba Valley show and sale. I am sure it will be a bit of a madhouse as some 115 potters sell their wares. There are sure to be some similar to our experience today, but we know there will also be some masters in the craft and artistry areas. One of these masters is Mark Hewitt, a potter we discovered in New Orleans at the Ogden Museum a couple of years ago, who is on our list to seek out at the Show. It turns out Ed Lebow (a close friend from college days), wrote a piece on him so he put me in touch with Mark directly. We are delighted that he is willing to give us a studio visit on Tuesday afternoon, even though he is working flat out to prepare a full kiln firing. So tomorrow promises to be exciting day - in terms of ceramics, and perhaps meeting other interesting artists in Hickory.