Road Trip (cont’d)

After saying good morning and goodbye to the local elk herd, we left Cherokee, NC, and continued east. We had a hearty breakfast at Country Vittles Family Style Restaurant in nearby Maggie Valley, then drove on through the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

We stopped in Asheville to visit the Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center. More gallery than museum, the center is dedicated to the private liberal arts college that became famous in the arts community. While the college only existed for 24 years (1933-1957), many of its students and faculty were or would go on to be influential artists. More importantly, it was where Kathleen’s parents, Wilma and John, met as students in the early 1950s. We had a very special moment when Kathleen discovered a photograph on display of her mother in a 1948 weaving class.

We arrived at Danielle and Jay’s house in Durham around 7:00 PM, where dinner was waiting. Also waiting was a large assortment of mail and packages that have been accumulating here for a month—one of our solutions to the challenge of being on the go for a year without regular mail delivery.