Yesterday (Saturday) we drove the 11 hours in a 12 passenger van to Hayesville, NC. Even though we didn't leave Columbia until 9 everyone passed out in the van (Winston). It was long and rained the whole time. Fortunately our GPS (Ralphy) directed us safely to the Hinton Rural Life Center. We had Quiznos for dinner and every time the lady put the subs in the toaster she yelled "fire-in-the-hole" and we all laughed. When we got to Hinton at 11:30 pm we went through all the back roads to get to our "Lake House" and everything looked surper creepy. Once we finally go to our safe haven we found out it was beautiful, "There are 16 beds, I'm gonna blow up." We had a quick meeting at our "conference room" (dining table) and then de-toxed from the ride down.
Today (Sunday) was our day off. We slept in and sat on our porch in the morning and appreciated a wonderful lakeview, the lake house earned its name. We finally left for Asheville and saw the beautiful countryside that we had missed last night. In the mountains was a cloud of fog that blinded us for miles. We stopped at Dillsboro along the way and got the most delicious BBQ in a 2 block town. Laura got a sandwich w/ a giant hush puppie as the bun. We walked the town, ate spicy chocolate from a quaint coffee shop, found a telephone booth and crammed inside, discovered a geo-cache in the top of it, and climbed on a fire truck. We continued to Asheville and stopped at the Basilica where Donna gave us a tour of the beautiful church, dome, and stained glass. We saw a sign that said "Thou Shalt not Park Here" and laughed. Then we went to the largest house in the US, the Biltmore Estate, and were going to look at it from the outside. The snooties wouldn't even let us drive by, we thought about flooring it past the guards. We rejoiced as Kansas was upset by VCU. Our final stop was the Grove Park Inn which looked like a hobbit mansion from the shire. We even saw a hobbit and Amelia chased a turkey with Truman. On the way back home we had to buy groceries so we told Ralphy to find us a Wal-Mart and he led us directly off the Interstate into the most Walmart-less countryside. We went back to the Interstate and saw a Wal-mart within 2 miles. We got groceries from Walmart and our favorite local store "Inglés" (supposed to be Ingles according to the locals, but we like our ethnic name). On the homestretch now Ralphy deceived us again as he led us into a dead end street on the shore of a lake. Ironically we could see our house right on the other side with no way to get there. Back at Hinton we had an orientation to the mission and work we would with the Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition (HRWC). The war against the invasive plants is pretty intense, but we are pumped to do battle with the foreign fiends tomorrow. Now I am writing this blog and all the people can think about is the pizza we are about to cook and how I'm not writing fast enough ;). Signing off til tomorrow...
-Murphy ASB
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