On The Auditory Road

Due to a tip from my old road dog Conan I decided to head to Asheville, North Carolina; he said that is was a lovely town where the people were very liberal and open minded and was certain I would enjoy myself there especially after such a long time traveling, he hadn’t done me wrong before so I remembered this and now was the time to go. I hoped it was as pretty and relaxing as he had made it sound.

So it was time for another greyhound adventure and it didn’t start well. I got to the bus terminal 45 minutes before my bus left so I had plenty of time to get a ticket apparently this isn’t really sufficient enough time as I had to run after the bus that had already part left and which, at first, the bus driven wouldn’t let me on but eventually I took my seat and wanted to do nothing else but sleep my time away getting out from the grottiness that is Atlanta as quickly as possible.

I awoke to change buses at Knoxville, Tennessee and buy myself some Cola before boarding the new bus and once aboard fell straight back to sleep.

I waited an hour for my couchsurfing host to come and pick me up and spent my time looking up at a small house perched in the hill opposite the tiny bus station I was dropped off at and wondering whether in a couple of years time with some erosion that house would just fall straight into the road. Zach finally arrived in an SUV (Which he was very excited about driving as it wasn’t actually his it was his girlfriend’s) and drove me back to his quaint little bungalow on the outskirts where he, his girlfriend Molly and house mate Andrea lived.

I explained that I really wasn’t that bothered as to what I did that day as I was pretty fed up of traveling by this point and it would be nice to just relax for a couple of days which they were fine with. The first thing we did was have a nice little walk with Molly’s dog Abby who is absolutely adorable and reminded me endlessly of my ex’s dog Bella who is now sadly gone from this world, I say nice walk, it was except for the fact my trashed canvas shoes (which by now had big holes in the soles) made it slightly painful to walk.

Zach then took Molly to school and drove me around town showing me a few different places of interest, we got coffee at Izzy’s (one of two, this one was in a converted (sort of) house and afterwards he took me to the park by the dirt coloured river where we frolicked for a while, made daisy chains and splashed each other with water while it snowed around us (I may have exaggerated here for personal giggles.)

Zach worked at Greenlife grocery store which seems to be a small version of Whole Foods, same good quality food and smug atmosphere to boot. It surely matched the atmosphere of the town. Zach had personal beef with a popular saying in the town “We Are All One” or something of a similar ilk and decided to ask many a person we met whether they agreed with this saying, the majority claiming that “yes, in some way, maybe, well, yes I guess so but also we’re different, you know?” which essentially translates as “I don’t know what it means but I agree ‘cus
I’m super cool and hip.” I think I’m being a bit mean now but either way, it was funny.

We picked Molly up from school and went for munchies (lunch) and bought some form of sandwich which was delicious (America truly make far superior sandwiches to England) and then returned back to the house (dropped Molly back at school on the way.)

After playing me some songs on the geetar (sic) Zach had to go to work and I stayed home and did, well, basically sod all, it was beautiful, I facebooked people, played online games, listened to music, dozed, talked to Andrea when she came in for a bit then dossed about some more, I seriously felt completely at home. All three members of the household had my sense of humour as well as being ridiculously hospitable.

When Molly and Zach had both returned home (he brought Indian food back from work which was delish (delicious) we all settled down to watch “Happy Go Lucky” which is an hilarious British film that I had not seen before but enjoyed tremendously and then went to beddy bies and fell asleep after realising Andrea’s cat was sleeping next to me.

I awoke the next day with great jubilation as I hadn’t been this well rested and happy for a long time and after Molly had gone to school Zach took me to a local cafe to get breakfast. I discovered on the walk that Zach didn’t care for rules, he was a rebel the likes I hadn’t seen in a long time, he didn’t care for pavements or walkways, he would just walk on the road, play chicken with cars, fuck the rules indeed. This was all fun until he nearly got run over, but it all ended okay so no lessons were learned.

I was so excited to look at the menu to see what culinary delights I could find, I bought a croissant with ham and cheese but more importantly I had both grits and collared greens and they were both delicious. Grits are actually amazing, they may sound and look repulsive but with enough butter, salt and pepper they are truly grand.

I spent the day doing not much all over again and it was just as amazing as the day before (Zach had to go to work as soon as breakfast was over.) We had made huge exciting plans for the evening though, we were going out to the new brewery/bar and were going to live it up large. When we arrived and sat down among all the needless neon we ordered some beer from the “bro” waiter, if you don’t know much about Bro culture don’t worry you’re not missing out on much. We then ordered some food and subtly mocked the waiter, Molly and I got fish and chips and Zach for chili cheese fries; I wish I’d got chili cheese fries as the fish and chips was three tiny bit size fillets of mountain trout and some crisps, I know Americans call crisps chips but I didn’t expect battered fish to be served on crisps… dicks. One drink was enough as all three of us were now completely wrecked (sarcasm) and we went home to talk and eventually fall asleep like a babe in his mother’s arms.

So it was my last day in Asheville and I didn’t really want to leave and it made it slightly worse that I was told I could stay longer if I so wish (sometimes decisions are so hard to make) but I had made up my mind that I would go back to Chicago to live in the Archer Ballroom where I had stayed previously, it is a beautiful space and I was so excited about the chance to actually stay there for an extended amount of time.

I said goodbye to Zach in the morning as he had (stupid) work again so I wouldn’t see him before my bus came and I spent the day with Molly around town, looking at her friends studio (some of her artwork was beautiful,) getting coffee at the other Izzy’s and finally buying myself a copy of William S. Burroughs “Naked Lunch” before getting dropped back at the greyhound station on my second to last bus journey of the entire trip, it was nearly time to go home and I had traveled many thousands of miles but there was still a little ways to go so I bought my ticket, took a seat in the waiting room, opened “Naked Lunch” and started to read…