Date: April 7th, 2008
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Route taken so far:
**Left Mom's house in Arlington, VA for Takoma Park (MD) Co-op

**1st stop: Waterpenny Farm in Sperryville, VA
stayed with farm friend Lea that night, up on a mountain in a little cabin

**next morning: took Skyline Drive to Harrisonburg, VA
stayed with more farm friends, Teal and Peter
saw Accordion Death Squad that night, a fun band from Charlottesville

**Day 3: checked out Charlottesville, just for the heck of it, reminded me of Boulder a little with it's downtown pedestrian mall where hippies play music and there are plenty of used bookstores and coffeeshops
**Then off to Staunton since Katie at waterpenny had told me about the shakespeare company there. Macbeth was sold out, so i saw a good local bluegrass band at a pizza place instead: The Hounddog Hill Boys. Definitely dancable.
tested out my bed and curtains, slept in my van parked on the street. totally cozy.

**Day 4: rain starts. i head down south to Floyd, Virginia, a small town where hippies and oldtimers live in peace together. They have a small natural food store called Green's Garage, where people buy groceries and leave their payment in an envelope. There is no cashier; everyone is on the honor system. And it works! It is such a small town. And I had my first true couchsurfing experience. I stayed with a couple, Liz and Sam, for a night. We played scrabble and watched The Hoax, a good movie.

**Day 5: still raining. The original plan was to go camping, but not in this weather, so i went straight to Asheville, North Carolina, where my good friend, Sarah, lives and offered to let me stay with her for the week until after her birthday party.
**Re-explored Asheville, ("re-" because I have lived there briefly before)... what a beautiful town with mountains and hippies and good beer. I had a great time, but I don't think i will live there. It was on my list of possible places to live.

**Yesterday, lazed around, recovering from sarah's birthday party, helped sarah lose and find her dog, and then drove the 4 hours to atlanta to my friend bianca's house.



And let me just do a little ranting now.
Before I even left northern virginia, i had a strange experience involving my van.
I sat in my van parked in my mom's neighborhood(formerly my neighborhood), sewing little velcro squares onto the curtains my mother helped me make. She even ironed them for me. Thanks Mom! So I look up from sewing, and I see 3 police officers, knocking on my back door. Oh, visitors, but the place is such a mess. I open up the door, show them my id, and tell them of my plans to drive across the country. They are really friendly, saying they just had a call about a suspicious van parked in the neighborhood. Thanks cops for realizing that a girl sitting in her van, sewing, in the middle of the day, in her own neighborhood, is not against the law or anything to worry about.
A couple hours later, I am finished with my curtains. This van is really starting to look like something I can live out of for the next few months. "Excuse me, miss" I turn around and see a woman arriving home from her day at the office. She wants to know if I live here. I tell her yes, and she tells me very politely that she and whoever else she means by "we" just start wondering a little when they see a vehicle they've never seen before in their neighborhood, and that she's seen a gentleman going in and out of it at night (i hope not!! ...well, unless he was cute, was he cute?). Anyway, i tell her people get new cars all the time and i've already talked to the police, and she says "okay, it's just a little weird, you know?" I was as polite as I could be although I was thinking all kinds of things, like what would she think if the tables were turned, and i were asking her if she lived here.
Well, at least i got that over with...oh. but no. what's this? on my windshield the next morning? not a ticket, i hope. a ticket for what? nope. not a ticket. it's an anonymous note. my first visitors, and my first mail, all in the same 24-hour period. lucky me! The note read: You should probably move your van to another neighborhood. oooohhh! i was so mad! And there was no one to respond to. All of a sudden, i had visions of putting up security cameras on my van. I wanted to scream. Instead, I went into my mom's house, pacing, furious, and decided to write a note to put up in the window of my van, saying how i have lived in this neighborhood since i was 8 years old, and i will not be moving my van, please just let me be. Then I left a couple days later. No resolution. Just have to let it go.
When I tell some people this story, they remind me of the sniper in DC, and didn't he have a white van? But wasn't that years ago? I think people are letting their fear take over their brains. Either fear or intolerance and closed-mindedness. I watched how their fear bred more fear into me. I started looking at people as they walked their dog or with their children, wondering, are these the jerks trying to scare me away from their "safe" neighborhood? and what would i say to them if it was? but i'm usually the kind of person who smiles at strangers and says hello. so now i will continue to smile and say hello to people when i pass them on the sidewalk. I refuse to be part of the culture of fear.


Pictures will come later.