Day 5: Lexington, VA to Asheville, NC (334 miles)
Tuesday, 18 October 2005
Last updated 24 Oct 2005

1. Coffee at Lexington Cafe	2. Natural bridge	3. The other side	4. We're in the Bible Belt	5. Monacon Indian Village
6. Typical Dwelling	7. The smoky interior	8. Unknown function	9. The kitchen	10. Bread on a hot stone
11. Foamhenge(!)	12. Recognize this?	13. Roanoke farmers' market	14. Red hot chili peppers	15. I bought half a dozen
16. From farmer Tim Belcher	17. Sunset over Blowing Rock	18. New friends at dinner in Asheville	19. Southern Pecan Pie	20. At Jack of the Wood bar
21. With their soccer team	22. A friendly place!

Well, Lexington, VA is a cute small town, but not much to do there, so after a coffee at [1] Lexington Cafe off Main Street, I headed off towards Roanoke, stopping at the dramatic [2,3] natural bridge at the town of Natural Bridge, VA. (You also know you're in the "Bible Belt" when [4] Biblical Creation reenactions are held at decidedly secular attractions like a natural bridge.) There was also a well-done historically accurate recreation of a [5] Monacon Indian Village with a [6,7] typical dwelling, and [8-10] demonstrations of things like cooking bread on a hot stone.

Just outside the Natural Bridge area was a hilarious [11,12] recreation of Stonehenge, called Foamhenge and yes, it's made of foam! I don't know if it was intended to be farcical, but it made me burst into laughter when I saw it!

Roanoke is a cute town, and the cultural center of Southwest Virginia. I spent just a short time visiting the [13] farmers' market there, the oldest continuously operating one in the US. I [14-16] bought a few chili peppers from farmer Tim Belcher. He was an interesting person. When I told him that I was driving cross-country, he suggested to me, in all seriousness, that I buy some raw hamburger meat and onions, place it in aluminium foil on my car engine block after removing the air filter, and after a few hours of driving I'd have a perfectly cooked hamburger lunch. (Needless to say, I declined to follow his suggestion!).

I left Roanoke and made a quick stop at Blowing Rock, NC, where the winds are so strong that small objects dropped off the side of the aforementioned rock will reputedly just blow back up. I got there too late to visit the rock, but took a [17] photograph of the dramatic scenery and sunset in the area of the rock.

Then on to Asheville, NC, my destination for the night. I loved Asheville after 1/2 an hour of being there! I stayed at the very comfortable and attractive Carolina Bed & Breakfast (177 Cumberland Avenue, 888-254-3608, 828-254-3608) in the historic and residential Montford District. Even so, it was just a few minutes by car to the very attractive and walkable downtown area, where (surprise!) there were nice restaurants still open. It seems to be a very alive and artsy small city; if I wanted to live in a small city in the US, I could certainly envision Asheville being my first choice.

At Pack Square, which is the heart of downtown Asheville, I had dinner at the very nice Bistro 1896 (7 Pack Square, 828-251-1300), and ran into my second friendly mother/daughter travelling team of the trip, Judy (mother) and Kelly (daughter), [18] shown here with the equally friendly waitress Karen. Today was "wine appreciation day" so all wines were half-off(!) so I ordered more than I needed and shared it with my neighbours. Same with the [19] Southern Pecan Pie, which was so good that Judy and Kelly actually shared it with me even though they claimed that they never eat dessert. After dinner, we spontaneously decided to drop in to a nearby bar that still seemed quite lively, the Jack of the Wood, where we got an entirely unnecessary [20] additional bottle of wine. The [21-22] entire soccer team of the Jack of the Wood was there along with their rivals at a sister bar in a neighbouring town, celebrating their game (it didn't seem to matter who had won).

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