Cold, endless cold. Snow. And ice storms. You can, with enough gumption, do things in snow and cold. You can only curse ice storms.
Asheville, North Carolina
So when the ice finally melted enough, we immediately headed towards the southeast. Our first stop was Asheville North Carolina, an artsy and (for the South) a relatively progressive community. A pleasant few days where we found a mixture of "Black Lives Matter" and confederate monuments, some Buddhist temples and shuttered Tibetan restaurants. And, to me surprisingly, a very prominently white population, at least in the areas we visited.
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| Basilica of St Lawerence |
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| Well, at least there is no snow here (this week) |
Jonas Gerard is a quite successful artist, at least recently. It appears he started his career in realism and painted some quite touching and effective portraits of his wife, child and friends. He struggled until he splashed random colors on a white canvas and found they sold quickly and easily and at high prices.
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| Jonas' studio |
Further down the street we came across the studio of Daniel McClendon, one of Asheville more successful young artists. Daniel converted a decripit old National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) factory into his gallery. We spent more than half an hour talking to Daniel about his process, his images, his gallery and his family. If I had a much bigger house, I would like some of his work on my walls.
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| Herd by Daniel McClendon |
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| Cyndi's description of me elicits a laugh from Artist McClendon |
Charleston, South Carolina
We then headed for Charleston, where it was warmer by a bit and we managed to miss their bi-decade snowfall by a week. We visited several slave history items where I found the discussion of slavery to be disquietingly neutral. The population we encountered was slightly more diverse than in Asheville but still surprisingly white. Good restaurants, coffee shops. A pretty little downtown that was easily to walk. |
| LOTS of churches in Charleston. They call themselves the Holy City. Well, I lived in Santa Fe for quite a while, so I guess I shouldn't criticize. |
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| Cyndi in the background |
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| This is the new symbol of Charleston. I think the Twenty Teens will be known as the Cable Stay Decade |
There has been a lot of news about the dismantling of Confederate monuments and so I was very surprised to see so many monuments. For each one taken down there are about 1,000 remaining.
Here we see the brave southern boys, so poor they cannot afford clothes and have only their little bitty swords, defending Charleston against the savages from the North. Obviously the Gods are on the side of the South
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| Today the brave sailors of the USS Dated defend Charleston from the invasion of hordes of terrorists. |
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| Cyndi re-enacts our first date |
We took a short tour of a failed plantation, a part of a world where impressing the neighbors was far more important than humanity. Or even more important than wealth.
The docent's presentation continued the very neutral tone I heard when people here discuss slavery but she did try to lead people to the discovery that slavery was loathsome and stupid. The fact that people had to be led to this understanding was loathsome to me.
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| This is actually the rear of the house, built with the sole purpose of impressing people driving to the new country club next door. |
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| No story here, just a mood setter |
Jekyll Island, Georgia
Our next stop was chosen randomly, mainly because it was between Charleston and our destination of Vero Beach. It was a nice choice. Settled by Europeans in the 1700s, home to the rich around 1900 and now a weekend tourist destination. |
| Driftwood Beach. The most romantic beach in the US. I know this is true because the pamphlet said so. |
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| Whelk. I think it is the official state mollusc |
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| Driftwood Lace |
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| As Cyndi walked ahead of me, I was reminded of one of my favorite Shakira song - vidoes: Dia en Enero |
Py
Our new cat, Py, joined us on the trip. Py seemed to enjoy the trip and I could tell he enjoyed the "getting back home" part the best
Py is, of course, why I opened so irrationally. Cats are kind of irrational but Py isn't named after Pi. The origin of his name is
Pyrite, 'cause he has some gold tones and is kind of a fool
Pyewackit, one of Cyndi's favorite movie cats
Python, 'cause his coloring and patterning is sort of python like
Pythagoras, cause he is the hypotenuse of our love triangle
I got about a dozen more of these ... but I'll spare you.
So now I know some of you have masochist tendencies and I don't want to deprive you of enjoying suffering thru my vacation photos, so if you want to see more, check out this photo album.