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Asheville, NC is an artistic community, and we managed to see dozens of sculptures around town during our short time in the area. Only afterward we found out that the sculptures were part of the ‘Urban Trail’, an art trail created during the early 1990s to improve the town’s image through the display of public art. Visitors can actually follow the 1.7 mile trail while listening to a self-guided tour that explains the story behind each exhibit, each one representing history, culture and people of Asheville. Along the way, you pass pigs and turkeys, a bronze fiddler, a cat and an eagle. The young girl drinking from the horse-head fountain is supposed to resemble the childhood of Asheville’s older generations who might have drunk from a similar fountain back in the day.
The purpose of the road trip was to learn as much about parts of the U.S. as possible – we wanted to focus on getting to know the local cultures that exist from New York to New Orleans and nearly everywhere in between. 
We have taken three major road trips in the U.S.: from New York to Chicago, through the Southwest in 2010 and NYC2NOLA 2011, have visited 25 states in total together, and have seen this familiar pattern unfold in each location. With the exception of our pre-planned destination cities like 
We had been very excited to hit the beaches of North Carolina, but Hurricane Irene forced us to flee westward, and to be sure to escape the storm entirely, we crossed into the Blue Ridge Mountains toward Asheville, NC. The town came as a recommendation by many people, so we drove all day away from pounding rain and into the shining sun, only exiting Interstate 40 past 8pm.
We browsed through an independent bookstore after where we held at least twenty books in our hands we wanted to buy. There are local pottery shops, homemade ice cream dealers, yoga centers. It seemed that in Asheville, people’s passions become their work.
The people of Asheville work at creating an environment where locally-owned small shops thrive, so that the owners can live comfortable lives doing what they love. Through these independent shops, the people in Asheville have an independence we have rarely seen in many parts of the U.S. This has inspired us to (at least slightly) retract our doubts that the famous entrepreneurial spirit in America has been entirely muscled out and provided us with a new hope that if enough people want something, they can take action and create independence through independent businesses.
Today was one of those deliciously perfect road trip days. The ominous clouds hanging over DC and Alexandria very quickly gave way to sunny skies, just as gentle green hills rolled up on either side of us. We sang to old school classic rap on the satellite radio and stopped off at the classic American roadside restaurant Cracker Barrell, where Dani had uh-mazing Cherry French Toast.
Despite passing by the Bristol Motor Speedway, which is hosting a major Nascar race event, there were almost no cars on the road with us as we weaved and curved through the Blue Ridge Mountains, stopping off at viewpoints as they came up along the highway.
