Durham, NC-Asheville, NC 10/26 250 driving miles; 3.67 walking miles

The compass read North and West today for about 250 miles. I think Key West has moved to somewhere near the Blue Ridge Parkway. We drove in constant drizzle most of the day. The temperature also dropped into the low fifties. Hoping against hope, we still made our way to Lake Lure and Chimney Rock State Park. Once there, just the bottom half of the rock was visible under the misty clouds. We decided not to climb it in the rain and pushed on to Asheville. Ed started rethinking his plan immediately, which will bring us back to Chimney Rock on Friday when the weather changes. Judging from our incredibly awesome drive through the mountains into Asheville (Even through the drizzle the colors were stunning), the view will be worth it. We checked into our motel and made our way to the Art District near downtown. We beared up under the cold rain long enough to realize that it's way cool. We visited three or four galleries of the nearly 250 artists in residence, and had a nice chat with our "best" human of the day, artist Grace Carol Bomer. Grace, a painter/philosopher/spiritual expressionist  who has lived in Asheville since 1981 and her vivacious manner completely disarmed us. When we roll back through Asheville, we'll explore the district more fully. In the meantime, we're hunkering down while Ed works out the re-route. All I can say is life is good, especially today in the rain.

Lake Lure swimming beach.

A taste of the mountain color.

Chimney Rock. We'll be back.

We only visited three galleries today, but they all seem to be working spaces as well as retail spaces.

From painters to potters to sculptors and more.

Grace Carol Bomer: painter, philosopher, believer, and "best" human we met today.

Street sculpture.

Food sculpture. No, wait that's my sushi dinner.