Journey to the Farm

Conway, AR -> Asheville, NC

TN traffic

Eleven hours is a very long time to drive by yourself. This should have been a time that I used to reflect upon my life and miraculously discover I do, in fact, know what I want. Admittedly, this was not the case. Mostly, I just listened to a lot of cds and tried not to drive all over the road while I took pictures in motion. I have come to realize I am bad at reflection. I debate life plans with myself, I make crazy new plans, I plan courses of action if those plans don't work out, but I rarely reflect upon why I chose the plans. Instead I mope and reflect on all the things I did "wrong" that I could have done differently. I need to learn to be more zen and how to truly reflect.

I did have a little time for reflection. The conclusion I came to is that I enjoy the company of my husband, even when we don't have anything to say. I believe that as humans we crave companionship. This can simply mean we prefer to have someone else around, even when we are self-absorbed with reflection, or rocking out to music.

Rainbow!

I enjoyed the weather on the drive. There were many occasions to photograph rainbows, which is a new experience for me. I came to realize just how bad I am at geography on this drive as well. I had no idea that Asheville was in the Smoky Mountains area until I drove through the Smoky Mountains. I had the strong urge to go camping my last two days in town and am still considering it. I think I will ask some couchsurfers if they want to go camp with me. :)

Smoky Mtns

I arrived at the farm where I am staying for at least two nights at 8:30p.m. Eastern time. Just in time for dinner, which was perfect because I was starving. James Case told me that he lived in a community on the farm, but I did not truly understand him until I arrived. There are about 50 long-time residents currently living on the farm in 3 houses. The farm is about 2 acres of cultivated land as well as the surrounding area. The community owns the land and produces vegetables, goats milk and Matté tea. They have many sister communities in 12 different areas of the world; including Spain, France, Brazil and Canada. They are called the 12 Tribes. Everyone who lives on the farm participates in the community: working in the fields, cooking for the residents, teaching the children (of which there are many in the Asheville community, all home-schooled), working as carpenters or mechanics. It's really an amazing system and I am so happy that I've gotten the chance to be a part of that community for a short period of time. This is a rather unique couchsurfing experience because the people that live on the farm are used to strangers passing through as WOOFers (http://www.wwoof.org/). They are also used to people coming to the farm and deciding to stay on as members of the community. It will be interesting to see what my interviewees have to say in relation to the couchsurfing community considering how they are involved with this communal world.