Hi ya'll, greetings from Asheville! Right now we're sitting in Malaprop's Bookstore Cafe. We've explored some of the city so far, which is a really awesome eclectic mix of southern hospitality, granola ladies and gents, and lots of independent art galleries, restaurants, bookstores, and coffeeshops.

AWESOME NEWS:
We raised a total of almost 1100 dollars and more donations are still coming in! Great job, thank you for supporting such a meaningful journey to explore and help a part of our country that's been devastated. Your contributions have already made such a difference and we're so thankful to not only be able to go down and help out, but also to contribute such a substantial amount of money.

We arrived in Asheville last night after driving 9 hours through a few thunderstorms and beautiful, green mountains. When we pulled up to the cute little Cape Cod style house, after first stopping at the wrong house (haha), Kathy and Ron Holland were waiting for us on the front porch, with smiling and welcoming faces. Food was waiting on the table for us, and we talked with them for a while about our lives in college and their family. They jokingly said they were known as the "Holland Inn" because so many travelling people are welcomed in their basement apartment.

We're so excited about the beginning of our trip starting out on a good foot, even though Rachael can't stop coughing due to a deep sinus infection. Shell be ok in a day hopefully :) We'll post pictures of our drive and Asheville so far sometime tomorrow, so stay posted. Tonight we're planning to hit up a discotheque known for its vibrant and unique frequenters -- this should be great fun!


We're out of battery, so we'll post more tomorrow! Thanks for reading, peace love and happiness whoohooo!!

-Jude, Jode, and Rach :)