One thing we’ve heard over and over, “Asheville is weird.”  So far, we’re seeing that - and we’re loving it. Last night we wandered through downtown - and came across someone out for a nighttime stroll with their cat. I grabbed her portrait and smiled - Asheville is starting to feel like home.

There’s a lot to be said about superstitions - even if you find them to be silly, it’s hard to discount them. When we first picked up our van, I wanted to name it “Balaga.” 

Balaga is a small character in War and Peace that has a larger role in the musical Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812  - he’s a troike driver who drives his cart at “madman” speeds, knocking people over and going on great adventures. Balaga didn’t role of the tongue so well, so we settled Vincent VanGo - and after the van broke down 6 days into our ownership, I lovingly renamed Vincent to Vincent VanNoGo.

After the Vincent broke down again, I worried we were tempting fate - perhaps with a name like NoGo, this van wasn’t going to go. We changed his name to Saul Goodvan. The hope was rather transparent: perhaps if his name was Goodvan, he would, in fact, be a good van.

Saul took us through the Pisgah National Forest this weekend - we found waterfalls and sliding rocks and, perhaps most importantly, a deliciously windy road.

I left J at one end of the road and looped down the hill below him, slowly driving by for this perfect photo opportunity - I leaned out to give a cheesy thumbs up.