(Top) Hurricane Florence as viewed from Space! (Bottom) Our new kittens trying to recreate the spin of Hurricane Florence through a modern dance move.
By the admirable “Crichton”
A supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again!
(A road trip from NYC to Asheville, NC and Back during a Hurricane)
My husband and I were married on September 8th, 2012. We heard about a sister/brother pair of rescue kittens needing adoption, which were saved off the side of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. For our six-year anniversary, we decided to expand our family by adopting these two beautiful kittens. We loved the idea of taking an epic journey to collect our new family members and visiting some close friends in NJ, VA, and NC along the way.
It is the timing of this road trip that makes it most interesting. All of our plans were made and the couch surfing all set up, then hurricane Florence rose up out of the Atlantic Ocean and the models tracked its path as heading directly for Asheville, North Carolina, our destination. Our pivot then became, how to drive down to Ashville, before the slow-moving storm arrived, collect the kittens, see our amazing friends and make the return trip back to NYC, safe and dry. It sounds crazy, but we were driving into a hurricane!
Below is the story of our journey.
Day 1 / Saturday, September 8, 2018
Our Anniversary.
We went out to dinner at “Pietro Nolita” in Manhattan, the whole place is pink. We ate fresh pasta and enjoyed their well-made drinks.
Day 2 / Sunday, September 9, 2018
Chinatown, NYC.
We met our artist friend Isolde at a Chinatown coffee shop. She has a show coming up in a gallery along the Highline. We recommend these small coffee shops in Chinatown, the total for all three drinks was $4.00 and the environment, wonderfully authentic.
We collected some of my favorite candies, White Rabbits, at a Chinese grocer.
And purchased some Chinese Medicine to help with colds in the impending winter.
Then we went to a Chinese American Dollar Store where I picked out some buttons for a friend.
When we checked on the weather we heard a hurricane was coming and expected to make landfall in the direction we were headed. We had a choice to make, drive into the storm, try to beat it, or wait it out and get the kittens after everything had settled. My husband had already taken time-off from work, we had made all these plans with our friends, and we felt that if we timed it right we could outrun the storm. After some consideration, it was the bet we took. Our artist friend gave us a copy of the David Foster Wallace book, A supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again, it seemed appropriate for the journey we were about to make.
Day 3 / Monday, September 10, 2018
Lambertville NJ
We drove to Lambertville to visit our friends Lauren and Danny. They have two dogs, three cats, and forty chickens.
Here are two of the cats sleeping in flowerpots.
We fed the chickens corn, right out of our hands.
One of Lauren’s favorite chickens is “BabyGrandma.”
Here I am holding “BabyGrandma.”
It was almost time for elections in NYC, so it felt fitting to see this sign hung in their bathroom.
Danny installs solar panels and he showed us the device he uses to detect sun, year round.
Day 4 / Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Driving to Farmville, VA.
A praying mantis we saw at a gas station in Maryland.
Day 5 / Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Farmville, VA.
In Farmville, we had delicious food. We went out to Macado’s for sandwiches and fried green tomatoes, and to One19 for burgers, tacos, and spicy margaritas. We had great views on top of the Hotel Weyanoke where we tried local beers, after having tasted the new Hefeweizen at Third Street Brewery.
Here is our friend Steve at the Hotel Weyanoke rooftop bar.
We visited the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts where we saw two shows, A Shared Legacy: Folk Art in America and LeUyen Pham: There’s No Such Thing as Little.
We also visited The Robert Russa Moton Museum, which was the birthplace of the Student Civil Rights Movement.
In 1939 the Moton School was built as an all-black school to hold 150 students, but by the 1950s the number of students had climbed to over 400. The school was so overcrowded they held classes in busses and held three classes at a time in the auditorium. For extra classrooms hey also built chicken wire and tar paper shacks, normally these construction materials were only used to build chicken coops. While down the road the all-white school had fully equipped classrooms with plenty of space for their students. The busses for Moton students were handed down after they were retired from the white school. In March of 1951, one of those buses broke down on a railroad track and was hit by a train, killing five Moton students. One of the victims was a best friend of Barbara Johns, aged 16.
On April 23, 1951 Barbara organized a student strike, demanding better conditions for the students at Moton.
In the auditorium that day Barbara Johns spoke with a fervor, banging her shoe on the podium as she addressed her schoolmates, convincing them with her speech to follow her out of the school. Barbara, with other students, marched down Main Street in an attempt to meet with the school board superintendent, as the white shop owners watched, speechless. That afternoon Barbara called Oliver Hill of the NAACP, two weeks later he took the case and the students returned to their run-down school. After securing legal support with the NAACP, the Moton students filed Davis v. Prince Edward County, as the largest and only student-initiated case consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.
For her part in the integration movement, Barbara Johns was harassed and the KKK burned a cross in her yard. She moved to Montgomery AL to live with her uncle for safety. The Supreme Court sided with Brown in 1954, ruling that segregating schools by race was unconstitutional.
Below is our friend Steve standing next to the picture of his French teacher inside his fifth-grade classroom ar Morton, now converted into part of the museum. The Morton School evolved into a mixed race school after desegregation in the late 1960’s.
Day 6 / Thursday, September 13, 2018
Black Mountain, NC.
Driving away from the site of Black Mountain College.
Historic Photos of Black Mountain College.
“We do not always create works of art, but rather experiments. It’s not our intention to fill museums, we are gathering experience.” – Josef Albers
Black Mountain College was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice Jr. with the idea of art being the center of its education. He felt art was a vital force to education because it taught observation, judgment, and action. Black Mountain College had no grades, no required courses, no fees, and you graduated when you wanted. Life and education were combined as students and teachers lived together, worked together, ate meals together, and ran the farm together.
Some of the most influential artists and creators of the 20th century either taught or attended school at Black Mountain. Students and teachers include Josef and Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Walter Gropius, Robert Motherwell, Dorothea Rockburne, Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Buckminster Fuller, Franz Kline, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, John Chamberlin, Kenneth Noland, James Bishop, Robert Duncan, Charels Olson, among others. Guest lecturers included Albert Einstein and William Carlos Williams.
John Cage created Theater Piece No. 1 in the dining hall with Robert Rauschenberg, Franz Kline, Merce Cunningham, David Tudor, and Charles Olsen, it is considered to be the first happening and one of the first works of performance art.
Though it closed in 1957, the school encouraged the idea of art as social practice and its influence has lasted for generations.
Day 7 / Friday, September 14, 2018
Waynesville, NC. Driving to Leicester, NC., and back Waynesville, NC.
Our friend Julia welcomed us into her home in Waynesville.
Where she lives with her dog Chance.
View of the mountains covered in clouds here.
We drove on to Leicester, NC to pick-up the kittens. The road through the Blue Ridge Mountains was nicknamed “The Rattler” by bikers, for its many curves.
Driving into the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The road to Mary and Clark’s house, to pick up the kittens.
Mary and Clark rescue kittens, out of the kindness of their hearts. They live in a converted log cabin.
Into a log above the window, the original builders carved their initials and the date they finished, 1888.
The log cabin was built by these two men.
Mary and Clark were such good people.
After meeting us, they allowed us to adopt the rescue kittens. – We will give them a wonderful home.
The kittens were sick with an upper respiratory infection which can kill full grown cats, and kittens are in greater danger. Mary had hoped that we could postpone leaving, so she could nurse them back to health, but we there was this hurricane barreling heading directly toward us. So we put our two lovely, but sick, kittens into the pet carrier and got back on the road.
The boy kitten couldn’t breathe out of his nose because of the infection, and when cats can’t smell, they don’t eat or drink – so we worried most about him.
On the way out of the mountains, we saw a momma black bear and her cubs on the road.
Day 8 / Saturday, September 15, 2018
Waynesville to Farmville.
We drove into Farmville, just as the leading edge of the hurricane arrived. The blue dot on this map was our car.
The kittens slept in their carrier for the whole ride back to NYC.
We took a northern route that added an hour on to the drive but kept us out of most of the storm. We only had to deal with the stormy wind and rain for about three hours, from then on it was overcast but clear. We had outrun the slow-moving storm.
We slept in Farmville and drove home the next day, with only overcast skies.
The kittens are beautiful, safe, and after a few trips to the vet are well, enjoying their new family and we are head-over- heels in love with them!
(Source: Crichton Atkinson is a Writer and Director / Film, Video and Theater – based out of New York City and Madison, Connecticut – CrichtonAtkinson.com)
NY’s own Hurricane Kitty Beer!
HURRICANE KITTY – 6% ABV COPPER IPA – Keegan Ales – A Regional Upstate NY Brewery
A heavily hopped India Pale Ale, Hurricane Kitty packs an aggressive floral character and maintains balance with a strong malt backbone. The use of caramel malts creates its copper hue and slight toffee notes. The generous use of Cascade and Columbus hops brings forth a piney aroma and noticeable bitterness.
This beer is named after brewmaster, Tommy Keegan’s grandmother, whose driving earned her a reputation with local police during the ’60s. We try to make the hop bill read as aggressively as her driver’s record. Hurricane Kitty is the undisputed family favorite.
Keegan Ales was founded in early 2003 when Tommy Keegan learned about an empty building in Kingston, New York that nobody would buy because there was a defunct brewery stuck in it!
For more interesting stories- visit ArtsandFood.com
