Rob collected me in his pickup truck. It was a long time since we last saw each other so there was much to catch up on. We drove out of Washington DC on the George Washington Parkway with spectacular views despite the rain. We had lunch at Tyson's Corner in a restaurant called Maggio's. It was great to hear about Rob's news, his family and his dog Safi (a cool biker dog) who has her own twitter account @safidog. I've been in five states in five days. This stat ...

After navigating through Union Station and grabbing a much needed coffee at Pret. I caught a cab to the Renaissance Downtown Washington DC. My room overlooks the Library which is rather splendid. Another room with a view. The city is beautiful. I love the wide tree lined esplanades and classic architecture interspersed with modern buildings.

Always great to try speciality beer from a micro brewery. Lab is a cool trendy bar that brews it's own potions. I tried the Lab IPA (taster size) with some yummy truffle micro fries served with Tabasco ketchup before heading towards an airport hotel for my shuttle to Charlotte at 6pm. It didn't turn up! Yikes. When I called up the owner had made an error and was 2.5 hours away. So my first rescue came early. Rachael & John really stepped up and drove me to C...

Wednesday started out with breakfast at Tupelo Honey Cafe. A queue is always a great sign of good things to come. Still getting used to the mega-portions. Warm biscuits (scones) with the cafe's own Tupelo honey drizzled over, followed by sweet potato pancake with peach butter, pecans and a soysage.

My luxury accommodation courtesy of my hosts Rachael & John. Peppers seem to do really well in their veg patch & Rachael has embraced hill life with pickling the fruits of labour from the patch. The visit was short but sweet before we headed via the Nanthala Gorge for lunch on the way to Asheville. I'll post some photos when I can. The evening was spent at Grove Park Inn starting with cocktails over looking Asheville. Apparently Obama enjoys this venue....