My travel blog and my academic blog are colliding!
This weekend I’m engaging in what I have heard derided as ‘academic tourism’. While I am committed to the conference’s mission of bringing together people from different, though related, disciplines to talk about the nineteenth century, the fact that it’s being held in Asheville, NC, might have been the decisive factor that made me apply.
Asheville is one of those places that everyone has told us to visit. It’s apparently an interesting, hipster town, full of art and craft breweries. Sadly I don’t think New Belgium has fully opened their new Asheville plant yet, but it doesn’t look like we will be short of alternatives.
I looked into a few travel options, but the cheapest by far was to hire a car and drive. It’s only about 7 hours from DC(!) Luckily it didn’t take much to convince R to join me, so we can share the driving. We’re also taking a slightly longer, scenic route so we can check out some of the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way. There might also be a stop at Chik fil A…
I’m looking forward to this conference, and we’re both looking forward to being back on the road again!
Read the next instalment of this road trip blog: Asheville road trip: the Blue Ridge Mountains
26 Months in DC 
Academic tourism is fine. How else would we pick up those ‘My friend went to a conference and all I got was this Dickens t-shirt’ souvenirs?
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Oh, that’s the best form of tourism! Your reward for going to work somewhere else for a few days is the chance to explore somewhere new. What could be better?
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Love the idea of the conference being “only seven hours’ drive from DC. In the home country you would have said “My God! It’s seven hours drive from London!!!
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I know! My ideas of distance have certainly changed since living out here. I’m hoping this change in attitude will lead to more short trips in the UK when we get home.
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