“I start on July 30th,” I said to Lois.

“Oh.  I’ll be there the week before taking a class – can you get there a little earlier?  We can have dinner at the Copper Door again,” she offered.  Dinner at the Copper Door is not something one turns down.  So though I’m not officially due at the Folk School until July 30, I decided to arrive in Brasstown a couple days earlier.

But where to stay?  At the time, I didn’t know anyone in that area well enough to ask to crash on their couch for a night or two.  So I went to couchsurfing.org.  Turns out there are not one but two people in Brasstown (population 240) that invite strangers into their homes to spend a night or two. I sent off my request, got a response and a few days later was all set.  I know where I’ll be staying the two nights before I start at JCCFS.

Today I solidified the two nights prior to that – I’m staying with a family friend (whom I’ve known since childhood) in Raleigh, NC. Now that that’s all set, I sent off a request to another friend for the two nights prior to that….and on it goes.  So hopefully, in the next couple weeks, I’ll have my whole trip planned – from Staatsburg, NY to Brasstown, NC:)