RIVER ARTS DISTRICT
This week, in the middle of winter, the temperature has gotten up to 70 in the middle of the day. When the polar vortex sweeps down from the North Pole the temperature goes below freezing, but when it wanders away and balmy winds come up from the Gulf of Mexico winter in Asheville turns into summer.
That is the way it was on Friday. So Susie and Todd invited me to go for a walk along the French Broad River and then to eat at The Wedge, a brewery in the River Arts District where this evening a food truck, El Kimchi: Korean Barbecue and Mexican Goodness, served food. A different truck, a different kind of food from a different land, is there every evening.
The River Arts District was once Asheville’s industrial center by railway tracks that ran along the French Broad through the mountains to Tennessee and on to the Mississippi.
As the industrial buildings were being abandoned they were turned into artists studios. Some of the abandoned buildings, painted by graffitti artists, including honoring Blacks killed through racial injustice, as the River Arts District slowly turns into a more upscale place to walk or walk dogs or ride bicycles along the river. The food was delicious and it was a beautiful summer evening in the middle of winter. The cold will return next week.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 