67 hours of driving in 15 days! whoa.

So I added up our miles and hours of driving on the trip. We only had 5 zero mile days on the 20 day trip.

Asheville, NC to Bozeman, MT - 2,012 miles or 1 day, 8 hours of driving (32 hours)

(with stops in St. Louis - Oakley, KS - Denver, CO - Buffalo, WY)

Bozeman, MT to Lakeside, MI - 1,442 miles - 1 day drive (24 hours)

(with stops in West Yellowstone, MT - Livingston, MT - Buffalo, WY - Sioux Falls, SD - Rockford, IL)

Lakeside, MI to Asheville, NC - 661 miles - 11 hour drive.

This trip makes the little drive we do to get down to Baton Rouge seem like a super cake walk. (770 miles - 12 hours)

I am working on a post about the history of Yellowstone, the amazing neon - metal signs of the west and a couple of other random amazing places we passed through on this journey.

Day #18 & #19 & #20, Home, Home, Home at last!

In the afternoon on Saturday, we took a bike ride to a public beach on lake michigan. We loved it. I have on my purple and gold, because it was a game day.

Once we rode back to the cottage, we watched football for the rest day.

On Sunday (day #19) Meg had two photo shoots. One in South Bend, and one in the evening at Warren Dunes State Park. The sunset at the park, was really one of the best I have ever seen. It's number 2 only to a christmas eve sunset in like 1996 in Asheville.

Once we got back to the cottage, we packed the car, and cleaned up around the cottage so we could head home early today.

We left Lakeside, MI at 9 am and arrived home in Asheville at around 8pm. The drive was mostly uneventful today, which was awesome. Driving through the gorge was my favorite part of the drive. I really missed our little green mountains.

After a quick stop at Whole Foods (formerly green life) we rushed home to see our furry boy. He is doing fine and more handsome than when I saw him last. We will see Antonio tomorrow, right after football practice. Meg told him yesterday, he should leave on his football gear, until after we see him. I am going squeeze that little peanut.

After a 67 hour road trip, we are so happy to be home! We did all the driving in 14 days. I will post a mileage-expenses total tomorrow, just for all those math nerds.

I am off to watch Monday night football and sleep in my own bed, with Meggie and Mambo!

Day #17 & Day #18

It's the morning of Day #18 of our trip. The Lakeside, Michigan cottage we are staying in is just amazing. I am not sure I have ever stayed anywhere that was so comfortable, aesthetically pleasing & relaxing all wrapped up in a cute little package. The house is right on the Amtrak line. Trains are going by constantly and as one of the owners said it's part of the charm.

Since we got here on late on Wednesday, we mostly have been chilling out. We have wireless internet (thank god!), cable TV, and our cell phones work just fine... and most importantly we don't have the long list of responsibilities we have at home.

We have been making daily trips to Bud & Elsie's. This is best designed grocery store look I have ever seen. They carry all sorts of gluten free stuff!

I have been able to get caught up on some work things. I am all ready to hit the ground running when we get home early next week.

Here is a list of things we learned on our trip :

1. 14 days of driving in a row, with only two zero mile days are too many.

2. Driving for 5 or more hours a day, does not leave enough energy for camping.

3. Meg & I can handle just about anything together, even the car overheating in yellowstone!

4. We must have internet & TV after a long day in the car.

5. The hotel needs to be clean. Not fancy, just clean. We are in love Fairfield Inn by Marriott. Best hotel rooms ever!

This is a list of things we could not live without on our trip:

1. mio gps system

2. A cooler for gluten free food

3. Health food stores all over the country. (sioux falls, you are the winner, for best staff & best selection!)

4. Good music, our theme song for this trip was Ray LaMontagne, for the summer.

5. Each other. We loved all the time we got to spend together.

Alright, today is game day! LSU plays West Virginia. We get to watch the game here at the cottage! We watched the other LSU games on this trip at Sports Bars, which is kind of fun, but not so much as I can't drink beer anymore (because of the celiac). I pretty much don't really care about drinking if there is no beer involved. Someone out there, please make a gluten free beer that is exactly like Highland Galiac Ale!

We are going on a bike right to the beach this afternoon. Then, it's back to the cottage for a day of football, and getting ready to drive back to Asheville on Monday.

Did I mention this is my idea of a perfect Saturday? Happy Weekend Peeps!

Day #15 & Day #16, there is a bike theme going on here.

Last night before dinner we did a little bike right down to the lake (I almost said beach, because it looks like an ocean it is so big.)

We rode about 1/2 mile to the edge of Lake Michigan. Man, is it a pretty lake! We got off the bikes and walked on the shore's beautiful edge for a few minutes. Then we headed back to the cottage. Meg's bike chain broke, so we made a scarf and a hoodie rope to tie the dead bike to the working one and we took turns towing each other home. This was the most fun thing that happened all day.

We slept great! The house is right on some train tracks that woke Meg up as a few trains went by at night. I didn't hear a single thing. I was out last night. I feel great today. It's SO nice not to be moving and catching up on e-mails, work & personal ones.

Today we checked out the warren dunes state park (near Lakeside, MI, a little bit north) this morning after a little morning latte from the Whistle Stop Cafe. It's super duper cute around here.

We are off for a bike ride this afternoon. Meg will photograph fo' sure. Later taters!

Day #14, #15 & #16

We are in a cottage near Lake Michigan, in Lakeside, MI. We drove here from Rockford this morning. We drove through Chicago. It wasn't far, but it was slow, city going.

Yesterday was a zero mile day. Tomorrow is a zero mile day. I like the sound of that. We rested a lot at our friends house in Rockford. We went for a long walk, we did some laundry. It was really nice to just do regular stuff that didn't involve moving from one place to another.

I rode bikes with their daughter, Spencer, AKA Smoothie, a seven year old skateboard bad ass. Yes, bad ass. You should see her skate. We got to visit the skate park yesterday while she tore it up. We had so much fun. Then we had dinner with our friends. It was a lovely laid back day.

We don't have much going on for the next couple of days... except eat, relax and ride bikes.

I do have a little work to get to this week. I am excited to get back to graphic design projects.

I am looking forward to going home too. I miss Antonio and Mambo so much.

we are turning in early. We want to be rested for all the bicycle fun we are going to have tomorrow.

Day #13 didn't turn out like I thought, but it was still totally awesome.

Well, we thought we were getting married today, but it was going be a pain in the butt. We decided early on this trip that the pain in the butt route, was not for us. So the wedding license was not waiting on us, so we would have had to go through 4 steps instead of one... so instead, we decided to go to lunch in Iowa City, at the New Pioneer Co-op. I had tomato parmesan soup, and a blackened tofu sandwich, (both Gluten Free of course) that was A-mazing. It was by far the best meal of the trip to date.

After we had a great lunch, we drove to Rockford, IL, where we are staying for a the next two nights. We are staying with our friends Amy & Nikki and their two daughters, Halle & Spencer. They are staying with Amy's mom and her hubbie, Peter. It's an awesome house, built in 1854. Amy just made us dinner. Roasted brussels sprouts & quinoa. It's nice to have a homemade meal.

We are currently set up on the couch, watching monday night football (in high def, thank god, how I missed you honey!) We are happy to see people we know & relax for a day until we leave for South Bend, IN on Wednesday. We are planning on stopping in Chicago for gluten free deep dish pizza. Then it's off to South Bend, where we have a cottage on Lake Michigan for five days, then home, sweet, home asheville!

Day #12 & #13, Wedding Day!

Sunday was officially our day off. We slept in until 8:30, then got up at the hotel and did laundry and worked out. We needed to stock up again on food, so we visited a health food store in Sioux Falls. It was a good stop. Gluten Free Burritos!!

Then we drove to Des Moines, Iowa. (Home state of Kate Vermeer Wilson!) We turned in early again (notice the tired theme of the trip, fun is exhausting, but totally worth it).

We are having coffee this morning and getting ready to get married later today! We are driving to Iowa City as soon as we are properly caffeinated. We need a witness for the wedding, so we are going to the book store (Prairie Lights Books) in Iowa City to see if we can find someone willing to go with us to the court house. Wish us luck.

I will post photos later today. Happy Monday!