We leave in less than two weeks.

Today, I got a lot of graphic design work done, like a whole lot. I got some things done around the house.

I researched Butte, MT because we are driving through there. It has cool history. I want to spend a day wondering around checking out the sweet architecture. Here is the Wikipedia article.

Any way, today I also cleared off my flip video camera, & man did we have fun this summer. I got video of us in Mexico, it's so pretty there. I got a couple of cool clips of the cenote (another good google word, amazing swimming on the Yucatán Peninsula.) I got some footage of us picking blueberries & black berries at black balsam on Meg's birthday, Antonio goofing around with a buddy. I need to utube some of it.

In other road trip news, the car is cleaned out and I started to pack. I am working on burning CD's for the car.

Here's the master list of what we are bringing on the trip.

Navigation Stuff

- A new road atlas, maps of Denver, Portland & Seattle

- a navigation system (borrowed from friends, thanks Jon & Hilary!)

Techie Stuff

- my macbook, two ipods with headphones, (one classic filled with tons of music, & my new ipod touch, with games/apps)

- Meg's film camera (rollei medium format), Meg's digital camera, (nikon D300), my flip video camera (mino, not high def)

Clothes & Stuff

- A week's worth of clothes, ranging from tanks tops shorts for exercise, to north face long johns to wear under jeans and big winter coats. It will be nice and cool in Montana. We plan on doing laundry at least once a week.

-three pairs for shoes each. Tennis shoes, nice shoes and car shoes. Specifically for me, Black high top Puma, green low top pumas, and adidas flip flops for me. Meg will bring adidas tennis shoes, flip flops and something else, and probably only wear flip flops unless we are walking. Yes, even if it's 30 degrees outside. She is crazy!

Food & Drink Stuff

-a small cooler, for daily food stops at health food stores, and ice for cold drinks. Dr. Virgil's natural soda. Diet Cola version for Meg, Diet Black Cherry for me. These sodas have no real sugar and no fake sugar. Amazing. Check them out.

- a bunch of gluten free crackers, cheese puffs, nuts, & other gluten free stuff you can't get just any where.

Camping stuff

- camping stuff (tent, sleeping mat for 2, 3 blankets, a sheet, pillows.) We plan on camping for a couple days in the Badlands National Park, in South Dakota.

LSU STUFF

-LSU gear for both of us, plus pom - poms for each of us. There are three games while we are on the road and we don't plan on missing one single second of the games.

Toiletries,

one bag for everyday, then another bag with make-up & fancy hair products.

See the crazy photo of what the packing looks like. I will take more photos as I finish up the packing.

we are both totally stoked for this trip.

old friends & crazy coincidences

So, we have places to stay in Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland and Chicago. We are crashing on a lot of floors, with old friends, and some new ones. My Portland connection is a old college friend, see super old photo, from like 1994 or 95! Thanks to Cathy West for posting. That's Amy right in the middle of the photo. That's me on the far right. Cathy is on the left of Amy. Wow, we look like such little babies. I am very excited to reconnect with Ms. Amy.

My sister just called, as she is in Asheville, having a quick lunch at Early Girl Eatery. She lives in North Carolina & she has the travel bug too. Turns out, she is going to be in Chicago, when we are passing through, in late September. We are often in crazy far away places at the same time. Last time we barely missed each other was in Mexico. She (& my parents) were in Cozumel on Sunday and I was in playa del carmen the night before. We missed hanging out by a few hours.

We are going crash on her Chicago hotel room floor for a day or two. We are also going to search Chicago, high and low for some gluten free deep dish pizza!

The stars are really lining up for this trip!

The Road Trip Plan!

So we know when we are leaving. We leave September 8th. We start the trip from Asheville to St. Louis, Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland, Seattle, Missoula, Yellowstone national park, Badlands National Park (SD), then Chicago, then South Bend, IN (Norte Dame is here, so are a bunch of commissioned photo shoots for Meg, then home to Asheville. We should be back October 1st.

I should be over driving after this one.

researching how to have fun road trip.

Well, as you can see it's been a while since I updated the blog. I have been so busy working I haven't had much time for anything else, besides, my awesome partner Meg, the young man we mentor, Antonio and the king cat of the world Mambo the cat.

The last year as been a rough one. The Oil Spill, a cancelled at the last minute family wedding, the death of a friend's husband, an bout with e-coli, the love of my life being really in pain for weeks and the doctor's could not figure it. You know, that kind of stuff... but I tend to be an optimist. I will likely remember this year, as the Saints won the superbowl, or we decided to go to the 2012 olympics, or 2010 is the year Antonio got into boarding school (we hope this one happens, please cross your fingers, pray, chant, whatever, we will take it) or decided to take an epic "researching fun" road trip with Meg.

Which leads into why I decide to update this blog, about this topic. I believe everyone would be more successful if they followed their heart, and did what they like everyday. It is sort of the Asheville way.

So I am going to document that philosophy in our road trip. For three weeks, on the road, in mostly unfamiliar places, I am going to document how if you following your heart, happiness will follow. If you are happy, you will find success, in life, in love, in business.

We leave September 8th. Our first stop is St. Louis.

So far, we have a new atlas, a new backpack (for computer, cameras, ipods, etc.), and I am working on a menu. I have celiac disease (a gluten allergy, for those of you who have never heard about celiac). I will be documenting how to travel gluten free in addition to having fun.

Alright peeps, happy Monday!