Facts and Feelings at 7.5 weeks - from Sioux City, IA

• We have driven 9,700 miles and taken 1,225 pictures
• The mundane but important
• We got our car serviced by Barry Beck in Leola, PA
• Lee got a haircut at L & M in Goshen, IN
• Rob got a buzz at Scott's Barbershop in Goshen, IN
• Friends make doing our laundry easy
• We buy a bag of ice a day
• We love Wikipedia
• We are not homesick - but we are having more conversations about, "after we get home..."
• Erin is flying back to Seattle today
• Heather and Will are finding out the sex of their baby today
• We would be totally cranky if we didn't have air conditioning in our car
• Our first week in California seems like a really long time ago
• We hope we don't run into Bonnie and Clyde in Yellowstone
• The adventures of Lisbeth Salander have been entertaining us for weeks 
• We have had the best run at missing bad weather
• 9:35am - daily departure time (sort of)
  

Good Friends in the Midwest

The last five days or so we had the pleasure of visiting with people we don't get to see often enough.  Good friends who make life rich.

Susie and Denny in St. Louis

Jesse, Journey and Syndy in St. Joseph, IL

Dennis in Champaign, IL

Paula, Patricia and Pete in Elkhart and Goshen, IN

We Pause for an Important Announcement...

We are going to be GRANDPARENTS!  Yup, Heather and Will are having a baby in mid-January 2011.  They shared the happy news with the family when we were all down the shore.  So, word is out and now we can shout about it too!  We are very happy for Heather and Will and very excited about having a grandchild in our lives!  Check out the belly...

The beginning of Phase III - Going Back

We are back on the road.  Have been since Monday morning.  I am writing from Nashville on Thursday morning. 

After a fun week down the shore, we said our multiple goodbyes to our families. On Saturday we visited Rob's hometown, Kearny NJ, and then delivered Heather, Will and Rob's cousin John Murray from Scotland to the Newark Airport for their flights home.  We spent Saturday night in northwest NJ with Rob's sister and family and Sunday night with Lee's parents in PA.  For dinner on Sunday night, the Zimmerman gang went out to the Horse Inn (a family tradition) in Lancaster, PA to celebrate Lee's mother's 77th birthday.  Erin remains on the east coast visiting friends in DC and Harrisonburg.  She will beat us back to Seattle by about 10 days as she is flying home on August 18th.

So, we spent the first part of this week in Virginia and North Carolina, driving parts of the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway.  We stayed in Asheville and Nashville.  Today we are driving to St. Louis to visit the Clancy family - Rob hasn't seen Denny in over 25 years!

Below are some photos from the last few days.

Skyline Drive - we got on east of Harrisonburg, VA

Blue Ridge Mountains

Blue Ridge Parkway - we got on just north of the VA/NC border

Blue Ridge Music Center - some great pickin'

More Blue Ridge Beauty

A Bed of Roses - our B&B in Asheville

A great little town full of art and good food!

Our hotel in Nashville

Union Station - a hotel located in the old train station - historic preservation

A totally worthwhile splurge for us!

The Station Inn

Look closely - that's John Haitt in the back!

We wandered into this music venue completely unaware that they were hosting a benefit evening featuring accomplished singer-songwriters and their talented kids.  We listened to John & Lilly Haitt, Ranger Doug & James Green, Gail Davies & Chris Scruggs, Gary & Luke Nicholson along with special guest Delbert McClinton.  We heard old standards, new works and some fantastic yodeling.  A real treat.

The Jersey Shore Gang

Here we are.  Well, almost all of us.

Down the Shore - Brandt Beach, Long Beach Island, NJ

It's Tuesday and we are a few days into sun, sand and sea fun with our families.  The weather and surf have been great.  Our family swims and beach time and meals and hanging out have been so fun and so special.  Below are a few pictures.  I will likely post more later in the week.

 Long Beach Island, NJ!

Our Beach House

Monday on the Beach - practically the whole gang

Breakfast with the Zimmerman Cousins

Will, Rob, Lee, Erin, Eric, Erika, Sarah, Steven, Heather

Almost all the Murray Women

Pat, Margaret, Lee, Heather, Erin, Jamie, Barbra

Almost all the Murray Men

Brian, Al, Rob, David, Will, John, Luke, Ted, Sam, John

 Mini-golf with the Z's - a family tradition

Southeast Atlantic Coast - the Lowcountry

We are in Durham with Rob's brother Brian and his family - Barbra, Luke and Jamie.  We'll be here for three days and then will be off to PA and NJ to be with more family.  So, we have begun the second phase of our journey - family time!  It is kind of bittersweet to leave phase one behind - the "getting to."  However, we are very happy to be with our families and anticipate with pleasure our upcoming week on Long Beach Island, NJ with both the Zimmerman and the Murray sides of the family - about 30 of us in all, including 3 cousins from Scotland!  We'll be swimming and sunning and laughing and eating and playing mini-golf and, and, and...!  Erin is back from her year in Central America and joining us.  Heather and Will are flying in to be with us as well. 

On our way here from the Gulf Coast we visited Savannah and Charleston.  We camped for two nights outside of Savannah at Skidaway Island State Park.  We had our first encounter with a significant mosquito population.  We swam at Tybee Island, GA, Hunting Island, SC and Huntington Beach, SC.  We stayed in a hotel in Charleston (the air conditioning was very welcome after sweltering in our tent for 2 nights!)  We voted Charleston our favorite city of all those that we have visited thus far.  Such a beautiful place.  Below are a few photos to document our time in the Lowcountry.

Rob and I have both recently read Pat Conroy's latest novel, South of Broad.  And I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt over the time we were in Savannah and Charleston.  Not a coincidence.

 In one of the many squares in Savannah - ubiquitous Spanish Moss.  We didn't take many photos of the incredible homes because most of them were obscured by the abundant foliage.

The underrepresented side of James Oglethorpe, the founder and architect of Savannah.

Our campsite in Skidaway State Park.  You can't see the mosquitoes, but they are there!  And, the night time low temperature might have gotten to 85 degrees.  A memorable time.

Hunting Island, SC

Charleston waterfront

One of the many incredible homes south of Broad in Charleston

On the way to Huntington Beach - Lowcountry marsh

This is Rebecca.  We bought several of her baskets at her stand along the Sweetgrass Basketmaker's Highway (Route 17 north of Charleston).  This basketmaking is a 400-year-old craft brought here by slaves from West Africa.  The lowcountry African American population call themselves the Gullah.