Road Trip, Part Two.

A few of you knew where Michelle and I were going this weekend. (You're so good at keeping secrets; I'm impressed!)

I'll have you know that I was the one with the map, and we still made it to our destination (with a wee little bit of help from our hosts).

FYI, the mountains of Virginia prevent many cell phones from getting a signal. Definitely a hazard when you are driving in the drizzly, foggy, dark of night without any idea of the exact address of said hosts.

The following post is proof that the people you meet in blogland can be exactly what you imagined, when you meet them in real life...



Yep, that's right, we went to Lulaville! Several months ago, Lula and I were talking about how close we live to each other (less than 5 hours away), and how awesome it would be to get together and discuss all things Twilight, eat pumpkin crisp, and generally just have a good time. We looked at our calendars, set a travel date, then counted down the days until November 7th. My big sis, Michelle, is such a good sport; when I called her and shouted "we're going to Lulaville!", she simply asked "when?" and stated "I'm driving this time", and that was that. This past Friday, we loaded up into her car and made the trek to...


Rite-Aid. Yep, we were a tad bit lost (on the right track, just didn't have all the little rural road names leading to Lula's house). So we pulled over at a local church and called Lula; her sweet hubby tried to talk us the rest of the way, but my phone kept cutting out, so he told us to get to the Rite-Aid and just wait there for our "knight-ess in shining armor"...Lula.

Once we arrived, we giggled and laughed and screamed like school girls, staying up 'til 2am before we crashed in the guest room. Lula's so darn sweet; she even bought us new pillows to sleep on (we won't discuss what happened to the old ones, okay?).

The next morning, Michelle and I were so excited to meet Lula's little girls. We had brought a couple of little gifts for them, and I know Lula was very pleased with the Play-Doh we gave Caroline (every mom loves Play-doh, right? all those little pieces of dough smushed into the chairs and rugs and clothes...sorry, Lula).

I had a great time making shells and pearls and faces with Caroline...

After Caroline went down for a nap, Michelle and I went outside with Libbey to blow bubbles and take a walk. Her southern accent is the most adorable thing I have ever heard. We had the best conversation...I don't even remember what we discussed; I was just enamored with her delightful drawl (Georgian/Virginian/southern belle). I wanted to bring her home with me!

Lula kept insisting that there wasn't much to do in her neck of the woods. I beg to differ. We had the BEST time admiring the beautiful mountain views, eating pumpkin crisp, taking pictures of pumpkin crisp, planning to blog about eating pumpkin crisp...

...making the (curvy, speedy, race-car-driving) drive to Kingsport for dinner and a fun night at Food City...

...having way too much fun at said Food City...

...modeling with cases of (inappropriate) beer...

...driving home after visiting the transvestites at Starbucks, jamming to Lula's Ipod tunes, drinking ourselves silly on Mike's Pomegranate Lemonade and Bud Light Lime...

...learning how to ROCK OUT on xbox Rock Band with Lula and Scott...

...surprising myself with my awesome talent on the drums...

...saying "that's what she said" about a hundred times, cracking up EVERY time...

...staying up until 2am again, im'ing with Lizzy and laughing hysterically at certain Youtube videos...

(okay, Lula, you win, I took that picture out...you are so silly, you're gorgeous, and yes, that is what she said)

...eating ourselves silly on more pumpkin crisp, Fritos with "crack dip" and Becky's apple cake...

...visiting, talking, singing, laughing some more, becoming even better friends than we were before.

Lula, thank you so much for being such a gracious (hilarious) hostess. Thanks for making sure I woke up in time today (thank Charlie for me, too). Thanks for sharing your home, your family, and most of all, your friendship with us. I can't wait to show you our part of the country someday soon!

(Oh, and if you get a phone call from some of the locals, wondering what those crazy girls from Ohio were doing down in town, here's a picture...)

We just had to get a picture next to the sign. I'm sure some folks thought we were cray-zee. Mmm...they might be right. But hey, we all had a great time, right?