writing this down so i will remember my favorite moment from this day!

we were in heavy traffic, approaching knoxville. we knew we were about ten miles behind the caravan.

then, much too early, dan said, "is that a bug"?

i hadn't noticed it because that bug happened to be towing a trailer. but as soon as i understood what i was seeing, i knew just who it was.

i was in the passenger seat, dan was driving, and we were about to pull up on their left. fortunately, these folks almost always run with the windows down and a/c off.

we pulled up alongside, i rolled down my window, and in the middle of a traffic jam on a huge interstate at a random point in tenessee, i yelled, "HEEEYYY!"

beej was driving-- she whipped her head around. i could see the comprehension take a moment on her face, and then she said, "HEY!!!" and we both started laughing.

Lisa has taken over driving the last leg of the first day, so I'm taking it easy in the passenger seat for now. I'm learning how the cam stuff works, or at least how to trouble shoot problems. So far the connection has only hiccupped once when adding cars to the "March."

We're about two hours outside of Nashville, our end location for the day, and so far the word of the day has been rain, rain, rain. Right now we're under some clouds, but hopefully the rain for the day is over.

In any case, my birthday has been good, thanks for all the birthday wishes! :) Spending time on a road trip in a bug with bug people has definitely made it memorable!

we got started about 30 minutes late; got a text from the folks coming down from virginia saying they are also running 30m late, so that's perfect! hopefully we'll be meeting them in knoxville at 4:30pm.

i'm starving, i can't wait til i am sitting in front of a big ol' calzone at the mellow mushroom!!

Destination: Nashville! whee

errands to run this morning (if dan ever gets out of bed! dude, wake up!! oh, wait, supposed to be nice to dan today...) my new windshield wipers turned out to be pieces of crap that have left residue all over the windshield, so we're looking for new wipers and some goo-gone.

we're heading out to asheville at 11am-ish and will start the cams then. we'll stop for lunch at our favorite place-- the mellow mushroom. then we'll proceed to knoxville where we'll hopefully merge with the main caravan at 4pm.

remember... we always lose phone coverage after asheville, in the mountains so the cams will go offline during that time. however, due to our extreme cleverness this year, you will automatically be treated to a slideshow of the day's cam action during the time we are offline. that is, if our code works. (crosses fingers...)

yes, that's right, team allpods just got a little bit older... it's dan's birthday today and he's all of 26! who-hoo!

i guess that means i have to be nice to him all day...