Derek & Anlee Fekkes: 1 car, 2 love birds and 4,000 miles of highway

We tried to take a sign of each State Welcome board.

End of September - starting the road-trip of a lifetime.
6:30pm - We pull out of the driveway after a lovely baby shower for my sista-in-law and a surprise visit with my best friend (since kindergarten). We have sandwiches, the two of us, a full tank of gas and a loaded down car that you can't see out of the back window. But, I missed saying goodbye to Josh, my brother. So, detour...we go to Josh's work for one last hug and a chance to say goodbye. Then, we take the long route...woops. Our first interstate is I20. For the next 4 hours, we drove on and on crossing the world's tackiest tourist attraction, "South of the Border." (Reggie, just for you!) We merge onto I95 as the sun sets for the next 3 hours. Derek is the captain on board, but his second-in-command, moi, takes the control of the deck for the last 45 minutes. My grandpa greets us at 2:00am and we crash for the night. Sunday morning and I go on a ride with grandpa to McDonald's for breakfast sandwiches! Church, tailgate, and dinner with the family. Amazing. I have a pretty amazing Griffin clan in North Carolina. I don't get to see them as much as I would like, but it's a blessing when I can. Sharing Derek with them was amazing! A little weird to sleep in the same room (even though he is my husband) at my grandpa's house! Sweet Jo made us biscuits and gravy and chicken and dumplings! (My favorites of her's) and we played with the sweet cousins who were in our wedding. (Forgot to take pictures, unfortunately.)

6am - leaving North Carolina - destination Chicago
We left bright and early and started our 14 hour drive to the Grants, in Chicago. Derek drove the entire way (I think). We arrived at 9pm after several detours and a lot of weaving in and out of Ohio and Kentucky. The winner of best "rest stop" goes to West Virginia. Their rest stops not only have the most amazing scenery, but also come with indoor restrooms, Starbucks and art shops!

Raleigh-Durham

Virginia...ohhh I could move here! Nat, we could be sheep farmers!

Welcome again...like I said we wove in and out of Ohio.

Ohio River, but I just love the lines in this photo.

Cincinnati, Ohio

Boring state of endless corn fields goes to...

Chicago in the rain!

Laura and sweet baby David.

In Chicago, we had a great time with the Grants. Derek went to Belmont (University) with these two. We had a great time getting to know their son, David. Laura took us into the city on the train, walked around downtown and took us to the park to see "the bean."

The Bean, a giant mirrored orb that reflects the skyline.

the bean

Old, new, tall, short, fat, thin...oh man!

Derek and Willis Tower

At this point I said, "Hey, I guess we should eat a hot dog, huh." Derek looked at me stunned! (I DO NOT eat hot dogs!) So, he got on my iphone, looked up reviews for the best hot dog in Chicago, put it in google maps, used the GPS on the phone and 10 blocks to the east and 5 to the north later we were eating hot dogs!

Sun flowers...dead sun flowers

Yep, I ate Jimmy Johns in almost every state! Thank you google and GPS!

While this looks like sunset, it is most definitely sunrise!

Fargo
We left Chicago bright and early and drove 8-10 hours to Fargo to visit my best friend and college roommate, Natalie, aka: Natters, NatNat, Nattylite, Nattynatnat, etc. So good to see her after a year and hundreds of skype calls. Nat had a fun weekend planned for us and is responsible for some of our weight gain. But, I picked up bronchitis from the Grants in Chicago so I wasn't the most fun ever! We went to a pumpkin patch/corn maze and left Derek at Starbucks so we could have some girl time. Too short of a weekend for my Natters, but still amazing! And Fargo is a fun little town.