Well, I say it’s time to hop in the car – not sure how it’s going to turn out. Despite the fact that many families don’t travel over the Independence Day holiday, especially when 1) it’s the middle of the week, 2) gas prices are still high (yes, just because they are down some doesn’t mean they aren’t still way too high), and 3) temps all over the heartland are easily in the hundreds, I suspect that many people will take either the entire week or the two days preceding or after the actual Fourth of July holiday to get a quick road trip in.
In our case, we’re going to visit friends. Yep, we’re going to drive approximately 15 hours one way to attend a four-hour party, then turn around and go home again
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No, we’re fine, thanks. We just have totally lost our minds. Um, why do you ask? 
These friends, however, are pretty awesome. They are Dana Carpender and That Nice Boy She Married. Dana is the author of many (meaning, I haven’t counted, but there are a LOT of them) low carb cookbooks, and has sold more than a million copies of these popular books, all told. I like her cookbooks because first of all, I am a low carb-er, second, I love to cook, and third, Dana cooks a lot like I do.
Dana “whacks” up her vegetables, she “throws” food into the processor, she “plunks” it into the Dutch oven, and best of all, she writes her recipes in an imminently readable style. I never realized how fun it could be to read a recipe, but believe me when I tell you: that’s definitely true of Dana’s recipes. The other great things about Dana are: she never met a stranger, and she knows how to spell. Hey, those are GREAT things!
So, we’re going to visit Dana and Eric, but we will hardly be there alone. We will be two of some fifty guests, also including Jimmy and Christine Moore, Amy and John Dungan, and the party is largely sponsored by Andrew DiMino, of Carbsmart.com. I am not sure whether Andrew will actually be physically there, but I hope so. I need to thank him for not laughing out loud at me when I fell off the iguana statue in Grand Cayman. And there will be many, many more. Some, we already know from the Low Carb Cruises we have taken, and some new friends yet to be met!
We’ll be staying in various iterations of Choice Hotels. What we have found out is: the less expensive the hotel, the more likely they are to have what we need in a room, namely: wireless internet (included in the price, and wireless so we don’t have to “fight” over who gets to go first), a coffeemaker, a refrigerator, and a microwave. I have been known to take my microwave with me, simply so I can eat like I want to eat, because I find it much easier to heat up my own food for at least one meal per day than to buy food I neither need nor want in a restaurant. I will definitely be bringing my little one-serving blender. I have one with me almost everywhere I go. This trip will be no exception.
I was telling hubby a little while ago that this time next week, the party will be all finished (already!) and we’ll be on our way home. Kind of sad, because it’s the first road trip we’ve taken in some 15 years. We’ll be blogging to at least one, maybe more of our blogs. Be sure to check us out on the list to the right – you never know where we’ll show up, but I’ll try to make an appearance and an update on most of my blogs, including this one!
