SidheRa's brother is getting married, and all of the bride-to-be's family lives in CO. So we're taking the opportunity to make it a road trip!

Trip begins 22 June 2011. Rehearsal dinner is 24 June, and wedding is 25 June. After that, we're on our own until a few days after Independence Day!

Here's the grand view.

Some useful things for food prep (snacks, meals):

• No-bake protein bars courtesy of KamiLaBerge: 4 scoops choc protein powder, 2/3 cup flax seed meal, 4tbsp peanut butter, 2tbsp honey, 3/4 cup h2o. Mix & harden in fridge

Side A

Raleigh, NC to Longmont, CO (northeast of Boulder) in the shortest possible time. Google Maps says 27 hours. Can we do it?

Sights will include the Arch of St. Louis, the rolling plains of Kansas, and many gas station bathrooms.

Pit stops: Higginsville, MO

Side B

Longmont, CO to Raleigh, NC in the span of about a week. Lots of time for checking stuff out along the way. Via The Grand Canyon's north rim! It's a 24-hour detour but it puts us on Rt. 40 heading east and we can say we have been in six more states :-D

Colorado:

• Rocky Mountain National Park, duh

Utah:

• Zion National Park?

Arizona:

• The North Rim of the Grand Canyon

New Mexico:

• Four Corners Monument (AKA Rome, the 4-State Capital)

• Roswell!

  • Apparently there's a UFO Festival happening over Independence Day weekend. It is SO on.

North Texas:

Oklahoma:

• OKC memorial

Arkansas:

Tennessee:

• The Parthenon (Nashville)

• friends in Nashville

North Carolina:

• Asheville
  • Downtown Asheville is cute, walkable.

  • Penland School of Crafts is pretty neat, surrounded by lots of local crafters. Lovely views, good (tiny) cafe.

  • Biltmore Estate is cool, worth seeing once, but expensive & sometimes crowded.

  • Tupelo Honey Cafe - tofu hot wings

• Mount Mitchell? Or Grandfather Mountain?