steve and becky's extended future inside a subaru forester

we are headed back to the lakes y'all!

it's pretty hard to believe, but we've officially lived in houston for a solid 13 months now.  there's lots to love (frost-free winter and cheap groceries) and some stuff we might not really say we love (dear houston:  zoning laws exist for a reason, and jungle animals are not pets).  but the fact remains for all our road trips exploring texas, we genuinely haven't been north of college station since attending my cousin's kzoo wedding in october 2014!

one of the big bummers about our drive down when we moved here was that it was, well... moving.  we drove in separate cars, steve dragging our uhaul, and i attempting to keep the cat from getting stuck between all the junk we had packed in the cab of my car.  the only chances we had to talk about the landscape comprised of angry discussions about last minute lane changes in memphis and my unwillingness to eat church's chicken in the middle of arkansas.

labor day weekend, however, we will embark on a road trip twice as extreme (literally the round trip version of our drive from ann arbor to htown).  we're so excited for our first big trip since greece and can't wait to see everyone we're missing up north!  here's a look at what we're doing:

 saturday, september 5, 2015

drive from houston to the vibrant city of poplar bluff, missouri

sunday, september 6, 2015

drive from poplar bluff, missouri to steven's point, wisconsin... where....

our bffs, the new MR. AND MRS. John and Saki L. are currently living!!  John and Saki eloped in july and ever since we have been dying to celebrate with them (and, of course, we've been dying to see them ever since we moved)!  we'll be spending all of labor day up in wisconsin with them; long weekends rule!

tuesday, september 8, 2015

leave steven's point, wisconsin and drive to kalamazoo, michigan!!  with luck we might be able to say hello to some of our chicago friends on the way.

throughout the week we'll be visiting with family, chasing down our friends spread across the state, and definitely going to lake michigan!

friday, september 11, 2015

friday evening we'll head to ann arbor in anticipation of the first home football game the following day.  after a couple of attempts to book a place via airbnb, only to have 3 owners cancel my reservation and take weeks to refund my payment, (it is written:  becky is NOT impressed with her first airbnb venture) we ultimately opted to get a hotel in livonia, where the radius of the football-weekend hotel room price gauge ended.

sunday, september 13, 2015
it's our first anniversary! awww!  (which means it's nobody's business where we'll be or what we'll be doing so let's carry on)

monday, september 14, 2015
drive to birmingham alabama

tuesday september 15, 2015
drive from birmingham alabama to houston!  (in this stretch we'll drive through the 45th state i'll have visited: mississippi!  only oregon, oklahoma, north dakota, alaska, and hawaii to go!)

then we'll power through a 3 day work week and probably sleep for the entire weekend after.  but we cannot wait!