Homeless, Jobless, and On the Road!

Wow!

We are one day away from hitting the road on our “tour de queso!” It still seems so unreal. Darren and I had our last days of work on Sunday, I at Casellula and Darren at Dovetail. We were both lucky enough to work at our two favorite places in New York.

On Monday we had our last New York dinner at Compass, met up with friends at Revival where Darren and I had our first “date,” and stayed at the Hudson hotel.

It’s Tuesday now. We rolled out of bed, a little hung over, and hopped a train to Stamford where we are picking up the Car, which Darren insists on naming. He has a few in mind, however, he wants to feel out the vehicle first to see if the name “fits.” His first thought is Bessie. Appropriate maybe.

Our first week is planned! Whoooo Hooooo! Seven, count them 7, cheesemakers have graciously accepted our request to visit them. Some have even extended invitations for lunch, supper and a place to crash. Cheesemakers are nice! I’m glad we like cheese and not, let’s say, corporate law.

Dun da da dahn! (is that how you spell it?) Our first week itinerary!

Thurday, 10/1

Evarona Dairy in Rapidan, VA

Friday 10/2

Bonnyclabber Country Cheese in Wake, VA

Chapel Hill Creamery in Chapel Hill, NC

Saturday 10/3

We are still waiting for a response from...

Sunday 10/4

Goat Lady Dairy in Climax, NC

Monday 10/5

Meadow Creek Dairy in Galax, VA

Ripshin Goat Dairy in Lenior, NC

Tuesday 10/6

Locust Grove Farm in Knoxville, TN

BTW-the CAR is NOT named yet! What are we to do? By tomorrow morning we will have picked from the following list:

The Curdster

The Renent-gade

The Rind Rocket

Ol' Bessie

The Shredder

Dolly Pardon

The Cheese Chariot

The Utter-cycle

We have our work cut out for us for sure! (I had to cut Darren off or this would have gone on for hours) Any Faves? Or ones we didn't think of? Maybe a middle name.

At this point in the evening we are slightly delirious. Shenandoah here we come!

p.s. Funniest thing that happened today: Liana drank coffee.

Question: Why can't we input more than 26 locations on Google Maps?

Cheese Lovers! Cheese Makers! Cheese...People of every type! Friends! Family! Welcome! We are setting off on a multi-week cheese tour of the U.S.A that will take us from coat to coast--NYC to SF. Why? WE LOVE CHEESE! Especially Artisanal Cheese. Our goal is to visit well established, and up and coming "rising star" cheese makers across the country, particularly in some of the regions that tend to get less attention.

For us, eating and appreciating fine, hand-made cheese has become a passion that grows deeper every day. We have been working with many of these awesome American Farmstead/Artisanal Cheeses (and fabulous European Cheeses of course) for years and are excited to meet the people behind some of our favorites. Our particular interest, besides the cheeses themselves, is the places they are made, the "hometowns" of the people who make and enjoy the finest farmstead products in the U.S.A.

Of course we had to map out our trip right? This beginning stage of our trip has led us to lose faith in Google Maps for the time being. Maximum destination inputs? 26! That's point A to Z. Now really, Google, you're letting us down here! Yes, we have more than 26 stops on our journey and all we wanted was one big ol' map. Most of our 27+ stops are all about Cheese, but hey, who can pass up Graceland? Well, it kind of fits into our "Cheesy" theme. And it was either that or Dollywood. ( Darren voted Dollywood...interesting!)

All this map hoogamalu had led us in a different direction when it comes to posting our route. We will break our trip up into 3-4 day chunks. The first leg of our trip will be posted on September 30th along with the coinciding map. Google, can you handle this? Wifi, can you handle this? Battery, can you handle this? I really hope Y'all can handle this!