The internet beings that Ali and I are, we decided to live blog our road trip home from New Jersey to Houston. The following is our trip. (Most posts by me where posted by Ali as I dictated.)

Saturday

Posted by Mike:
In my parents’ driveway about to head home to Houston.

Posted by Mike:
Almost 12 miles in the wrong direction. Passing parents house again.

Posted by Ali:
Are we there yet? Mile 45 of 1500 I asked Mike this question. Then proceeded to sing Staying Alive really, really obnoxiuosly loud.

THIS IS GOING TO BE SO FUN!

Posted by Mike:
Mile 58: Pennsylvania.

Posted by Mike:
MILE 108: Just passed Shartlesville,PA. Laughed like a 5 year old.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 148: On the Hershey Highway, Hershey, PA

Posted by Ali:
Mile 154: Small detour into Hershey, PA. The lamp posts are kisses and I’m standing in Chocolate Ave. Heaven.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 156: Found a Dunkin’ Donuts in Hershey! I am a big nerd.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 222: We’re in a tunnel. Blue Mountains, PA.

Posted by Ali:
Welcome to Pennsyltucky.
Mile 328: Driving for miles and miles seeing lots of trees and mountains with an occasional smattering of houses, gas stations, cows and Donut Connections. I have no idea how people function like this. This is some country bumpkin bidness right here.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 349: Making Ali turn down her Justin Timberlake at the tollbooth because I don’t want this guy to think I listen to this crap.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 357: No, I’m not eating at something called “The cookery” all lit up like the bastard child of Christmas and Las Vegas in the middle of BFE. I have, like, 1300 mliles left to go. I’d like to do it without a serious case of the poos.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 366: We’re on a bridge.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 407: Welcome to West Virginia. Wild and Wonderful. Yes, the sign actually says that.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 421: Ohai-o.

Posted by Mike:
(Almost) Mile 521: Missed our goal of reaching Kentucky for the night and we’re spending the night outside Columbus, OH.

Sunday

Posted by Mike:
Mile 542: WAFFLES.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 542: Having breakfast at the friendliest Waffle House I’ve ever been to. They sing HELLO! in unison when someone walks in and everyone is overly nice. BONUS: Most everyone has their teeth!

Posted by Mike:
Coffee run for Ali.
Bonus: You can see a very excited Ali in the bottom of this picture.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 542: Canadian treats in Ohio!

Posted by Mike:
Mile 647: Filling up just outside Cincinnati.

Also Midwest, what’s up with the Arby’s at every exit on the highway? Gross.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 657: Rainy Cincinnati.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 660: I hear Deliverance in the distance… Welcome to Kentucky.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 758: Ironic tourist “Hi Mom!”

Posted by Ali:
Mile 843: Anyone got an ark we can borrow? Driving through the beginning of the apocalypse heading out of Kentucky and into Tennessee. This rain is seriously messing with our driving mojo. Any minute now I fully expect to see a cow floating by.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 892: Every exit is either a Cracker Barrel, Arby’s or Waffle House.

Or adult stores. For the Bible-belt, you guys sure like your porn.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 911: The Colonel Is Ashamed. I see a Kentucky Fried Chicken sign. In Tennessee. Not one in all of Kentucky.

Even the namesake state knows that’s some nasty shit.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 912: Stopped at McDonalds in BFE, TN and this cat perches on the curb staring me down like I have pockets filled with Meow Mix. Mike rolls down the window and it meows at us and continues to stare. Like we’re on it’s turf.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 955: Ima die in Tennesee. Driving through devastated Nashville getting turned around by water and down trees. Passed by cops escorting military humvees. The apocalypse is upon us. But, for our dining needs, we have convenient Arby’s and Waffle Houses on every corner. Praise Jesus.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 992
Got stuck outside of Nasville, TN because of biblical flooding that closed major highways. We are taking a detour through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana home to Texas.
Ugh.

Monday

Posted by Mike:
Mile 1048: BRB, refueling.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1061: Almost got ran off the damn road by an ice cream truck. The driver was too busy talking on his phone to see us.

I would have fully expected free ice cream for life as part of restitution.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 1070: Welcome Alabama. And NASA…? At a rest stop?

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1116: Lunch.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1301: Welcome to Mississippi. Mike says Mississippi is cool because it has “pp” in the spelling. He’s 5.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1507: Awww, mah sha! Bienvenue Louisiana, home of my people! Ima try to make it to Best Stop in Scott for grateans and boudin.

Mike says that I started talking a bunch of voodoo gibberish as soon as we crossed the border and doesn’t understand a word. He needs to learn.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 1560: These are Ali’s people. Stopped just outside of Baton Rouge at a gas station to use the bathroom. I go into the hot, moist bathroom and am greeted by the smell of death and swamp-ass as some dude craps with the stall door open.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1571: If I had a nickle for every Waffle house, Arby’s and Cracker Barrel we saw on this trip, I’d never have to pay for gas again. Ever.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 1586: The Mississippi River. It’s big.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1615: Whiskey Bay off the Atchafalaya River Basin. I grew up fishing, riding 3-wheelers and drinking beer at a very, very young age there. My dad, his dad and all of his brothers hunted there. We had a big camp that slept something like 20 people there and we’d spend weekends and holidays there in the Spring and summer. We had chickens, duck, geese, quail, turkeys and peacocks there. I loved that place.

Posted by Mike:
Mile 1650: In Louisiana they call this “food.”

Gross.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1651: Enjoying Best Stop grateans (cracklins) both eating them and grossing Mike out.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1752: THE LONE STAR STATE. Just passed the “El Paso 857 miles” sign. I love how ginormous and awesome this state is! I need to live here in order to have space to house my attitude and sass.

Mike says sometimes even Texas is too small for that.

Posted by Ali:
Mile 1865: Home sweet home. Walked to find flowers from our landlord. How awesome are they? We may live here forever.

Now, my bed is hollerin’ for me. Night, y’all!

Posted by Mike:
Mile 1,865.4: In our driveway in Houston.

—

That was our trip. Tennessee ate up a lot of valuable driving time (about 3 or 4 hours of drive time) that made our trip so much longer and we didn’t get home until 10PM on Monday night.

Tuesday was a long day of work. Wednesday will probably be just as rough.

All in all, we had fun driving. Just like when we did this drive four years ago when I moved to Houston. We’d do it again in an instant, we just wish we’d have more time to go slowly and be able to stop along the way and enjoy some of America on the way.

Katie came to me a few years back needing a logo for her website, yarnlove.com and the design that I came up with for her fit the style she was going for at that time.

She has come back, asking me to update not only her logo, but her site as well. This new logo incorporates the modern look she was going for while still being fun and creative to fit the craft and artistic feel of her site using typography and the yarn ball graphic.

The mixture of chocolate, antique rose and sage green that will be carried over in the design of her new site which is currently being mocked up now.

Friday night was the opening of the 600 sqi mi: Hidden exhibit featuring two of my pieces.

First off I want to thank Ali for pushing me to do this and everything else she does for me, my parents and Aunt Michelle for helping me with the framing costs and Steve for always being willing to lend me his cameras.

When we first walked in I saw my first photo, “Happiness♥” was in a prime spot right at the door. From that moment on I did not stop smiling. Seeing something that I did hanging in a gallery with 60 other equally incredible photographs is an awesome feeling that I can’t even begin to describe.

It was a great night put on by the Houstonist and Xnihilo Gallery (pronounced na-hi-lo). I can’t wait to go back to the gallery when it isn’t crowded to really study each image.

There are a ton of pictures from the event online, here are some links to them (make sure you click through the sets and galleries):

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

As most of you know, a while back I entered some photos for a chance for them to be shown in an exhibit here in Houston and two of my photos were chosen!

Well the show, 600 sq mi: Houston, is coming up on Friday October 9th and I’d love to have everyone who can come there.

After the show we’re going to go to dinner at Gravitas which is right by the exhibit. If you’d like to come with us let us know as soon as possible so we can make reservations.

Directions: Take I-45 into downtown and take the Allen Parkway exit and continue on Allen Parkway (going away from downtown) until you reach the first light. Make a left there, at Taft Street. You’ll go through 2 lights, one at West Dallas, the next at West Gray. Once you go through the light at West Gray it is about four blocks up on the left hand side.

The street address is 2115 Taft Street, Houston, TX 77006 if you want to do a Google Map instead of following my lousy directions.

Click the above thumbnails to see larger versions.

Mark Richmond needed a logo, business card and yard sign for his Real Estate business. Mark’s client base is high-end urbanites and he wanted that to be reflected in his logo and brand.

The fonts are nice, clean sleek fonts that reflect Mark’s brand image. The use of green and black is a very contemporary and simplistic color scheme that makes the graphic elements pop.

The business card was printed double sided on high-gloss card stock. The reverse side was Mark’s logo along with his tag line “Real Estate for your lifestyle.” The decision to print the information side vertically instead of horizontally as well as rounding one corner was to make it stand out from other business cards.

Taking The Planet Partner Plus logo from the previous update The Planet needed large booth banners for an upcoming convention. These banners were created in Illustrator and Photoshop and were printed large scale 4 feet wide by 8 feet tall each and will be hung at either end of The Planet’s booth.

I will update this post with a photo of the booth once the event happens later this month.