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In true roadtripping2011.blogspot.com fashion, we've made you wait quite a while for this last post.

We left New Orleans, nearly out of money, and headed due north, camping in Mississippi before finding our way into magnificent Memphis, TN. We crashed a night with a old friend of Tommy's, Matt Frank. Great food, some playoff baseball, and a tour of Beal Street kept us busy and thoroughly entertained. From Memphis, we drove clear across Tennessee to Nashville to meet up with another CC alum and ultimate frisbee extraordinaire, Nicky Spiva. Nicky gave us an awesome tour of the Vanderbilt campus, and we got some delicious local brews before heading out to the famous Station Inn for some live bluegrass music. A packed crowd and multiple banjos made for a regular barn-burner.

But alas, we had to keep moving, as our funds dwindled even further. We made our way southeast and in the same day hit the Jack Daniels Distillery and the Unclaimed Baggage Center. That's right, whiskey and thrift shopping. We arrived in the Great Smokey Mountains just before sunset and set up camp in a gorgeous mix of orange, red, and yellow leaves.

The next day, we set off on our final backpacking trip into the Smokies. We hiked miles on the Appalachian trail before arriving at an awesomely maintained back-country shelter. Believe it or not, after all our experience as back-country chefs, our last supper was the worst meal of the entire trip. Back in the crowded parking lot, we had at least two dozen people inquire about our sticker-covered top carrier, or ask us if we had done the entire trail.

We drove through Asheville, NC (stopped to people watch and grab a cup of coffee) on our way to Chapel Hill, NC. We stayed with Mr. David Daddio, and met up with Ms. Kat Mclaughlin. Interestingly, we had seen both of these people previously on the trip, in Boston and Maine, respectively. Daddio is finishing up grad school at UNC while Kat is trying to regain her health after a string of unlucky injuries.

We left Chapel Hill, with Daddio (also from the area), and headed home. We arrived in our beloved nation's capital just in time to sit in rush hour traffic. How sweet it is to be home.

We would like to thank everyone who followed up with our blog. But also we want to thank all of you who we got to hang out with, dine with, visit with, and stay with. You guys are the ones that made our trip amazing and unforgettable. And, in the thanksgiving spirit, I'm thankful that we made it around the country and back without being pulled over once, and without any major car problems! So if you're in the D.C. area, hit us up....'cause we're unemployed.