Day 1: Our first date in Durham was a Joe Van Gogh coffee. And so was our last one.

    THE DRIVE

Durham, North Carolina to Centerville, Tennessee
573 miles/9 hours, 4 minutes

    THE FOOD

Breakfast: Joe Van Gogh on Broad Street in Durham
Lunch: 9 Mile cafe in Asheville with Sierra Club press secretary Melissa Williams
Dinner: Last fridge leftovers (ma po tofu, kung pao lotus and brown rice for Jeff; black-eyed peas, a biscuit from breakfast and some Prodigal Farms Vache cheese for Betsy), picnic-style

    THE PLAYLIST

Road Trip to The West!

    THE READING MATERIAL

“The 7 Principles to Making Marriage Work” by John Gottman and Nan Silver

Helpful video summary:

JEFF’S SUMMARY OF THE DAY

“Early morning. Efficient packing. Long driving, broken up by great jiujitsu training at Open Source BJJ and lunch with Melissa. Playlist construction and relationship maintenance exercises.”

BETSY’S SUMMARY OF THE DAY

“Jeff got up at 5 to pack the car and I didn’t hear him at all, and then we read a book about how to have a healthy marriage, which seems to suggest that I’m in some kind of a Benjamin Button-esque relationship. Also, Penny has been a total trooper about being packed into a tiny cave behind my seat. And a bunch of our friends texted us with various bits of amazing news just as we were checking into our hotel. What a good launch to this journey today has been.”