Drive Safe, it will be nice to have you back. Joe missed you at work on Friday!

Be safe, Heinzels! Hope you all had a good weekend - I think your "fans" were just as excited for this meeting as you all were; thanks for letting us share it!

Dave and Courtney, Have a safe trip to IL, it was so nice meeting you and getting to see you and D&N together. Love,gigi

PS. The current temp in B-town is THIRTY DEGREES...get ready!

The Deatons are still strangely quiet...did the Heinzels exhaust them? When do the Deatons trek to Springfield?

Safe trip, Dave and Courtney. Hope it is less rainy this time!!

Can't believe you got off so early!! Now you can enjoy that beautiful mountain scenery! Can't wait to see you tonight!! Be safe!!

passing Asheville now. Hi bob & Pegi!

Ok, I feel exhausted and am having a hard time working. Still can't find my cell phone or sunglasses. I will miss you guys, but now I can get some rest! Safe travels!

Thank you, Niki and Denny, for your hospitality to Dave and Courtney this weekend. I can't wait to see some pictures!! I'm sure you're exhausted...you probably haven't even recovered from your Florida trip yet either....tonight you can crash!!! Thank you again!!!!!

Hi Mom Heinzel, hope you are feeling better. Thanks so much for all of the cool swag you sent. We love it! Can't wait to come to Springfield and meet you guys!

Yes, we'd love to have you come here for a visit, Niki (you and Dylan, that is. Leave Denny at home. LOL). And yes, thank you, I do feel much better than yesterday! It was almost exactly a 24-hour bug. It was miserable and I"m glad it's gone and I hope nobody else catches it! (What's swag?)

It was great to see you guys! Have a safe trip. No rain, lots of sunshine...and your 2 favorite little people waiting for you at home :)

Swag=gifts. Dylan has a really bad cold now, and was up at 4am, but I don't think the bug made it here.

Cell phone update, I checked Verizon's web site and there was a call made from my phone at 7:58am today. I have been calling it and it is rolling straight to voicemail, I just called this last time and it rang 3 times and then went to voicemail. Seems like someone has my phone. Dave & Courtney, if you wanted to take something back to IL you could have just asked for a t-shirt or something.

Thanks, Niki! You're welcome for the swag! (Since I've been retired, I'm not up on the latest lingo.) Courtney's mom and stepdad just delivered the kids to us. Ethan caught the intestinal flu and was sick all day yesterday as was Courtney's mom. Neither of them feel very good today. Mia isn't very active either. Hate to hear about Dylan. Hope that doesn't last long!

Thanks Mom Heinzel. Found my cellphone. Tyler has it. He has been calling his girlfriend all weekend. Denny is meeting him at O'Charley's this morning to get it back, before he starts his salad-making shift. I heard I am going to get a nice apology this evening. Just glad to know Courtney & Dave are not cleptomaniacs.

S.W.A.G.= Stuff We All Get

Glad you guys had an awesome weekend. Glad you found your phone Niki. Hilarious that Tyler has it. I hope you get the apology in the form of a tasty salad.

Drive safe Dave & Courtney!

In Tennessee now. Guess what - it's raining! Awesome. So sorry to hear about Ethan and Bobbie. Maybe we should turn around and head back to Charlotte. I'd take a cold over that stomach flu any day. Anyone out there have a forecast for Eastern Tennesse?

They are calling for light showers but heavy buttcracks in TN. Courtney, get your camera ready.

Dude! Niki and Mom Heinzel you guys need your own web site or something.

It was a really awkward weekend, I wish the four of us had gotten along better and had more in common. I had a small list of "icebreakers" in my pocket that I had to refer to almost hourly when it got really silent.

No seriously I am in total Heinzel withdraw now. Our house is way too quiet and my pants don't fit anymore. Wait, that wasn't really important but we did eat a lot of food this weekend for some reason.

I am super tired and Dave told me a really funny line from a movie before they left at 6:30 this morning and when I went back to bed I just laid there and kept laughing. I couldn't go back to sleep. What a crazy weekend, I am going to post a bunch of photos today and try to figure out how to recap what exactly happened in a blog. Safe trip Heinzel's, talk to you soon!

Dave, the radar shows showers in eastern Tennessee, also scattered showers in Kentucky. Drive safely!!

Safe trip, Dave and Courtney! It was so great to see the two of you. Look forward to the traveling visit in June.

Watch out for those buttcracks.

Just crossed into KY. Roads dry at the moment.

I see that you guys left your iPhone charger in the kitchen. I am hoping you also left your iPhone. Looking for that now. I'll drop it in them mail today, hopefully you'll get it in the next few months.

You can pretty much expect it to be cloudy and cold in Louisville, no matter what day of the year you are passing through.

(Insert Eeyore-type sigh)

You won't find an iPhone there. I hate to squash your hope. I didn't see any more TN buttcracks this time. I've mostly been asleep and haven't gotten out of the car at all. I feel really horrible about everyone getting sick from our kids. I suspect it was the illness we always seem to contract after well-child visits.

About 40 minutes to Lexington. This drive is taking forever.

From here it seems like the drive is going really quick, at least compared to the inbound trip on Friday. That for some reason seemed really long to me.

How many of those 12-packs of Mt Dew from Will have you been through?

Dave, if you think it's long now, wait till you get from St. Louis to Springfield!

Gosh Dave, with your Iphone you could actually get work done (virtually)...no need to take the day off.

We had a pit stop in Richmond KY. 20 miles to Lexington now. I lost Court somewhere in TN.

Dave, if we had known you were to appear in Court today, Denny would have gladly represented you. It is another side project he is working on, something called, "Operation Keep Dave Heinzel Out of Jail."

Saw a cop on a bridge, and he took off like he was coming after us. So I took an exit trying to evade him and we're laying low at a gas station. Lesson to learn: it's not evasion unless they have their lights on and are behind you.

I am sure your van blends in with all of the other vans out there. I mean all mini vans have hundreds of stickers on him. If he catches you just tell him you are CEO of Humzoo and a Springfield celebrity, and I am sure he will let you go.

Don't let them run your rap sheet. You need an alias like Richard Blamco. Quick make a mustache out of minivan carpet fibers.

My above comment took awhile to post. We're back on the road now and have successfully avoided Boss Hog. We are on I-64 West about 50 miles from Louisville.

Slow down!!! You'll get home much faster.

Indiana is boring dude. Dang. About 3 hours till St. Louis. ETA in Springfield: 6:25pm.

Dave, when will you be back to NC? I thought you guys were just going home to get more clothes for the week. Think you'll be back for breakfast? I haz more waffles.

I can haz ur house?

We should be back by dinner. Just let me know what I can do to not help. I'm great at sitting around and not doing much of anything.

We're about 33 miles from the Illinois border. Things are starting to look boring and brown again.

This is the only picture I got of you the entire time you were here. I left my CF card for my SLR at home the night of the Rad Humzoo party.

But its a good one.

http://www.humzoo.com/willnbek/photos/12/14/

Sweet pic dude! I can't wait to put my pics online. Soon to follow those will be a video I hope.

ETA in Springfield: 6:05.

I hope my babies are okay. I need to squeeze them.

My photos are edited and ready for the Internets. This whole work thing is really getting in the way today though. I'll have them up tonight, before you guys get back to NC. Bring your sweet babies, we need to meet them now.

Making last pit stop now, in Mt. Vernon.

Courtney, I should warn you, we have two sick puppies here. Mia should be better by now but she isn't and Ethan caught what she had. We gave them both "lunch" a little while ago because they were both asking for food. It went down very quickly but unfortunately it came up quickly too...for both of them. They are both resting comfortably now so I don't want you to get upset. They are warm and comfortable and hopefully will make a miraculous recovery before you all get here. Please drive carefully.

Or to put it another way..... Arf Arf is in the washing machine for the second time today.

Sorry to hear about all the sickness. We will be there in about 2 hours.

So sorry your kids have been sick maybe seeing mommy and daddy will help them recover. You should be home soon. That sure was a whirlwind trip.

We're driving north toward Springfield on I-55. 60 miles to go! ETA: 6:00.

We are back in Springfield! Thanks to everyone for helping me stay awake. Look for photos late tonight.

Glad you guys made it home safe. I know the kids will be happy to see you. Hope it cures whatever ails them (and they hopefully don't give it to you in your tired state!)