Chip and I spent the last weekend in Cherokee, North Carolina in the Great Smoky Mountains.

They’re called the Great Smokys because of the fog that settles around the mountains.  Smoke looks like fog.  Get it?

We checked out a beautiful waterfall at Mingus Falls:

and had lots of fun walking the trail up to the falls.

Chip, get up!  You’re supposed to be on a hike!

That’s more like it.

After our jaunt out to Mingus Falls, we decided to check out Harrah’s Casino, a gigantic gambling haven in the mountains.

I was very excited by this.

Chip on the other hand, wanted to leave the casino immediately.  He was worried about me blowing all of our hard earned pennies on the slots.

We left the casino after I lost two grand.  Joke!

Back at our friendly KOA, we attempted to create a fire.

Result?  Epic fail.  (P.S. – those are my fire-making clothes.)

The next day we headed to the national park – Great Smoky Mountains.

We decided to head out on a hike.

We did 5.8 miles, out and back, on the Boulevard Trail, which is a (teeny tiny) section of the Appalachian Trail.  Sweet!

Once we started hiking we realized it was cold.  Really cold!

Brrr!  Despite the snow and ice it was a beautiful hike, and much needed after spending so much time in the car.

We’re shuttling between North Carolina and Tennessee this week for screenings, and are headed down to Charleston, South Carolina this weekend – so lots of time in the car for us!  Stay tuned for a post on ways to keep yourself entertained in the car for hours on end. 🙂

The amazing company NuttZo was gracious enough to donate 2 cases of NuttZo nut butter to The Dream Share Project for fuel on our spring tour!  By the way 2 cases of nut butter = 24 jars of NuttZo.  We are seriously loaded up on NuttZo – and we love it!

NuttZo is a nut butter made up of all organic ingredients – Valenica peanuts, flaxseeds, hazelnuts, cashews, almonds, Brazil nuts and sunflower seeds.  Every bite is seriously crunchy, nutty, delicious heaven.  We’ve been chowing down on NuttZo non-stop on our trip.  Some ways we enjoy our NuttZo:

smeared on whole wheat pitas, with dried fruit topping, for lunch in the car:

Scooped on top of our breakfast oatmeal:

and straight outta the jar, of course!

NuttZo Founder and CEO, Danielle Dietz-LiVolsi,  is a fellow dreamer as well.

From GoNuttZo.com:

“I love being an entrepreneur. I’m a realistic dreamer– I dream big and believe there’s a way to make it a reality. I never take “no” for an absolute answer because I’ve worked in sales for more than 15 years and have heard lots of “nos” before the desired “yes.” I do take calculated risks by following my intuition. I have an innate obsession for living life to the fullest and trying to make a difference in the world. Lucky for me, I married someone with my same passion and traits and this is why my husband and I started Project Left Behind.

I’ve always had the longing to own a business. I believe you must have an entrepreneurial spirit to be a successful salesperson. I’ve also had fervor for food and cooking since I was five years old. To this day, I never follow a recipe completely; I always add my own variation to it.   Combine this love of food with fitness and nutrition, which have been an integral part of my life since I was 17, and it seems I was destined to own a natural food company.

When my husband and I adopted two beautiful boys from the Ukraine who were vitamin deficient, I became extremely focused on preparing creative, flavorful, super-nutritious foods for them. NuttZo is one of my favorite creations.”

Danielle is a an amazing woman and NuttZo is a fantastic company.  Learn more about NuttZo, including where you can buy some (!!!) at: www.gonuttzo.com

The spring tour has begun!

We kicked off the beginning of The Dream Share Project 2012 Tour (insert screaming, cheering crowd noises here) at Longwood University, in Farmville, Virginia.  Can you see the town sign in the mirror?

We had a great time screening the film and leading the workshop at Longwood.  The school even busted out a popcorn machine for the screening – saweeeet!

After Longwood we headed to Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA.

I made Chip do most of the driving. 😉

We stopped at Buena Vista, VA along the way to take in the views and eat lunch.

Chip did not fall off the sign.

Before the show we stopped and got tasty iced coffees (it was like 70 degrees on Tuesday in VA–weird!).

Today we’ve headed to Erie, PA for a screening at Gannon University.  Woohoo – third show of the week!

Get ready for a shot of the inside of the Dream Mobile- it’s stuffed to the brim!

The lovely folks at Eden Foods hooked us up with a product donation to help us reduce expenses on tour this spring!

Yahoo!

Want to see what they so graciously donated to The Dream Share Project spring tour?

Let’s take a peek at what’s inside…

A closer look…

Crackers and nuts- perfect snacks for the road.

Love.

Soymilk boxes – in chocolate and vanilla.  Basically, Alexis’s dream come true- chocolate soymilk for breakfast!

And, chili, rice and beans and rice and lentils!  Yum – perfect, hearty, healthy food to cook over an open campfire.

Thank you so much Eden Foods – your donation will be enjoyed this spring!

To learn more about Eden Foods, visit their website at: http://www.edenfoods.com/

We visited Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania last Monday, November 14th. One of the students wrote a very nice article about our visit! Check out the article on the second page of the paper below: