We started off our first trip down south with a blanket tying party at The Brambles. We had about 20 friends and family show up to help us tie the last of our first 400 blankets. It was lots of fun, but lots of work as well.

Ben's friend Tyler tying knot after knot after knot....

Ms. Mikki LOVES to help us out!

Mrs. Raegen and her group at The Brambles cut some many blankets for us!

After all 400 blankets were tied we put them in our van....and then we tried to squeeze in around them:

It was a tight fit but boy was the car ride comfy. We laid on top of the blankets to watch the DVD player and nap time was the best. Wouldn't you want to sleep on top of all that fleece? Ok, so the top of the car was a little close and there was no room to turn over...but who's complaining?

When we finally got to Baton Rouge, LA (which didn't take long with Mom driving because we weren't allowed out of the car for anything--no stopping at any cost) we delivered the blankets to the Salvation Army who gave the blankets to the kids for Christmas gifts. It was really neat to see the mom's smiling as they picked up blankets and heard about us. Our friend, Mr. Rene at Flooring Direct was a huge help to our project, he let us ship out blankets to his warehouse. When we got to Baton Rouge he also let us use his truck so we could take them over to the Salvation Army.

Mr. Rene and Ms.Patty at Flooring Direct

The group at the Salvation Army in Baton Rouge

On our trip home Mr. Rene gave us directions on how to go through New Orleans. We can't say it was fun but we did get to see that our Hurricane Isabel was a gentle giant compared to Hurricane Katrina.  It was sad to see the empty Toys R Us and Walmart and even more sad to see people sleeping in their cars under the bridge. We saw the now famous Superdome and lots of torn up houses. If anything it made us realize how important finishing our project really is.