we spent most of yesterday in the car on our drive up u.s. highway 41. highway 41 runs from the upper penninsula in michigan to naples, florida, and was the main north-south route until interstate 75 was built. we originally had planned to do it as a fun road trip, but when joe pitched the story to the sunday paper, the features editor loved it and assigned joe to write a story on it.

we had a fabulous time. we hit 41 here in cartersville, and headed north, passing through adairsville, calhoun, resaca and dalton, which is where i used to live. i was amazed at how much as been developed since i left!

in ringgold, we stopped to take some pictures, stretch our legs and browse some of the shops. i found some apple-themed items for our kitchen — a cute sign and a tea cup warmer for scent chips. it is fabulous, and my house smells so yummy now.

after leaving ringgold, we passed through tunnel hill before getting to tennessee. we drove through east ridge before entering chattanooga. highway 41 is really strange in chattanooga as it winds around several streets and even heads south (which threw us off at first) before going over lookout mountain. part of the mountain is in georgia and part is in tennessee.

finally, we got out of chattanooga. the route was very scenic and quite pretty with the leaves changing colors on the trees. we stopped several times to take some pictures.

we finally made it to jasper, tennessee, where our trip ended because we’d been driving for three hours. it really takes a lot longer to get somewhere when you’re not on the interstate. we walked around the downtown square (and were very disappointed in the fact that there really wasn’t much there) and then went to a local italian place for lunch.

the best part about the restaurant was what they used for their sauces.

we took the interstate back since we wanted to compare drive times. it took us about 10 minutes to get back into hamilton county, where it took us about 45 minutes to get to jasper on highway 41.

next time we make the trip (and we’d like to do it again) we’ll probably stay overnight somewhere so we can drive a little further and at least make it out of tennessee!