On the road with a traveling Peeps show

Sometimes an 18,000-mile journey begins with a single Peep. Or in Libbie Stellas' case, a package of four yellow Peeps bunnies a friend gave to her shortly before she left on a road trip across the United States.

"I decided I would take them on the trip, and I would call it the Peeps Pilgrimage," says Stellas, a 54-year-old life coach from Seattle. And for the next 10 months, the Peeps saw more of America than the typical American. They visited Chicago, Key West and the Jersey Shore. They saw the lights of Vegas, the sunsets of the Southwest desert and the Corn Palace in South Dakota.

Like miniature, almost-edible versions of the traveling gnome, the Peeps' trip was chronicled through photos now posted on Stellas' Web site, www.LibbieStellas.com. They're pictured skewered on a cactus. Or perched on a sign at Lincoln's birthplace. They posed with a drag queen, a chicken, a New York City cop and Manhattan's famous Naked Cowboy.

Stellas took the trip as a midlife reinvention — a chance to see where she might move to next, what she might do "with the next 26 years of my life." The Peeps became soft introductions to strangers. "I'd say, 'I'm traveling around the United States, and I'm sending pictures back.' "

The trip brought its casualties, though. Around Sedona, Ariz., the bunnies' ears started to break off. In Key West, they melted in the heat inside Stellas' Ford Focus. She bought replacements at a half-off sale at Walgreen's and learned to lengthen their lives with a coating of hair spray.

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the Peeps' holy land: The Just Born factory in Bethlehem, Pa., which makes the marshmallow treats.

"I contacted Just Born and told them I was taking a trip with Peeps across the United States, and they invited me to come." She got to meet the CEO.

After thousands of miles, dozens of towns and countless new acquaintances, Stellas says the journey helped her find what she was looking for. "I decided who I spend my life with is more important than where I spend it. I came back to Seattle."

Shirleen Holt: 206-464-8316 or sholt@seattletimes.com