Our last stop! The trailer is parked and home sweet home is in the background. After taking 3,303 pictures and traveling nearly 17,000 miles we arrived home Sat evening, April 29. What an adventure.

We're almost home. After going 9 month without incident we get stuck in Paul and Linda's back yard and have to be towed out by AAA. Hopefully we'll pull into our alley this evening and then begins the ordeal of unpacking. It's been a fabulous trip and God accompanied us the whole way, guiding and keeping us safe.

It's finally morning tea time with Linda, one of many events that were missed on our long treck around our country.

For many years Tom lived in the farm community of Eltopia, WA, near the Tri-cities with his first wife, Glenda, and their children. Tom taught elementary school and Glenda was a pastor of the United Church of Christ in the community. Here some of their old friends from Eltopia join us for dinner at Tammy's house.

Tom helps his daughter Tammy install new door hardware. Helping out his kids on household projects is one of Tom's favorite things to do.

Father and daughter "pancake pigout".

Our 9 month road trip is coming to an end. We will be home in just 2 weeks. We plan on stopping in Portland OR to pick up a "tax free" Apple computer and a large screen TV and then spend a few days at Tom's daughter Tammy's house. Hopefully I'll have some new pictures of that visit to close out this blog.

We spent a wonderful time with Tom's son Sal and his wife Pat. She served us a delicious dinner of Mexican lasagna followed by a lovely walk along the Russian River in Clover Dale, CA.

Giant redwoods of California

The beautiful Oregon coast. It was breathtaking!

We had lunch here at the famous "'Mo's" restaurant in Newport, OR. What a treat. We camped near here at South Beach State Park.

We've been having a great time in California visiting with Tom's daughter, Tammy and his three sons, Sal, Ben and Andy and their wives, Patty, Patty and Jen. It was wonderful being with his good looking, creative, smart, fun ,etc,etc, grandchildren, Joe, Dana, Will and Cayleigh. We have a few more days to visit but then we'll be heading for the Oregon coast for some camping time. We hope to arrive home to Spokane in time for Bloomsday.

Here Tom is with his daughter, Tammy in San

Francisco once again eating an ice cream cone. (Gelatto this time). The ship's wheel Tom is standing in front of leads into one of Tom's favorite restaurants in Berkeley. Spenger's Fish Grotto. We enjoyed a delicious dungess crab bisque for lunch. The house is one Tom and his first wife, Glenda owned while they lived in Berkley.

The Exploratorium in San Francisco where we went with Tom's family.

Tom's family at Bistro M in Windsor CA where we all joined for lunch to celebrate his adopted, mexican born son Sal's US citizenship. It was a great reunion with all present. Some interesting stories were told about the 2 1/2 year effort it took to unravel the endless requirements to prove citizenship and to discover that indeed Sal was a citizen all along.

Tammy, Tom, Ben and Will getting ready to go into Muffin Mania for a breakfast treat in San Rafael CA where Ben lives with his family.

Joe, Kisuke and Dana.

Tom demonstrates one of his "hands on" science experiments with his grand children, Joe and Dana. Here he proves that air has weight.

Bowling and dinner with Tom's son, Andy and his family (Joe, Tom, Jessie, Andy, Dana, Patty and Kisuke, a Japanese boy visiting with the Latimers.

Enjoying a cup of our favorite coffee(Peet's) at a cafe in the 4th street shopping area. Peets originated in Berkeley.

In the tower of Berkeley, Tom overlooks the UC Berkeley campus. He attended summer school here in '77 and '78 while persuing his master's degree in Science education. In the late 60's he and Glenda, his first wife, with their 4 children lived in Berkeley while Glenda persued her Master of Divinity degree at the Pacific School of Religion.

This is the elementary school in Berkeley, CA where Tom taught 5th and 6th graders. His classroom was the 7 windows on the upper floor left in the picture on the left.

If you look closely you can see Tom faithfully doing his morning exercise after we spent the night here at this reststop before continuing to travel toward Morro Beach RV Park, CA

Enjoying the smells, sights and sounds of Santa Monica Beach.

The Pacific Ocean!! What a thrill to be back on the 'west coast and feeling the cool water wash my feet. We're at Santa Monica Beach. The evening before we had dinner with Tom's son, Ben who was working in LA at the time.

Here, Jessie does her daily Bible reading at the Picnic table at our campsite overlooking the ocean in Malibu, CA.

Nothing like a fresh drink straight from the faucet!

Sunrise over Malibu Beach RV Park in Malibu, CA

Moonrise over Superstition Mt. in Lost Dutchman State Park in Arizona. It was a huge moon and so wonderful to see.

Too cold to wade in, but there's the Pacific Ocean. It's great to be here.

We have traveled across the southern states and have made it to the Pacific Ocean. Breathtaking! We are spending a week in Malibu before we tour the west coast.

This is Jessie with her childhood friend Virginia Perry. They met in 3rd grade and were friends and neighbors all through highschool. They hadn't seen each other since graduating from highschool (56 yrs). What a happy reunion that was remembering old times. Virginia lives in Glendale, a suburb of Pheonix, Arizona.

If you look closely you'll see a nesting owl in the crook of this tree in Blythe, CA. We camped here last night.

Strolling through the Sanoran Desert Museum being shielded from the hot sun

Arizona sunset. We spent a few weeks exploring the Sanoran desert of Arizona. We've learned the names of many of the cacti and various plants that inhabit the desert. Jessie experienced the spines of a prickley pear cactus up close and personal. (while bending over to adjust a plank under the wheels of the camper).
Hidey tangled with a Cholla cactus and ended up having to be rushed to emergency, sedated, and had 4 people from the vet clinic remove the cactus spines that had literally covered her body. She recovered completely after a few days of medications but there were some tense moments.

Here, Tom is reading "Arabella", by Georgette Heyer to Jessie, one of many books that have been read aloud to each other as we travel.

The other picture is Hidey helping herself to a drink at our kitchen faucet.

We're in the small X mining town of Bisbee, Arizona. An artsy, hippy kind of town with interesting shops and restaurants. We're spending a week here at an RV camp.

Enjoying lunch at Santiagos Mexican restaurant. Fabulous food and a lot of it!

Not only was underground mining done here in Bisbee, but also strip mining. This is called The Lavender Pit. This whole area surrounding Bisbee is filled with pits, huge mountains of slag heaps (waste banks) and ravaged mountain sides. Eventually all the valuable minerals (copper, gold, silver) were removed and now the aftermath of scars and waste heaps remain. The old mining town of Bisbee still remains and is now a haven for artists and tourists.

Inside the mine.

Here we go into the deep dark world of coppermining. We wound up about 900 feet below the mountain top where in the past miners bored into the walls in search of various metals. Once found they would be blasted and loaded onto carts to be brought out where they could go through the multistep process of refinement.

Here we are all suited up to go into an underground copper mine to seek our foutune.

Arizona is serious about its no smoking laws!

Some really strange art on a building front on main street (T)and a fence (B) surrounding a court yard.

This is the old copper mining town of Bisbee, Arizona. A fascinating town built on the hillsides of the mining industry. Some really weird art but also some very beautiful art and jewelry (too expensive, though). The town has great coffee shops (roasted right here) and restaurants.

The yucca plants grow huge here in New Mexico.