no pics today but this will catch us up. we stopped down in thousand oaks area and stayed with family friends ron and vicki. they spoiled us will a lot of food and many laughs. i also bet their dog, paladin, is still waiting for me to walk in the door and throw his slobber covered ball. next morning we went for a bike ride through santa monica wilderness park to the beach. the trail was about 7-8 miles and lee-anne got a flat tire about 5 miles into the ride. we did not bring any tire changing supplies but we brought sandals in case we had to walk. after making it to the beach ron was kind enough to come pick us up in his truck. after the ride we headed down to santa monica to meet up with friends marc and erica, adrian and sam. it was good to see some old friends and catch up. the next day we headed to huntington beach and stayed with my old roomie sean. we thought we would stretch it into two days and spent day 2 playing couch potatoes. now we are down in san clemente now cause i just had to get a breakfast burrito from la tiendita. next we are gonna get lee-anne some rainbow sandals and hit the beach. until next time...

well, we have now made it to SF. it was a pretty good drive and did not seem as long is it was. we picked up a young couple that was hitch-hiking down from seattle. normally we don't pick anyone up but we thought what the heck. after dropping them off we continued down to pacifica and had some excellent californian mexican food, rented a redbox and slept in the van. SF was really foggy but it was refreshing after a hot drive during the day.

Look at her! Fully exposed, up in the air, vulnerable. She did GREAT:) Those miracle workers were able to just repair the hitch and re-weld/reinforce our hitch! No need for an overnight adventure in the parking lot.(and not to mention saving a good amount of money) So, we finished our BBQ, chatted with the local repair men and then set out for a night of driving in the CA fog. Felt just like home in Oregon, fog-filled and a little mist/rain. Drove a little farther and crashed after a night of mexican food in Pacifica, CA. Yummy! Sorry Taco Bell, the authentic mexican was AMAZING!

BBQ it was! (notice the propane gas located all around our "campsite":) very safe. So Dayllen and I set up our grill, prepared the salmon and veggie delights and sat back while Nebie was getting work done. Oh, and poured a glass of wine for relaxing. White trash? Trust me, fine dining and comfort:)

Yup, that is right...Nebie decided she needed a new hitch! After getting ready to move on from Crescent City, CA we heard an awful scrapping as we started our drive. Bummer but we were lucky to have been on a side street away from traffic! Second lucky moment...it was 4:30 and we were sure all options for a fix were closed...Nope! We packed all of this back-end gear into Nebie and hauled over to "Two Guys" a mechanic shop less than a mile away! Here we met the owner that helped us think through a plan to get a new hitch. We were told it could take overnight for the fixing...so we got the okay to park in the lot and have ourselves a BBQ:)

Welcome to California! We apologize for the delay in posts, no internet connection along the way to keep you updated. We made it to CA on Wednesday! Let us update you on our events after our beautiful drive through southern OR...

Cold shower for Dayllen=free, hot shower for me=75cents, cup of joe at crater lake=priceless:) A good morning hike and a map to bring us to our next destination in california was next on our trip. We drove nebie(our home/van) down through the hidden valleys of Oregon into the foggy Crescent City, CA with no time limit or plans.

After a long day, Dayllen decided to "win" a race to the ocean and dip his toes in. We then finished our evening with drive through dinner and dexter in a parking lot to rest. Another good day on the road. -Lee-Anne

here is day 3 at crater lake. same rags and no shower, say somethin'!!! i changed my boxers, that has to count for something. surprisingly it was super cold even though the drive here was a hot one. just as we were driving into the park it started to HAIL like a mother, so rad!

this is day 2 before we left our mt. hood. and yes, i am a wanna-be-farmer. thanks to brian, lindsay, john and molly for camping with us the night before. good times!!

here is a quick pic of the van shortly before we hit the road. the only addition is the weber BBQ that mark was so kindly storing for me.

well, here we are sitting at world cup coffee and tea about ready to begin our adventure. the plan is to head to mt. hood and camp tonight, crater lake tomorrow and south from there. where we end up...your guess is as good as ours. south is all we know. hurry up lindsay and brian so we can hit the road!!! they are going day one with us.