From Arkansas we cruised along the I40 towards California, stopping in New Mexico at the Petrified Forest.  Here's a picture of Dan.  "Have you hugged a tree lately?"  We did the whole loop, stopping at each of the turnouts along the way for just a few minutes at a time for most of them.  We didn't even think about sunblock.  After all what's a couple minutes?... Until three hours later.

We didn't stop much along the way or for very long, (with the exception of the Petrified Forest), because we had the Double Bass with us.

We spent a week in Pasadena trying to visit with as many friends and family members as we could.  We were very sorry to still miss several.

At the end of the week we went to, Dan's mom, Kate's wedding.  It was held the day after our own wedding anniversary and at the same church.  It was a wonderfull event and very nice opportunity to visit with even more friends and family!

The very next day we drove up to San Francisco where we saw Johanna's Uncle Carl & Valerie and friends Marie and Gwen.

We camped on the Rogue River in Grants Pass, Oregon and visited Johanna's grandmother and cousin.

From there we went up to Portland and stayed with our friend James.  Spent a day visiting the Tillamook Dairy (our favorite cheddar is Tillamook) and Astoria and returned to have dinner with Russ, Judith, and Jesse.

We were next found in Seattle, Washington visiting Dan's brother Rickie and meeting for the first time his wife, Crista and our three year old nephew, James.  It is amazing how time flies by.

We then headed east across Montana to Yellowstone where we spent a day driving around the southern loop.  We next headed on to Custer State Park and Mount Rushmoor where we met up with our friends Scott & Elaine who were also camping.  We saw Crazy Horse Mountain and the four of us caravaned through South Dakota to Mittchel to see the Corn Palace.

After a nice dinner in Mittchel they headed south back to Nebraska and we continued east to Chicago where we stayed with Mark.  Mark gave us the tour of Fermi Lab and sent us on our way.  We were almost home.

After some horrendous traffic in Chicago and another delay in Indiana we finally made it to Sprinboro/Dayton, Ohio around midnight.  We had a nice visit with Jan and Jim (James' in Portland's folks).

After three weeks, 20 states and 8,000 miles we had come full circle and returned to Pittsburgh.  Another even greater journey lay ahead....

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