The bikes were in desperate need of a major service, so A&S BMW Motorad, Roseville was the place to go. We dropped off the bikes on our way back up to Lake Tahoe, borrowed a car from Kev's parents and continued up the mountain. The bikes will be done in time for us to pick them up and ride down to a Horizons Unlimited event in Cambria, California. We had actually been that direction just a couple of weeks ago on our trip to Morro Bay! No complaints… I could ride Highway 1 everyday, it is so beautiful!

Cambria is a very artsy seaside town. The ride down was great, but the weather was starting to get a little chilly. We had elected to have our meals prepared for the entire weekend, so all we had to do is set up our tent and decide what meetings we would attend. There were so many interesting choices of talks to attend it was hard to make up my mind at times. We concentrated on information that would benefit us in the near future….so all the information we could gather on South America was our focus.

I was pleasantly surprised when I ran into Mike & Jo Hannan, Ken Carol Duvall from Brisbane Australia…What a hoot! I did not expect to see them in California. We spent many hours standing by doorways, visiting, exchanging ideas, and enjoying each others company…several times not making it to intended meetings! Ted Simon gave a beautiful presentation, along with Jeffrey Polnaja of "Ride for Peace" and adventure author, Carol King. Really, there were so many accomplished riders, adventures and speakers that it became a gold mine of information available to us! The event really helped wet out appetite once again and gave us tools to tackle South America.

Kev and I chatted the entire 400 miles riding back to Lake Tahoe. The HU event has inspired us to take the final steps in embracing life on our bikes. The bikes are running better than ever, I have to say…the best yet! Thank you A&S BMW!

We contacted our landlord and announced our 30 day notice to vacate, then Kev and I rode to Santa Rosa to spend Thanksgiving with our youngest son Christopher who could not get time off work. Last year we were lucky enough to be in the area and spend Thanksgiving in Washington with our oldest son Paul, and his wife Karolyn.

Returning back to Tahoe we begin the process of boxing everything up and moving it into storage, or selling it. We were set back a few times with snow, but we some how managed to move everything down the rickety wooden stair case and steep driveway, slipping occasionally, which really blows, and into a storage facility. We removed the panniers from the bikes and kept them back in Tahoe to efficiently pack then made a couple of trips down to Roseville, Kev riding, me driving to move the bikes below the snow line. Unfortunately due to the weather conditions we did not get to all of the electronic projects on the bikes, before riding them out of the snow, but we will tackle issues along the way.

The last 10 days of our stay in Lake Tahoe we were lucky enough to be dog sitting our neighbors fabulous Weimaraner, Kenobi, while she was adventure racing across Costa Rica. While Mari was running, kayaking, and mountain biking to exhaustion, with the best of the best, world fitness elite, an amazing 198 hours straight with only 10 hours sleep we were soaking up all of the puppy love we could get. I really enjoyed the canine distraction amongst the final tensions of removing ourselves from the "normal-sees" of life. Kenobi is a little too large to dognap, but, don't think that we did not think about it! We will miss you both!

Driving out of Tahoe, we called in on our wonderful neighbors Jim, Judy and their dog Luke to say goodbye. The last 3 months have been absolutely crazy and it is fantastic that we accomplished all that we didI! Officially homeless and living off the bikes, I am excited and ready as ever to complete this leg that started off in Alaska.

*Horizons Unlimited Event in Cambria, California*

*Time to get the bikes out of the snow!*

*Happy Thanksgiving from a couple of Pumpkin Heads!!*

*Guess Kev misses the bike??!…Nice specs!*

You can meet some great people when you sell stuff!  Couldn't believe the license plate!  Nice to meet you Art! — *You can meet some great people when you sell stuff! Couldn't believe the* *license plate! Nice to meet you Art!*

ow that's what I mean…my own bed!  The only way to travel! — *ow that's what I mean…my own bed! The only way to travel!*

*A couple of snow storms made moving a little challenging.*

Fun with fire, buying off the rest of the wood! — *Fun with fire, buying off the rest of the wood!*