I reckon it's about time that we sent the concluding Fall Tour 1998 Virtual Post Card.  After all, here it is the first day of 1999 and some of you may have wondered what happened to Dave, Lois and Leroy. Seems to me that our last broadcast was from somewhere in the western part of Texas, sometime just before Thanksgiving.

We pulled into Capistrano Beach, CA  November 24th around 8PM and had successfully completed a 10,000 mile journey:

That's.not counting the 500+ miles we spun up on Riva the scooter.  Near as I can calculate, we were away from Phoenix 78 days.  Believe it or not, we held to our trip "rule" of not being in a hurry to do anything, driving included. OK--there were a few 85 mph stints...I wanted to see how the F150 would perform at higher speeds.  Ford should have us do a commercial of some kind; maybe they'll give us a discount when we trade in for the Power Stroke Diesel 350, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

We found that the southern part of our nation is full of natural beauty and places that are a "must" to see.  Carlsbad Caverns is beyond words in its magnificence.  We spent an afternoon 700 feet below the earth's surface walking in a magical underworld:

Our path then led through Cloudcroft, NM where we visited the Harjo Foundation's beautiful mountain retreat. A bit further down the mountain we came across this railroad tressel that was still in use as late as the 1940's:

After a wonderful weekend with family in Las Cruces, it was off to the beach.  We pulled over at Yuma, AZ to catch a snapshot of the sand dunes.  Much to our surprise, we were watching the beginning of the annual Thanksgiving dunes party. Folks come from all over California and Arizona to play with their 4 wheel toys in the sand.  Check out this ol' boy's setup:

The couple was gracious enough to give us a personal tour of the coach while the boys unloaded the 4 wheelers from the toy trailer.  Yes folks, it had an elevator to raise the first 3 bikes to the top so that space would appear for 3 more on the bottom!!! Oh my, our F150/Haulmark was dwarfed by the monster.  I couldn't help wondering what it would be like to back such a machine into a tight parking spot....guess he wouldn't be visiting the Bronx, now would he ...

His neighbor came prepared to do some serious Thanksgiving consumption:

Clearly a different world ... our detour was brief and it was on to the coast for our 10th annual Sanderson Thanksgiving celebration at Capistrano Beach:
 
 

Of course, the nephews have to try to dig the "hole" deeper and bigger each year.  And the bargain hunters had to do a post-Thanksgiving shopping gig:

There was plenty of laughter and fun, especially after  Don's wild sea kayak ride.  Here's Dorothy, Bill and Robert witnessing the feat that had the attention of the entire beach captured for a brief few moments as Don had the ride of a lifetime!

 Kendall, John, Helen and Grant spent the cloudy hours expressing their artistic talents.  A sample of some fine wallhangings:
 

An of course, we can't forget the corgi.  Leroy was sooooooooo glad to run his little legs at top speed through the sand.  He was the lifeguard doggy, dodging waves far bigger than he!  We even witnessed him wiggling his upside down body trying out his sand angel skills.

We arrived back in Phoenix the evening of Nov. 30th happy to see our Dweezie kitty:

We're in the process of unpacking and preparing for the events of 1999.  There are only 365 days 'till the crossing of the Millennia, and there's lots to do. After the dust settles a bit, we'll put together another virtual letter with the details. Hope your trails lead to happiness, peace and adventure for the New Year.  May the wind always be at your back.
 
 

DBS, LAN & LBS