revival of S&S

Hello friends!!!
We are again on the road, and one of the first things Dave asked me was if I was going to blog the trip.  Initially, I said "no", but as I thought about it - staying in touch with everyone while we're away, and my love for writing, I thought why not!  But I can't commence my narrative of our East Coast trip without concluding my narrative of our West Coast trip.
I had some enquiries about the abrupt cessation of my Sunsets and Sand Dunes blog entries - we last left you all in Mendocino, California back in September - I was looking forward to sharing with you our stay at the Stanford Inn.  We took shelter there for a few days waiting for the rain to pass over so we could resume our tenting.  We were looking forward to touring the Sonoma and Napa wine regions and making our way to San Fransisco to meet up with Jane and Chris Spitiri.
I won't go into much detail, but while there we received a phone call from Dave's daughter, Heather, informing us that she had a health issue that would require major surgery and a long recuperation period.  After we got over the shock, we both nodded our heads, packed up the car and booted it back to BC, where we repacked the vehicle, gave a teary fair well to our BC based friends and family, and set out driving to Nova Scotia (chose to go the US route for speed and financial reasons).  I will share with you a bit of our cross continent trip (no sand dunes, but a lot of beautiful sunsets), but firstly I'm thrilled to share with you that Heather is doing wonderfully and all reports are benign. 
So, we'll take you back in time to September, 2011 to Mendocino, California - see post" "Stanford Inn"