Lorraine and I left San Diego in 1995 aboard Southern Cross bound for the South Pacific. After arriving in New Zealand in 2008, we sold our venerable boat, moved all our stuff into a container (named Greenpeace) and bought a campervan (click here for NZ adventures). We flew back in July, 2010 where our wonderful pal, Joe Garrigan (our "shorecrew" and mailman for 15 years) lets us stay at his house in University City (where we sold real estate before going cruising.) We drove Baby Blue (below) to Clarkston Washington arriving August 4th and worked non-stop, every day, 12 hours a day till November 9th renovating our 8 apartments there. Left 6 days before the first snow! See some before and after pictures below. We fortunately got to see our son-in law and grandsons on the way back. Plus our great grand daughter!! The Cruising Coleman's are back in San Diego in December 2010 looking for a year-round warm place to live. Who knows where? Samoa? Hawaii? Mexico? Costa Rica???

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Our "new" to us (1990) car, "Baby Blue". Completely self contained, ready for adventure if we ever get done working.

Rest stop on 1200 mile drive to Clarkston Washington in August

Arrived August 4th. Exterior nowhere near as bad as insides of apartments.

This filthy, rusty base board heater was repainted and restored to work fine now.

Fiberglass bathtub and surround not cleaned in nine years, Yuck!

First bathroom restored. We saved all bath tubs (10-14 hours labor each, scraping, buffing and polishing)

Installed new floors,toilets, vanities, faucets, etc. Plus paint of course.

Kitchen cabinets restored. All new paint, vinyl, doors as needed and carpet in all units.

Rear fence destroyed by n'er-do-wells and tweakers.

Rear fence repaired with heavy custom-milled 2 by 12 16 foot fir planks.

New storm doors, exterior carpet, gutters and air conditioner as needed.

Spinning brodies in our parking lot used to be great fun for hoodlums at 3:30AM

Removing rose and herb garden planted by one tenant in the parking lot.

Huge excavation and seven trucks of gravel to repair the parking lot.

New paint, signs, fencing, parking lot. Boulders stoppped unwanted vehicle traffic (brodies) completely .

First snow one week after we left! Whew.

Our grandson Nick holding our great granddaughter .

Our grandson Thomas on his 15th Birthday in Kennewick Washington.

That's how Robby and Lorraine spent their summer vacation, 2010.

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