On the road to Vegas. Gotta love those wind farms!

And... FIFTY!

Our Las Vegas Barnes and Noble appearance was our second-to-last appearance of the tour, but it marked the very last state we'd officially set foot in. The moment I sat down at the table and began the Q and A, our 50 State Tour became a true 50 State Tour -- at least one public appearance in every state (and far more some states -- California had twelve!).

Las Vegas also seemed like a great way to put a capstone on our 50 state goal, since it had been the very first state we'd stopped in (for brunch) on our long drive East to New York for the launch, way back in late August 2006.

We nearly had an appearance on the Las Vegas strip itself (at the V Theatre) but when that didn't pan out we had to scramble a bit to line up Las Vegas' B & N. Thanks to all our new friends there and at HarperCollins for setting up such a fun and successful signing on such short notice!

Dinner that night was with 24-Hour Comicker Andrew Taylor and his adorable kids at The MGM Grand Buffet (and if you've never been, Dude, it is a grand buffet).

Finally, just the four of us, went to the waters in front of the Bellagio...

...and watched the fountains dance to Frankie singing "Luck Be a Lady Tonight."

Luck was, indeed, with us this past year. Despite the occasional mishaps (my fender-bender in Orlando, the stolen DVDs in Vancouver) and a standard dose of family chaos, we'd actually succeeded in weathering a year on the road and emerging a sane, healthy and happy foursome.

Morning in Vegas.

The road home.

And...

...now the HARD PART.

This is actually a picture of one of our two storage units in Oxnard. We gave a van load of junk to Ivy's brother Marcus at the end of our frantic move to get out last year and there really wasn't enough room so this unit it became a real-life Fibber McGee's Closet for a year. The other unit isn't nearly so bad, but I just love this picture.

Though we were done with the Tour officially, and got to have one week off, there was one more important thing we had to do: Celebrate!

September 1, almost exactly a year since we hopped in the car, Los Angeles' famous Golden Apple Comics generously agreed to play host to our Tour wrap party...

...and boy, did they put on a show!

Custom T-Shirts, great food, great people!

Here's Winter getting interviewed. Well, we all did. It was kind of chaotic, but then so was the whole tour.

Thanks, Golden Apple for an amazing party.

...and thank you, everyone else, for an amazing year!