Captain's Log, Stardate: June 15, 2014.

We just spent our first night of our road trip in Oatis (the RV, in case you haven't been keeping up) with Annemarie (sister), Megan (sister in law), Olive (baby)Hank (some kind of terrier, scottie, yorkie, I'm not sure which), Saul (australian cattle dog).

We're in a park on a lake in San Angelo. Nice place, I can see the water from where I'm sitting writing this. Here's our schedule:

Monday and Tuesday I teach in Odessa, so we're heading over there later this afternoon. Actually, we're staying in Midland at an RV park. The tracking boom has made it hard to find RV parks in Odessa, apparently.

Tuesday night we take off towards Orange, CA, where I have a 4 hour meeting at 8 am Thursday morning. We are driving mostly through the the night, going through San Diego, up through Escondido (Stone, here we come), to Orange. Probably get there mid afternoon Wednesday.

Then we spend Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday doing nothing. Hopefully.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I work in Irvine.

Friday, June 27th, we unhook Oatis and drive to Morro Bay.

Saturday, we drive to Pacifica.

Sunday, we drive to Fort Bragg.  Hello, North Coast. Old Rasputin, here I come.

Monday, we drive to Brookings, OR.

Tuesday, we drive to Seaside. After making the required stop at Rogue Brewing in Newport.

Wednesday, we drive to Stanfield, OR. Kind of out by Pendleton.

Thursday, we drop off Annemarie, Megan, Olive, Hank, and Saul, in Boise, Idaho. Then we head back towards TX.

By the way, we sold the Sonata, and are planning on selling the trailer as soon as we drop everyone off in Boise. I'm looking forward to NOT dragging 5,800 pounds behind us for a while. Anyone know anybody with a 5 to 10 year old jeep wrangler, 2 door, soft top, they want to sell?

3 Nights in Anderson, IN

Ann and I just spent 3 nights in Timberline Family RV Resort in Anderson, Indiana. The previous 3 nights were in St. Charles, MO.

It was great! Met some nice people, had a chance to see what it's like to actually "camp" in a park for a few days at a time. I think we're going to love this.

I especially enjoy the mornings. Sitting outside, drinking coffee, before the rest of the park is waking up. Very peaceful.

Still have a few bugs to work out. Like, for example, the refrigerator doesn't work. But, we're going to Columbus for 4 days, and we're going to drop it off at a repair shop and go stay with a friend while they fix it. Hopefully.

Then we're off to Patascpo Valley State Park near Baltimore for 5 nights. Should be a good time.

We bought an RV and named it Oatis

Last week we bought an RV. It's something we've been fantasizing about... then sort of considering... then seriously considering... for a couple of years now. And even though we've been planning on doing it someday, we weren't planning on that day being last Wednesday.

Here's Oatis!

Oatis is a Forest River Forester, Class C motorhome, model 3051S. He's 31'11" long and weighs 14,500 lbs. What a big boy!

Why Oatis? For one, despite a Facebook campaign and Kaelan's best efforts, Sandra wouldn't name her baby Oatis. And two, we think this is funny (skip to 3:00):