The hunt continues for the next Grey Goose Express

ANDERSON, Calif., USA - The search has been going on feverishly for the past week for a successor to last year's Grey Goose Express. No Grey Goose vodka has been imbibed yet to aid the quest. But perhaps that's why the search is taking soooo long.

The original Grey Goose Express is safely in Arroyo Seco, but Grey Goose Express II will make a nice addition, when we find it. The Admiral and I have scoured Craigslist and several travel trailer lots in search of a used unit - an experience slightly better than going onto a used car lot. Slightly better. Make that very slightly better.

But our efforts are paying off as we have discovered that there are a variety of relatively lightweight travel trailers available - and affordable - so that we are less likely to overheat our transmission heading south.

Yes, we did overheat a little last year in the Trooper pulling the Aerolite 25 (AKA, the Grey Goose Express) on the 2000-mile trip. At one point during that drive, I almost melted a plastic coffee cup which was sitting on the transmission in the center of the car.

But that's history.

To the north of Sacramento, in a tiny hamlet called Anderson, we have located a 22-foot Tahoe Lite trailer, a trailer that might be as much as 1,000 pounds lighter than the original Grey Goose.


Outside of Tahoe Lite trailer

Walkaround bed

The galley

What makes this trailer also special is that the bed is easily accessed from both sides of the trailer. After six years of Sabbatical's narrow bunk in the aft cabin of the sailboat - and last year's single-entry bed on the original Grey Goose Express - the order from the Admiral was unequivocal - the bed in the new trailer had to be a 'walkaround.'

In fact, when I have been using Google to search, I only ask for 'walkaround' and 'lite.'

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The semester has been rolling like a freight train on icy tracks with midterms starting and already the countdown calendar is starting to get jammed up with things that need to be done. (Like grade the stack of papers sitting on my desk.)

At the same time, all of my classes have reached that point of equilibrium - the students are tired, I'm tired and so we compare notes on fatigue, in addition to lectures and course materials.

Monday night my Literary Journalism class got an infusion of international energy however, when friends of one of the students - who are visiting from Germany - came to class. Both young women contributed their opinions very well. And after class, insisted on having their photo taken with me.

It's not exactly like being a rock star, but I can pretend.

And yes, I do teach wearing shorts.


The Captain at work at the university