Tuzigoot Journal Rob and Susie Easterling
Introduction Susie and I live in Cedar Crest, New Mexico, in the mountains just east of Albuquerque. This is our house Christmas morning, 2003. I am a retired statistician who now does some occasional consulting and teaching at universities in appealing locales. Susie is a retired elementary school teacher who enjoys traveling. We were widower and widow when we got married in November 1999.
	In March 2002, we bought a motor home and soon named it Tuzigoot, after a National Monument in Arizona that we visited on one of our first motor home outings. Why? We just liked the sound of the word – Tuzigoot – and also it sounds a bit like ‘Susie and the Coot’ – which is us, or we. Tuzigoot, left foreground, is shown here at a campground across the Mississippi River from Natchez, Mississippi. You can also see our PT Cruiser which has faithfully followed Tuzigoot all around the country.
In spring 2003 we went to New Zealand where I taught statistics at the University of Auckland. It was on this trip that we started writing a journal, e-mailing it to friends and family. It was a way to keep a record and to keep in touch with the folks back home. We got enough positive feedback that we did it again when we took a two-month Tuzigoot trip to the East Coast and back in Spring 2004. We plan to continue writing occasional reports when we travel and decided to create this website and post our reports here along with pictures and other priceless information.
Travel Reports Here are our travel reports to date: Spring ’03, New Zealand Journal: five months down under including a week in Australia Fall ’03, California Loop: Mono Lake, Yosemite, Death Valley Spring ‘04, East Coast Trip, including visits to Vicksburg, Natchez, and the Biltmore Mansion. Spring ’04, Route 60 Journal: return trip from east coast along major portions of Route 60, once known as the ocean to ocean highway Summer ’04, NE NM Labor Day Trip: Wagon Mound’s Bean Day, Clayton, and Johnson Mesa Spring ’05, Abilene Journal: teaching at McMurry University, Texas county courthouses, travel Spring ’05, Mediterranean Cruise: during spring break at McMurry we join friends on a cruise: Nice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Tunis, Barcelona Fall ’05, New England Trip, outbound via the upper Midwest (Minnesota, Michigan), Indiana Amish country, AF Museum in Dayton, OH, Penn State football weekend, then a week’s stay in Vermont; return via Chesapeake Bay, Jamestown, Raleigh, Nashville, Oklahoma Spring ’06, Texas Trip: Big Bend, McAllen, Bastrop and Austin, LBJ Ranch, Abilene Spring ’06, Midwest Trip: to Grand Rapids, MI, via Denver, Oklahoma, Missouri (Silver Dollar City, Butler), Iowa, and Illinois; return via South Dakota (Tractor Museum, Mt. Rushmore), Wyoming (Devil’s Tower), Nebraska, and Colorado. Spring ’06, Alaska Cruise In the middle of our Midwest trip we fly to Seattle for Alaska Cruise: Seattle, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, Ketchikan, Victoria. Summer ’06, Tuzigoot’s last trip – to Mississippi: we replace Tuzigoot by an Allegro Bus, dubbed TuziTwo Fall ’06, Yellowstone: Moab (Arches and Canyonlands National Parks), Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone NP Fall ’06, I-40 ramble: To Raleigh and back with stops in Oklahoma (historic Route 66), Nashville (bluegrass), and side trips to SW Virginia (birthplace of country music) and Red Bay, Alabama (to get some repairs at TuziTwo’s birthplace). Winter ’06, China adoption trip: We accompany son, Jeff, and Valerie on an adoption trip to China and blog our report. Scroll to bottom. Our travels in 2007 will be posted here also: http://tuzigoot.blogspot.com/
Additionally, I have written articles about interesting travel destinations: · La Posada Hotel, Winslow, Arizona. This article about a fascinating, now-restored, Fred Harvey hotel appeared in the Albuquerque Journal in 1999. · Triple R Museum. This article, submitted to both Albuquerque newspapers, response pending, is about a remarkable one-family, mind-blowing collection of Americana, located in Albuquerque. By posting it here I hope to make the museum a little more known.
Family Much of our travel is to see our combined six kids and their families. We’re very proud of them and always enjoy spending time with them. For pictures and stories, see here (site under construction).
Other Articles Teaching Experimental Design. I have taught statistical experimental design at four universities: University of New Mexico (spring 2000), University of Michigan (fall 2001), University of Auckland (spring 2003), and McMurry University (spring 2004). Out of this experience I wrote a semi-technical article on teaching experimental design – what to do and what not to do, based on my extensive experience. This article was published in The American Statistician. The non-statistical reader can get a flavor of what I’m pushing and what I’m “dissing” from the early sections of the paper; statistical readers may want to read the whole thing. Roots of New Mexico Methodism. A few years ago I became aware of a small book by Twila Roller – a collection of stories from the early days of the Methodist Church in New Mexico. Twila and her husband, Bill, are from my hometown of Tonkawa, Oklahoma (I delivered the Tonkawa News; Bill edited it and was my boss). I condensed Twila’s book into a draft of an article that has been submitted to the New Mexico magazine.
Cheers. Rob Easterling