We found it!

 1989 Toyota Dolphin

There she was waiting for us to come pick her up just outside of Chattanooga, TN.

We drove down on Friday right after school. Of course we had to stop for Chic-fil-A on the way. We stopped at what we later called the Skank mall. Seems we were the only folks in the mall that Friday evening that weren't heavily tattooed or pierced. And didn't have unnaturally colored hair extentions. And were dressed like civilized folk instead of streetwalkers and skater-pimps. We enjoyed our lemonade and nuggets in the van on the road.

We met Glenn, a sweet single father, at a fireworks store near the interstate Saturday morning. We walked around the Dolphin. We turned all the knobs. We flipped switches. We kicked the tires. And we bought a motorhome.

Men build fires.

We started home Saturday afternoon. We spent the night in Bowling Green, KY at the KOA campground (or is it Kampground?) After some confusion about which spot was ours, we set up camp, figured out how to get shore power and hooked up the water. The boys started a camp fire. And roasted marshmallows.

Sleeping

Liam slept on the dinnette bed. Gray slept on the foldout sofa and Pat and I perched in the upper bunk over the truck cab. Things were going well until 4:30 AM when a heavy thunderstorm blew through Bowling Green. Thunder and heavy rain are bad under normal conditions, but in a small box, it's LOUD! The budding teenager didn't wake up - he remained totally motionless through the entire storm.

Eating

The next morning, I perked coffee on the tiniest stove and the boys ate chocolate cheerios for breakfast. Pat ran up to the campground (kampground) office to ask for pointers for emptying the black water tank. Ewwww. His best father's day ever began with dumping liquid waste.

We hit the road afer breakfast and drove and drove and stopped for gas and stopped for gas again and again and again. The Dolphin has a teeny fuel tank and boys wanted to take turns riding with dad in the motorhome. I got to listen to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory twice on this trip.