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 Spring ‘04, East Coast Trip and Route 60 Journal Summer ’04, NE NM Labor Day Trip Spring ’05, Abilene Journal and Mediterranean Cruise Fall ’05, New England Trip Spring ’06, Texas Trip and a Midwest Trip sandwiched around an Alaska Cruise Summer ’06, Tuzigoot’s last trip and TuziTwo Fall ’06, Yellowstone and I-40 ramble.
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 taught statistical experimental design at three universities: University of New Mexico (spring 2000), University of Michigan (fall 2001), and University of Auckland (spring 2003). 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