There’s nothing like a last-minute adventure. Mike had a Friday off, and a few weeks before that I decided to take it off, too. We weren’t sure what we were going to do but we knew we were going to do something. A week before that Friday, his company announced they were going to have a picnic at Lake Sonoma, about two hours north of where we live. So we thought, why not? And why not make an entire trip out of it?

So other than that company picnic, we had nothing else planned, which felt fantastic. We had the bus to sleep in, clothes, tools (in case something broke on the way), and an entire weekend to look forward to.

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Roadtrip: Day Two »
Roadtrip: Day Three »

Driving the Bus

Ahhh, out on the open road. We left at around 10am towards Sonoma Lake for Mike’s company picnic. The bus is working well, and there’s a giant kayak in the back.

Paula is on a roadtrip! With no plan. At least we always have somwhere to sleep.
- Twitter status #3607939163 posted on 10:13 AM, Aug 28th.

Listening to Pandora on the iPhone, which is hooked up to a $5 radio Mike found at a garage sale a few weekends ago.

The bus doesn’t have air conditioning, but it has a lot of windows.

The Company Picnic

Mike’s co-workers, waiting patiently for food. We had all the food with us, and we were running late because of stupid traffic.

A bunch of people went off to do water sports…I wasn’t too into it so I sat around in the shade reading. It was nice.

I don’t really eat burgers but the ones they grilled looked really good! I had a yummy turkey burger.

Eliz was on a mission to slice two enormous watermelons. She did an amazing job.

Chatting while the burgers are grilling.

Mike is happy eating his burger.

Mike and I.

Camping at Liberty Glen Campgrounds

After the picnic, most people left, but me, Mike, and two other guys stayed behind to camp. We went to a campsite at the top of the mountain. What we didn’t expect was for it to be unbearably hot. It doesn’t look warm in the photos because it was overcast for most of the day, but it was horribly muggy, morning to night. So hot that we ran out of drinking water, and it was difficult to sleep.

Boris made it in one piece!

There’s no 3G or Edge network at the campsite. What is this crap.
- Twitter status #3618351040 posted on 7:28 PM, Aug 28th.

Daniel and Dominik setting up their tent.

I liked their tent a lot. It was easy to setup and not bad looking, either.

The sky was blazing red when the sun set.

Paula is eating at a taqueria in Cloverdale. Oh I saw a jackrabbit today, it’s ears were really big.
- Twitter status #3618380676 posted on 7:30 PM, Aug 28th.

Mike and I went off to dinner at a local taqueria in a place called Cloverdale, which was really just one big strip mall. The food was surprisingly good. We came back to the campsite and the guys were barbecuing their dinner.

Boris’s pop top can sleep one person, but we used it instead to store extra stuff, and to help air out the bus while we sleep.

Daniel and Dominik, my new German buddies.

Dominik cutting open a water bottle to make a drinking glass.

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