Rolling Thunder has been cleared for takeoff. California here we come!

It’s been a while since I posted in my blog.  It actually feels pretty good to jump back into it. And, it’s not that I haven’t wanted to write, it’s just that with all that’s going on in 2020, and all that’s not going on... I have found myself taking on a bunch of new roles, many of which require Zoom after Zoom after Zoom meetings...  

2020 DJ RIPS

Looking back on the days since the City of Los Angeles completely shut down due the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been busier than ever!  Busy doing fun stuff, like spinning vinyl records every Friday night with my “Pandemic Vinyl Fridays” DJ sets.  Yes, I was a DJ back in the day, but retired in 1992 at the age of 22-ish.  Basically my record collection goes from the 50’s to the early 90s.  With a large part of my collection coming from the 80s, most of my sets are somewhere between a dive bar jukebox and an 80s dance party...  

Home Classroom

Until summer started, I was an assistant distance learning teacher. And even though school has not been in session since March 13, I’ve also spent a lot of time trying to save our school from an unscrupulous developer, who lies and cheats, and is in the back pockets of our local politicians.  That’s a lot of liars!  I’m also a puppy trainer.  Yes, we brought home a cute little Australian Shepherd one month ago.  His name is Jasper, and he has already won over all of our hearts!  

Pandemic Board Games

I’ve done a lot, and have gotten paid very little.  Come to think of it, I have not gotten paid at all! 

But the tradeoff is beyond rewarding. Best of all, I have been able to spend some quality time with my kids! 

One of the crafts I have learned during the pandemic is the art of livestreaming. Prior to COVID-19, my production company, 1987, had never had a client request us to livestream anything. That sure has changed. 

Setting Up St. Mark Studios

I took a crash course, with a lot of trial and error, so that I could livestream our church services at Saint Mark Church in Venice CA. The church has been closed to in-person masses since March. But realizing the Word must go on, our awesome pastor, Father Albert, started livestreaming masses by himself on his laptop. Just Father, a MacBook Pro, a rather spotty internet connection and an empty church. After the first few days, he reached out to me and asked if I could help. 

Now, four months later, we have a full remote studio in the church with four camera positions. We’ve even started livestreaming in the church parking lot for drive-in theater style masses!  We’ve come along way, and have over 1200 viewers from all over the world tuning in every Sunday! I have proudly produced 40 masses! 

And with that said, it was time for me to take a break. Luckily two other dads from our school, Andrew Custer and Jim Zoolalian, offered to take over so I could take a vacation! I love our community!

Our first Dad's Life 3D Road Trip 2017

Now, if you’ve read my blog before (It started as a travelogue), you know that a true Donaldson vacation won’t be lounging on the beach at a resort in Barbados. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have my toes in the sand right now with a Barbados Rum Punch in my hand, but that would require flying in an airplane, and I won’t be ready to do that again until this pandemic is over.

So, how do we get out and see the world safely?  How about our own little quarantined home on wheels!  Also known as a motorhome!

Let’s jump back about two months. The kids go to visit relatives on Long Island New York every summer, but with air travel at a complete standstill, and with the news of the coronavirus being spread in public places such as airports, I came up with an idea that I felt I would be the absolute safest way to get the kids to New York this summer.  In an RV! And then literally, two days later, an article came out in the New York Times with the headline, “Worried About Social Distancing When Traveling? Join the Crowd and Rent an R.V.”

I would say that I was an early adopter of this concept (by a few days at least), but yet I was still late to the game.  When I first started to look into it, there were many rental options available.  But then as the word go out, RV rental companies were running out of stock quickly, and rental rates were off the charts.

So I thought, what can I do to make this happen for my kids.  Lightbulb! I will purchase a used RV with no money down, drive the kids to New York and back, and then sell it before I made my first RV payment.  Genius!  Well, actually, we did this years ago in Australia instead of renting a car.  That time it was a station waggon, but the idea was the same!  

Not only that, the AirB&B of motorhomes, RVShare, is going off at the moment.  And since my production company has been shut down since March 26, I could sure use a little side hustle income…!

Rolling Thunder!

So I pulled the trigger a few weeks ago.  I found an awesome 2010, 32’ motorhome with only 22k miles!  This bad boy looks more like a studio RV, rather than the camper van my parents drove my sister and I around the U.S. in every summer as kids…

Just a few more years...

I was eager to get on the road, but sometimes, even with the best thought plans, you can run into delays. At least that’s what they call them in air travel!  So delayed we were. But we didn’t sit idle at the gate.  We took our new home with wheels on a couple overnight trips to get a feel for all that this great machine has to offer!  And then we received word from air traffic control that we were clear for takeoff, only our final destination had changed.

Unfortunately, with the spread of COVID still a concern, it was decided that it was best the kids didn’t visit their NY family this summer.  They were very sad, but will be able to see everyone once they give us the thumbs up. So, overnight I came up with a new itinerary.  We would see Californnia, in all it’s beauty, from the beaches to the redwoods, and from the deserts to the mountains.  It’s not exactly the sea to shining sea trip I envisioned, but we are going to have a safe pandemic summer, see as much as we can and social distance ourselves away from the cities, and people, in some of California's most beautiful wide open spaces!

Grandma and Papa D seeing us off

Today we left Venice around 3:30pm.  We received a text message from Father Albert blessing us and our motorhome, so we are good to go!

Tick Tock

After a short drive up the coast of Southern California, we headed inland slightly, and landed our MoHo in Paso Robles just before the sun went down.  I pulled out the BBQ, and we had a nice dinner together, chatting about all that we would see the next day.

Everything is quiet, except the ticking sound from the second hand of the clock that is above Jaden’s bed. Jasper hasn’t peed or pooped on anything so far.  He is fast asleep in his crate.  Mazzy is still up, but now as a teenager, that is to be expected.  Me?  I’m going to call it a night! 

Life is good.

Day 1 – July 25, 2020 

Start: Venice CA 

Destination: Paso Robles CA

Where we stayed: Cava Robles RV Resort

Mileage: 210 miles