The inevitable question which micro controller to use?

Hi Folks,

Well, I am still working on bang bang. I had some problems mounting the
wheels to him. BTW, I named him that because of all the references (to
the bang on and bang off method of using the toggle switches to drive
the motors from the RC servos ) last week when I posted my steering
question. I had originally planned to use pressure treated lumber to
mount the motors and wheels to, but the wood  just doesn't have the
strength. I am using a small (12"wX24"long) wooden box for the
platform. So I was able to get some 16 ga steel plate that I can now
cut and build the wheel/motor supports the right way. I painted it with
rustoleum primer and paint, and now am waiting for it to dry before I
start cutting the mounts.

Of course, I am now thinking about once I get tired of radio
controlling him, which microcontroller to use. I was almost decided on
the Basic Stamp after reading Gordon's book, but then a few people
mentioned the oopic, including Gordon himself. So now I am not sure. I
went to the oopic page, and just got more confused. The broken links,
the object oriented language. I am an old school BASIC programmer. When
I learned BASIC, it was the only language around (except maybe COBOL).
I have learned fortran and Pascal since, but I was wondering how much
of a learning curve there would be for the oopic compared to the Basic
stamp.

So my understanding is that the oopic comes with more I/O ports, and
A/D converters, a definite plus, and a language (I was able to read
parts of the programmers manual) that I am not familiar with.
Ultimately, what I would like to build is an explorer type, outdoor
autonomous vehicle that will be able to navigate the trails in the
woods around where I live and send me back live video, carry my gps
along with it to plot the trails, stuff like that. That's just the
start. I have a lot of other ideas too (as I am sure we all do), but
was wondering what would be a good first ucontroller. Can memory
(EEPROM, or Flash) be added to the Basic Stamp? Another problem with
the oopic that I see is that it does not seem to be as widely available
as the stamp. I may be wrong there, but the other day when I was at the
local rat shack, they had a Basic Stamp kit for $79.99, it included the
manual "What is a microcontroller", and a bunch of neat stuff to
interface to the stamp, along with the serial cable, and what looked
like a breadboard and wires, but no Basic Stamp. I don't know if that's
a good deal or not. I know the stamps are about $50 a pop. I was
looking more at the BS2 series. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas on
which may be better for me in the long run. I would appreciate
suggestions.

Thanks,
Joe