Yesterday’s journey to Bullards Beach, near Bandon, Oregon, was mostly pleasant and just a little frustrating. Again, we drove separately in a continuing effort to find out if we are better off apart than we are together. I know, some of you are shaking your heads, wondering where that’s coming from, and I understand. Diane does, too. We’ve discussed this at great length over the years and we always come up with the same answer.

Now, back to the trip . . .

Diane led us on using the GPS in the pickup, confident that I’d follow behind without worrying about the GPS in the RV which she programmed just in case I got curious about our progress. Normally I’m not too curious about that because I spend most of my time just looking around as we sail down the road at 65 mph.

Then we got to Coos Bay when she pulled off Highway 101 into a dead-end road leading into a sawmill. Having paid more attention to my GPS than normal, I detected a problem when she went off Highway 42 just 7 miles before Coos Bay and took us on at least a 30-mile detour on backroads, taking right turns instead of the left turns directed by my GPS.

Not knowing the reason for these interesting changes, Max and I followed along to see what was going to happen, ignoring our left turns and quietly making her right turns. I’m sure Max was confused, too, just from the way he looked at me. You know, eyebrows raised, and head cocked a little to the left? He’s good at that.

After Diane pulled into the sawmill, we had a little chat about what to do. She was rightfully angry with her GPS and had, I later learned, turned it off. It was unanimous that I lead for a while and see where we wound up. Turns out my GPS knew exactly where to go so there we went without one wrong turn. In Diane’s defense, she programmed both units so the ultimate address was the same on both. One difference I think she missed is that the truck unit has a little check mark by “avoid highways”, or something similar. We both like back roads more than freeways and avoid them when possible. Anyway, we made it to the park and I drove right to our designated spot, B-36, and ended this leg of the trip.

After plugging everything in the next order of business was to connect the satellite dish. Since we’re pretty much surrounded by trees, I had little hope of making it work, but climbed on the roof, pulling the antenna after me, anyway. I knew the general direction of south even though my phone compass was pointing directly at the setting sun. I knew that wasn’t right. Plopping the antenna down in a likely spot I went into the RV to see what happened. Oddly enough, it worked, but it didn’t give us our local channels. That’s what we watch most, so I had to go on the roof again to rectify that situation. I did that 3 times before I gave up and called Dish to see what they could do. The problem was that I could only align with one of the two satellites and the one missing was where the locals were.

I did some searching on the internet looking for a satellite finder and finally found one that’s specific to Dish. There is only one tall tree in the way of both satellites and I have enough room on the RV roof to “see” one satellite either wide, but not both together. So, I set it for locals and called it a night. The problem is that I didn’t get it done in time for Diane to watch Dancing With The Stars. But, she forgave me because I really did try.

Now it’s the next day, we’ve had lunch (street tacos), Diane’s finishing the dishes, and Max is waiting at the door, tapping his foot while waiting to go to the beach.

Later . . .

The beach was a huge hit with Max. There were only a few people where we went, down by the Coquille River Light House, so I turned him loose to see what happened. He really stretched his legs, running for all he was worth like he does in our backyard. The difference at the beach was he could run a lot further. Like hundreds of of feet further. There were a couple of moments when I thought he was just going to keep on running when he got about 500 feet from us. But, he came back. He also liked running in the surf, too. At one point he went out and just laid down in the water, like he does in the creek at home. Of course, we were never ready with the camera during those moments. There are other photos but they are in limbo somewhere in the cloud. They’ll show up eventually.

In addition to the water, Max loves to chase birds. In this case, seagulls. He doesn’t care how high they are, either. He’s going to catch them. He also chases the shadows they make on the ground when they fly over. Fun to watch.

The weather couldn’t be nicer here in the park. The temp is about 62, still a little chilly for us, but still very nice. On the beach, it was probably the same temp, but the wind was blowing about a hundred mph. Very brisk. Had to cinch up my hoody to keep my hat from blowing away.

Winding down now in preparation for giving Max a bath. He’s a mess.

Until then, he’ll be on guard.