Getting back in the groove

This is a bit of a trial run to see how my new technology (new iPad, Logitech external keyboard) is going to work for blogging.  In two weeks I’m headed out into my longest roadtrip since the spring of 2014, and I’m hoping the combination will work for posting from the road.

But–the content is actually from a couple of weeks ago, when I met one of my sisters and her husband for three nights of camping.  I was frankly mildly nervous, because I had recommended the campground and I wasn’t sure if it would meet their standards, but as it turned out they loved it, so that was OK.

(Just ran into an irritation, but it has to do with the WordPress app, I think–it’s not letting me select anything between the whole post and a single word.  It will select one or the other, but if I try to modify the selection to include less, or more, it just pops back to a single word.  Annoying, but not catastrophic.)

The first day, we drove down to Gold Beach–they had some things they needed to buy, and we wanted some beach time.  The following pictures are from then.

Above: Our dogs, having a moment of being OK with each other.  CJ can be dog-unfriendly, especially if she perceives another dog cosying up to me, but that day they had enough going on that she ceased hostilities.

Below:  Jerry picking up a branch to show off Rudy’s (the dog’s) skills, strength , and determination.  Note the size of the thing.

Here are a few shots of Rudy in action.

That one doesn’t show the size of the stick–Rudy had it by an offshoot and was dragging it along.  Maybe this one will show it better:

Well, still not showing it off.  But it’s a pretty shot anyway.

The next day, I realized one of my ambitions–floating down the river from our campground to the next one down, about four miles.  With their cooperation–they came and picked me and the kayak up, and then Jerry rode it down and we picked him up.  I didn’t really know what to expect, but there was only one spot that could be considered “rapids” at all, and those were mild, right at the beginning just below our campground.  Here are a few pictures from my ride down.

First, just heading out.  Pretty day, yes?  (As a side note, I’m really glad I was able to get the green version of the kayak.  The other version is bright orange, and I would hate having a bright orange bow intruding into pictures; the green looks OK to me.)

I saw about half a dozen blue herons on the ride down; this one was the first.  (Look carefully over on the shore–it’s there, honest.)

Because of wind, which blows up from the coast and gets funneled up the river channel, I had to row more and harder than I had hoped in order to make progress, so I pulled up on this sand bank for a brief rest.  And then had to work a bit to get back off.

And I was really glad when the below hove into view–the campground that was my destination is just below the bridge.

Next, it was Jerry’s turn.  Here’s a couple at the beginning–first, just as he got into the boat, and then one out in the river.

Here’s Sue and Rudy waiting for him at the other end, and then him emerging from under the bridge.

Finally, back at camp that evening.  I was out walking cats (on leash) (mostly Shadow–Phantom is consistently more spooky than Shadow and won’t go far from the van) when this wild turkey spotted us.  And came toward us.  I just stood there and watched.  Thought about letting things develope and seeing if Shadow would attack it, but my better nature prevailed, and when I moved toward the van again, it went the other way.  But you can see it got fairly close.

(The technology seems to be working pretty well.  Tried sending pictures from the phone to the ipad via bluetooth, but they refused to connect with each other [apparently a not-uncommon issue], so just uploaded them to WordPress from the phone, which worked just fine.  And the WordPress app seems to work well.

 So I think I’m all set for blogging while traveling.  I hope to be somewhat consistent about it–I like reading over old posts from years ago, and have realized that for me, blogging is only partially about communicating with family and friends; the diary aspect has become more meaningful to me over the years.)