Working on the Road

DRAFT July, 2017 -- not completed

When we were in the south of Tillamook at Sand Lake OHV area for 4th of July weekend, we were grateful to have found a place to park. Finding camping spots on the Oregon coast is not easy on the fly in the summer, it turns out-- imagine that! So finding a place to park on a holiday weekend was going to prove itself a challenge.

We watched countless families buzz and revv around on their quads, dirt bikes, and sand rails that weekend, sitting in envy of those with the right vehicles for the dunes. We did take the truck's work hat off and shift him into "Play" mode, though. We had our fun wheeling around in the dunes. Heck, Brent even had the joy of digging it out a few times for the full dune experience.

Work, though, proved a challenge. I volunteered to teach summer school, so I needed to be online throughout the holiday weekend. The biggest bummer was finding the means to do that. There was absolutely no reception in Sand Lake. In order to get online, the camp host recommended we go up to "Cell Hill", and he pointed in reference to a row of riders who had parked along the spine of a particularly tall dune overlooking the ocean in the distance. Even from our vantage point, we could see that people up there were bent over their phones, helmets off, feet kicked up over the handlebars to savor the communicative advantage of the hill.

Instead of working from the top of a sand hill, I opted to drive the 15 minutes south to Pacific City Beach, where I discovered I could actually park out in the sand on the actual beach and watch people surf, body board, and play while working from the back seat of my Suburban. Here was my view the first day of school. Not too shabby, huh?