This morning, I was summoned from my room by B exclaiming “Quick tattie, a hot air balloon!”:

We then noticed that the fellow with the white truck was setting up a PPG!  I went over and said hello to Tuan, who was up in the air in no time:

Tuan flies a trike buggy PPG instead of foot launch:

Meanwhile, M and B rode their bikes around:

I decided to get my PPG put together and join Tuan in the air:

Up I go:

Birds of a feather.  Or rip-stop nylon:

Tuan filmed me from the air as he flew behind me. The video is here:

Tuan kept flying, but I had a perfect landing and then stowed my gear:

B created a shirt using batik, a process in which wax is applied to fabric to prevent portions of the fabric from absorbing dye:

The finished result:

I got in a sunset flight:

During family game time, I disassembled our Canon SD1100IS camera to try and clear out what I think is sand jamming the mechanism that extends the lens:

We didn’t have any turkey today, but we did have a great day!

After homeschool, M and I walked out to watch a train drop off empty lumber cars and pick up loaded lumber cars at he lumber mill across the road from our BLM dispersed campsite.  Watching the train use the sidings to drop off and pick up cars reminded me of my model train set from when I was but a lad:

Trish and B worked on drawing this model dragon, part of their Asian “geography through art” study:

From our camping area, we drove down to the beach on the sand road and looked at the shells.  Unfortunately, this is BLM beach, not Oregon Dunes NRA, so only street legal vehicles are allowed on the beach itself, so M will have to wait to ride his motorcycle:

Towards the end of the day, we drove back to the dunes at Hauser Road to fly my PPG.  The dune to the left marks the approximate edge of the airspace controlled by the local airport, so I had to stay north of there:

There was no wind at all.  This was going to be a tough forward launch:

Checking the pre-flight checklist:

I had one failed launch, but was not deterred.  Much.

And away on my 6th solo flight:

The dune area was surprisingly small once I was up in the air and moving along at 25MPH or so.  I couldn’t go south of the pond because of the local airport’s airspace, and I didn’t want to be out over the trees in case of an engine failure.  It was nearly sunset anyway, so I just circled a couple times and came in for a landing, which I managed to successfully run out:

This evening, I went to get water at a nearby campground using our water bag.  Trish worked on jewelry while I was gone:

Tomorrow we will continue our trip south.

We had a nice Shabbos in our BLM camping location.  Yesterday was the first sunny day we’ve had in some time, and it was beautiful.  I went on an afternoon walk that included circling a small reservoir and walking along the bayside beach across the street from the RV.  I’m glad most folks prefer paying to park cheek-by-jowl in a campground.

This morning we awoke to another beautiful day.  We left the RV behind and drove out to the beach, where M used the ATV safety certificate he had earned on Friday to legally drive his motorcycle on the beach:

M could achieve about 25 MPH on the wet sand, the legal speed limit here.  I was a bit slower due to my weight, and look to be practicing for the circus:

B took a spin as well with M running along side:

He’s pretty happy:

Along the beach we saw hundreds of what I think are Sea Butterflies.  The brown object is their stomach:

Lots of kelp too:

An amazing jellyfish:

After lunch, we drove to a dune field where I did my first unpowered paragliding.  It’s a bit hard to tell, but my shadow is mostly hidden by B, and I’m three or four feet off the ground:

Trish also did her first successful forward launch today!

On the way home, we went into Coos Bay and did a bit of shopping.  We returned to the RV towards sunset:

Finally, some sunny days at the beach!