Day 1 TheBeanTeam celebrates 15 Years of Bean Teaming

On June tenth we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary with a trip to the coast. We stayed in Port Orford where we hiked, geocached, walked the beach, visited an off beat roadside attraction and rested.

It was a glorious weekend. We left the kids with friends and took the dog heading out on Thursday after work for a vacation rental house overlooking the Oregon Coastline from a distance.

We stopped for a few brief walks on the trip over to the coast. First we stopped in at Archie Knowles Campground to allow the dog a short walk. Of course we had fired up the GPS to see it there was a geocache before we pulled in. Mrs. Bean made quick work of finding the cache and as soon as we were all refreshed and rested we headed on over to Florence where we turned south.

Mrs. Bean thought she heard something odd with the van so we pulled off to see what the sound was. I couldn't hear it but it happened that we were at the Oregon Dunes Overlook where we enjoyed our first view of the ocean during our trip along a pleasant little boardwalk. We would have liked to take off hiking but  needed to be several hours south before it got to late.

We pulled into Coos Bay and had romantic bite to eat in the parking lot of Fred Meyers. We splurged and got Arby's....hey it was an anniversary trip. Nothing but the best for TheBeanTeam. The rest of the trip was quick and uneventful and we found our home away from home without trouble where we spent the evening getting settled and unwinding.

Meeting with Uncle Sam

I have been trying to get together with my brother for some time. He mentioned the Sportsman's Show in Roseburg as something he hoped to go to and I decided to make a visit happen. The Bean Himself and I hit the road early for the meet up.

We stopped at a rest area on the way down to stretch our legs. I was snapping some photos and a passerby offered to take one of the both of us. Nice gesture I thought since I am not in many of the kids photos. There is a nice Oregon State History "Beaver Board" at this location detailing the history of the Cow Creek Indians.

We were soon on the road and hooked up with Sam at the fairgrounds. Near where we parked is the county museum and part of their collection is the old train depot from the nearby town of Dillard. The Dillard depot is a beautiful old structure and we spent some time photographing it's new home.

After the show we all loaded up and headed over to the Rodeo Steakhouse. The Bean Himself really loved this place because of the large containers of peanuts that were at each table.

It wasn't so much the peanuts but the fact that the restaurant allowed and even encouraged you to throw the shells on the floor. We had some problems while paying. They made a mistake running a card and they gave me a card for a free entree at one of their locations. Nice that.

While we were eating I had mentioned that I thought there was an old locomotive somewhere around and that I would like to visit it with The Bean. Sam knew right where it was even though he hadn't been there for decades. Sam grew up in the area and played on the locomotive when it was first donated and installed in the park 50 years ago.
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We drove on over and The Bean Himself played for awhile. He really enjoyed getting up close and personal with the engine (Southern Pacific 1229). Afterwords I grabbed a few photos of a rare benchmark. An intersection station using an airway beacon. Most airway beacons are long gone but this one is still standing tall. Next we checked out the old Southern Pacific Depot that is now a McMennamins Restaurant and found a benchmark on it's wall then we bummed around downtown a bit.

On the way out of town I saw a vintage neon sign in action and did a u-turn to capture photos of it before heading home.

Origin of TheBeanTeam:
TheBeanTeam was created on a Thanksgiving day in 2002. Brother in-law RvrRnr (aka Dean) introduced Mr. Bean (aka Garbanzo Bean) to an activity called Geocaching.

We were a new family with a brand new baby boy that we were obsessed with. This little boy also has, as part of his name, the "Dean" moniker and his Aunt started calling him The Bean. In December of 2002 Mrs. Bean (Coffee Bean) produced a Christmas gift that included a GPS receiver and we signed up for a geocaching account. Thus, TheBeanTeam was born.


In April of 2006 the team added another member. The Sprout was born and transformed our home as only a little girl can.

Our original team included our greyhound, Dango Dog, who went everywhere with us and accompanied us on our wanderings. He was a retired racer who helped separate folks from their money by being a class c racing dog and not all that dependable on the track. He was dependable in our home however, we could depend on him to dig in the trash if we didn't secure it and to run off if the chance provided itself. Dango developed a limp that proved to be bone cancer and has retired once again...this time permanently. Rest in Peace Dango Dog.

Since 2002 we have added other activities as well. Mr. Bean now hunts benchmarks and creates waymarks . Both are GPS related activities.