LA/XC-52016 LA/XC-5 DAYS FOUR, FIVE, AND SIX: POSTING FROM GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO Three-day mileage from Des Moines, IA, to Grand Junction, CO: 990.8 Total LA/XC-5 mileage: 2,221.6 Road Music: Monday: CNN, MSNBC, and FOX to pre-game for Round One of Hillary vs. Donald; my “Deep Themes in Country Music” playlist (the likes of “Beer” by Lee Brice; “Beer Money” by Kip Moore; “Pretty Good at Drinkin’ Beer” by Billy Currington;...

At 11 o’clock this morning, Beagle Man posted —and I quote — “He’s been an absolutely perfect and wonderful dog so far on this trip.” LA/XC-52016 That’s me he’s talking about, just so you know.  One hour later, he’s screaming his guts out at me.  Can I please tell my side of the story?  So we were playing fetch at a ball field in Windsor Heights, right near Des Moines.  Not all that exciting.  But I could sense something nearby, something I needed...

LA/XC-52016 LA/XC-5 DAY TWO AND THREE: POSTING FROM DES MOINES, IOWA Two-day mileage from Austintown (suburb of Youngstown), OH to Des Moines, IA: 770.4 Total LA/XC-5 mileage: 1,230.6 Road Music:  Saturday: Sirius Cycle (stuck with “The Spectrum” for awhile — enjoyed the wide range, everything from Florence + the Machine to Neil Young); then, my “Hank’s 300 Favorites” playlist; Sunday: NFL Radio’s Sunday Drive — all day! Weather leaving Austintown...

LA/XC-5 DAY ONE: POSTING FROM AUSTINTOWN, OH LA/XC-52016 Today’s mileage: 460.2 Total LA/XC-5 mileage: 460.2 (duh) Road Music:  Sirius Cycle (one-time-only explanation:  I tend to start my road days with the news — especially during this freaky, weird, and scary, but enormously entertaining election season — on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News (for comic relief); then sports (ESPN, NFL Network); then music (today, The Highway [country] and Tom Petty Radio); next, the LA/XC...

* * *COUNTDOWN: 6 DAYS TO LA/XC-5 * * * Once again, oldest son Matt will be hitching a ride for a short stretch The official logo of LA/XC-5 (2016) on my just-around-the-corner (starts in less than one week from today!) Beagle Man cross-country-road-trip-with-dog.  As you might recall, Matt joined me and Kemba on our northern return route — Portland, Oregon to Bismarck, North Dakota — on the 2015 journey.  (I know Kemba remembers, cause he lost his shotgun seat for four days.)  That...

* * *COUNTDOWN: 17 DAYS TO LA/XC-5 * * * What?  We’re picking up and driving from here to Los Angeles — again?  I thought that trip back in April of 2015 was a one-off!  What a nightmare!  Does Beagle Man even remember?  How I was so nuts over being stuck in the car all day and the motel all night that I’d start biting him in our room?  And what I did to his precious AAA map of the United States?  Yeah, true, I was only 7 months old at the Yum. time, and now I’m...

* * *COUNTDOWN: 28 DAYS TO LA/XC-5 * * * Poor Kemba’s been coping with adversity this whole summer. The purple ball All my dog wants out of life is to fetch the purple squeaky rubber ball that I chuck into the ocean for him.  But when he swims for it, retrieves it, and drops it at my feet, beautfully, like a good, good dog . . . his nephew Ruckus moves in and snags it.  In his very strong, vise-like, don’t-mess-with-me jaws.  Which means a major disruption in the game....

Last summer, Kemba’s first birthday celebration on #hermanbeach in Party favors Amagansett was a relatively low-key affair.  Kept under wraps until the afternoon of the party, and even then only signaled by a small copy-paper sign taped to the Beagle Man’s surfboard*, there were just seven humans and two dogs in attendance.  On Saturday, aided by an e-blast, a few in-person invites to the Jack’s Coffee crowd, and beach word-of-mouth, those figures ballooned to 22...

Weekend before last, on Friday afternoon, this monstrous, huge, scary ball appeared out of nowhere on the beach, in front of the White Sands Motel.  I made sure to keep as much ground between me and it as possible.  Beagle Man didn’t seem upset by the thing; he was Last week . . . focused on the lights being strung, and said, “I bet they’re setting up for a wedding.”  One of his friends disagreed, saying, “I really don’t think they’d have a...

    Photos by beach buddy Scott Rudin