Travel-In the West, Next Stop, Bend Oregon

Our plan had been to leave Eugene about 9:00. We pulled away from our son's sometime after 11:00. This was our maiden voyage with the motor home and towing our Nissan pickup. We'd driven both the car and pickup north because there was too much "stuff" for one. We sold our car at our son and daughter-in-law's Memorial Day weekend yard sale. The 1985 pickup was our keeper, since it was more utilitarian and able to carry my kayak. An extended kayak trip had been one of my original hopes for the summer but that plan appeared to be fading. The traffic was heavy but we made it through town, onto Oregon Highway 126 and were headed east without problems.

Outside of Walterville, we stopped to check the tow bar, lights and chains close to the blueberry farm where we'd volunteered the summer before. With the Mckenzie River running parallel to the road, we followed highway 126 north and east to the highway 20 junction. An alternate route for smaller vehicles, the old Mckenzie Pass road, was still closed for the winter due to snow. With 50' plus length, multiple switch backs and the narrowness of the road, we wouldn't have taken it anyway.

At the intersection of highway 20, we headed east to the junction of highway 22 from Salem, OR and on to Sisters, OR. Sisters used to be a small, quiet and quaint little town. Now, 25 mph couldn't possibly be done except in the middle of the night because of the traffic and crowds. We'd been driving the speed limits and had passed one slow truck on a hill. We were passed by multitudes, everyone else appeared in a big hurry to get somewhere.

Just east of Sisters we took highway 20 southeast toward Bend. I'd first gone to Bend in 1962 when the population was less than 5000. Like Sisters, Bend had been discovered and the sign outside of town said 78,000+. We located Scandia RV Park, where we had reservations, found a shopping center with easy in and out access and unhooked our towed. Towed vehicles are either toweds or dinghies in the world of RVers. At the RV park I saw a license plate frame that read "Kiss me, I'm a Towed."

The Scandia RV Park was a quiet harbor in a sea of madness. It was Sunday afternoon and the traffic was very heavy. I'd read, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that Bend was one of the top ten cities in the US for unemployment. Maybe all the crazy drivers were hoping to be the first to discover some new job opening. Our spot was wide, level, had wireless Internet and was shaded by big trees. I'll have a review article link on WWW.larryRmiller.com.

After hooking up to the water and electric, we hurried off to The Deschutes Brewery before the last tour was over. Hurrying off was to be our downfall for leaving on time the next day. I'd called ahead to be sure of their tour times and was able to put a face with the voice when we got to the brewery.

Like wineries, breweries usually have tasting rooms and we were treated to three of their many brews. You only get a small taste of three, probably because of liability reasons. All of those I tasted were excellent, with their Mirror Pond Pale Ale, still my favorite.

Our tour guide, Gina, was the same person I'd contacted and she did an excellent job of answering all our questions and more. The brewery was spotless and everyone we talked to said they were very happy to be working there. They told us the company treated them very well and had exceptional benefits. Deschutes Brewery started out as a microbrewery in Bend in 1988. More information is at www.deshutesbrewery.com. If you're in Bend, take the tour and tell them Larry and Celinda Miller sent you. Both the Rv Park and the brewery said it would help them track where people hear about them.

I have a good friend who I met 1963 while driving race cars. He and his wife live in Bend summers and outside of Phoenix during the winter. Celinda met them when we sailed double-handed back from Hawaii in 1988. After the tour, we called them and drove over to make arrangements for dinner. When we arrived, they had dinner waiting. Unbeknown to us, while we ate and caught up on what had happened since our last in person contact in 2004, little gremlins were at work in the RV park. We knew that unforeseen things would probably come up. One did, and we didn't catch it until the next morning.

When we got to the RV park we were in a hurry and I failed to put the water pressure regulator on the hose. The next morning our hall and bedroom carpets were soaked. After some detective work, I found the leak, remedied the problem and we left five hours later than planned. Since we were already six weeks behind, we decided to dry out at our next stop in Fossil, Oregon.