Tag: roadtrip

Bend, Oregon

· Leave a comment ·

We rolled into Bend after the beautiful drive up the 97 from Klamath Falls. We wound through valleys and the Fremont-Winema and Deschutes National Forests. The road varied between 2 and 4 lanes, and there were trees, trucks, and trailers. Several of the little towns were clusters of mobile homes comprising housing areas and small businesses. We listen to an application called Autio that uses our location to describe some of the parks and the history of the areas we drive through. There are over 10,000 stories, and we learned a lot of interesting facts.

Althea and Jed (and Cheryl) hanging out in Bend
Clint’s office on the road
Yep, still Bend

The main reason for the visit was to spend time with the Barab Family. Caryn and Clint have known each other since birth, and we enjoy seeing them as our travels cross and as we get together for events. They split their time between Eugene and Bend, and since Clint had never been to Bend, we made this a “must-stop” destination. We were fortunate as both of their adult children were in town. We also got to spend time with Beckham, their first grandchild. We went to their house after work the first night and played for a bit. We then hit a food truck park for some great eats. Clint and I got sloppy Joe sliders, and we shared a lot of Mac and cheese with Beckham. We’d brought him a tie-dyed shirt (something we often give to little ones), and he had happily put it on before we left the house. A band started playing at the truck park, and Beckham was one to dance. He is a future Dead Head in the making as he feels the music and dances with abandon. At one point, one of the musicians played the trumpet, and his 3.5-year-old hands went to his mouth and mimicked the trumpet-playing motion. It was very clever and sweet. We will enjoy watching him grow up.

South of Bend, a volcanic caldera erupted thousands of years ago and was made a national park. It is called Lava Land, and as you drive past it, you see piles and piles of lava rocks that look like lava dunes. We went to that park on Friday when we finished working for the day. We used our National Park Pass for admission and were able to drive to the top of the crater. We walked the rim trail, and in addition to scenic views of the crater, we had amazing views of Mt. Bachelor and the Sisters Mountains, which still had snow at the top.

On the road up Lava Butte
Lava (duh)
Back on Lava Butte road
Oh no! A fire!
Wait a minute, USFS set that themselves
Lots of red
Wind. Hair. No problem for Clint
At the top with Mt. Bachelor in distance
Loose cinders?
Manzanita, pines, lava, and mountains
Ooooh…we need to go there next
Lava Butte fire lookout
Bachelor from ground-level
A sea of lava
Obligatory Apple iPhone panorama shot

After Lava Land on Friday, we went to the Barab’s for dinner. Doug grilled some amazing kabobs, and we brought the dogs. They have an 11-year-old labradoodle named Remy, who was unsure about Dani and Denzel’s tag teaming. Throw a 3-year-old boy into the mix, and watch what happens. Even better, their son showed up with his extremely sweet 6-month-old Labrador puppy named Birdie, and there was just enough chaos to be entertaining. Needless to say, all dogs slept well.

On Saturday, Caryn and her son and daughter-in-law played golf. Clint, Doug, and I went to Smith Rock State Park. As we approached the park, huge rock faces appeared to grow out of the ground. But when we got into the park itself, a deep canyon with a flowing river dropped hundreds of feet below us. We chose a hiking path opposite the rock walls that seemed less traveled. As we walked along, our eyes focused on the various climbers affixed to the steep walls. Smith Mountain is well known for its varying degrees of difficulty in the rock climbing community. We were amazed at the beauty of the rock and the fearlessness of the climbers. Heights and slippery rocks are not our cup of tea, but it was very cool to see. We wandered close to a golden eagle nesting space but did not see any. After making our way along the trails, we found ourselves in a section of the park called the bivouac area. We said bivouac as many times as possible the rest of the day.

The Crooked River
Those are some steep rocks
Crooked really is an apt name
More pointy rocks
Look at those pointy rocks
Hmmm, pointy rocks
Tree, river, rock, sky
Stopped panting long enough for pic
Happy to be outside
It’s amazing how you don’t even know the river and valley are there when you approach from the south

We met Caryn and the others at Deschutes Brewery for a light lunch and beer sampling. Then, we walked through downtown and one of the parks along the Deschutes. A Juneteenth celebration was going on, and we listened to some musicians as we strolled. We returned to the RV to freshen up and grab the pups, and then we were back at the Barab’s for another great evening.

We left fairly early the next morning, and we think we will be back in Bend next summer.

-Cheryl

And Now, After that Short Intermission

· Leave a comment ·

Uh, hi!

It’s been a few weeks. Whoever said that travel was relaxing hasn’t traveled with us. Part of it is that we’re both working while we buzz around the country. Long drives, good friends, and lots of meetings have conspired to prevent us from updating RodeNoise. Actually, that’s not true. Cheryl has drafted several posts that have backed up in my inbox as I struggled to keep up with the photos.

Well, we’re getting towards the end of the trip and I have more time on my hands. I’ll be posting Cheryl’s stories and the pix over the next several days.

Stay tuned.

-Clint

Born in the Desert, Raised in a Lion’s Den

· Leave a comment ·
Saguaro National Park

Tonight is our last night in Tucson. We’ve had a great week working and hanging with friends. On Sunday, Janine and Bryan came to the RV park. They recently acquired an RV so we shared some experiences and advice with them. Our other friends Carol and Jess joined us as they also shared tips and tricks on RV life. We all went over to Carol and Jess’ and cooked burgers. They have a yard built for a party and the dogs all got to play together.

Work has been very busy and meetings start between 6:00 and 7:00 AM for us since it’s a 2-hour difference to Central Time. The good news is we finish early too. We just did chores and upkeep on Monday evening. Yesterday the dogs spent the whole day at Carol and Jess’ hanging with Oliver. We decided it was time to invade their pool after work. We grabbed some beverages and hopped in. The water was super chilly and refreshing. Of course Dani wanted to be where we were so she went swimming. The boy dogs wanted nothing to do with that. We did a salad night and made our own salad bar. Cool food helps keep us feeling cooler. 

Today we visited one of Tucson’s best attractions, Saguaro National Park. If you’ve never seen these beasts up close, this is the place to do it. Most of them think it’s spring and have flowers blooming on them. Many of the other cactus types have already passed peak flower time, but we got to see yellows, purples, reds, and oranges throughout the plants. There is one very rare and special crested cactus. His arms look like a fan shaped crest instead of being straight and tall. It’s a beautiful plant and amazing to see it up close. 

After the park we had lunch at a local cafe. It was nice enough, bordering on hot but we sat on the patio with the pups. Carol and Jess drove us back and we hopped on our afternoon meetings. 

We washed the dogs at the dog wash and are putting away what we can tonight so we get a reasonable start in the morning.

We are acclimating to the heat which is good since we have another 12 or so days in the desert. Hope you enjoy the Memorial Day weekend. We will be in Lake Havasu. Should be great fun.

Enjoy some images from Saguaro National Park:

-Cheryl

Tucson

· 2 Comments ·

We rolled into Tucson early afternoon yesterday and it was a fairly easy drive. The RV park in Tucson is a 55 and older community and it looks like something right out of the Stepford wives. All the little lots and lawns and front yards are perfectly landscaped some of them with rocks and cactus and gravel others with signage and statuary.

We had to take the dogs for a walk and because it was pretty hot. We tried on the little boots that we brought for them. We’ve learned that with hot and also with places where there’s a lot of stickers these little hiking boots save their paws. When trying to get them used to the boots, the instructions say do not laugh. When they put them on, their little feet and legs are jumping up like they are on marionette strings. It’s all you can do to not laugh so we try not to let them hear us and I bribed them with treats.

It’s about 200 yards to the park so we figure let’s get it. Dani lost a boot at about 20 yards and Denzel lost a boot the next 20 yards and so on. We got to the little dog park, which is all gravel and they both laid down in the gravel underneath the bench. They were not having any of it. We marched them and their happy selves back towards the RV and at one point, Dani just laid down in the gravel and said I dare you to make me move. So, I picked her up and carried her for a little bit. We tried again and dogs and booties all made it back to the RV.

We loaded everybody up in Jed and went to our friends, Carol and Jess, for dinner. They have a standard poodle named Oliver and he’s a big sweetie. However, our little hellions take advantage of his good nature. Denzel bosses him around a little bit, but they get along pretty well together. All the dogs slept like logs after chasing each other through the yard and across the living room. Our mutts make themselves at home and, as with every other time we’ve been with Oliver, they pulled out every toy he owns. Oliver sometimes plays them, but Dani and Denzel think they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. We enjoyed the evening and about 10 o’clock, we realized we felt like it was midnight our time. We came back and slept solidly.

Dani and Denzel at Place during dinner

Like all good folks here, we got up at 6:00 AM and took the dogs for a nice long walk in the cool weather. After our walk, we ran errands which included getting gas, going to the store, running through the car wash, and grabbing coffee. We worked on some outside things including scrubbing several hundred miles of bugs off the windshield, mirrors, and grill. It was really nasty. I cleaned up inside and Clint is installing a tall pole for our Starlink dish.

Starlink for RV is awesome. We’ve had it for about three years and the only challenges we’ve had are in really urban areas or in places where we can’t get a clear path to the sky. We noticed that a lot of people buy poles and attach them to their back ladders and telescope dishy above the rig. It seems to be working. We will have to put him up and take him down at every stop, but at least he now has a skyward home.

Dishy has a new home, high above the
ground obstructions.

Today, our friends, Janine and Bryan are stopping by. They recently bought an RV and are checking out ours. We will all join Carol and Jess for burgers and enjoy the rest of Sunday. More on Tucson later this week.

-Cheryl