Kathleen's Window: Back to Bend and Heading For the Coast

Thursday and Friday, September 18 and 19, 2014

Turbo Bike was in serious need of a charger that worked. What good is an electric bike with no way to charge up the battery, so we were having a replacement sent to the electric bike shop in Bend. We liked Bend back in June, so we figured it was a good place to spend the night, re-provision, and visit a local brewpub. Our next stop was the Oregon coast to try and cool off, so Bend was a good stopping point anyway.

The next day's drive took us into rain showers just outside of Bend. We drove to Tumalo State Park five miles northwest of town. It was close to Bend, so we could run in and out driving the rig, and it had showers! We had been camping in boondock spots, or waterless and dumpless campgrounds since leaving Boise. We found a dump and water along the road to Hells Canyon Dam, so we were able to dump and fill out tank and jugs, but that doesn't leave us capacity for showers in our small rig. Some people do rig showers while they are at the dump station. They only time we tried that was in Alabama at an interstate rest stop that had a dump station, and a big paved parking lot to sit in while we showered and then refilled the water and dumped again. Sometimes the logistics of sorting out all the stuff you take for granted in a house can get tricky!

Tumalo State Park was almost full. The host told us we could have a site for that night, but the next night everything was reserved. We took our showers and drove to Bend. The electric bike shop was next to a residential area full of older bungalows restored with lots of character. Picking up the charger, which works, (Yay!), we tried to visit Deschutes Brewery downtown, and then remembered why we didn't go there before. There is no street parking downtown we could fit into. It's all angled from the curb and we are too long. So, we decided to go back to the Crux Fermentation Project on the edge of an industrial area with lots of parking.

Business was booming, even for a weekday! We were pleased to see this new start-up get so popular. We tried a couple new brews, and good pub food. Definitely better than a lot of other brewpubs serve. Then we reluctantly left to complete our chores, fuel, and groceries, although the health food store we found was really well stocked. Bend is a great little city with lots of scenery and great recreational opportunities. Deserves a longer visit some day. For now, we were tired of the heat, and ready to hit the coast.

Microbrewery Critic at work

After lunch the sun came out and so did the customers

Dog-friendly dining area

Ornamental Hops

The Spring and Summer have been very busy. We had quite an agenda we wanted to complete before Fall. The trip through the Northwest, up to Alaska and back, and British Columbia and the Canadian Rockies were a big chunk to absorb. Most of our bucket list for the summer is checked off, so before we return to the East, we are going to re-visit places we enjoy farther south. We love the Oregon coast, so we figured we could maybe camp there for a few weeks.

Friday morning we left and drove south out of Bend, west across the southern part of Crater Lake National Park. We were there last Memorial Day weekend, and it was still snowy and mobbed, but we have seen the lake, so we drove on. The road took us over to Grant's Pass, and the route we chose to cross the lower Cascade Range that runs the whole distance north-south through Oregon. There is no way to get to the coast without crossing over it. There are only a half dozen roads that cross the range, most of them farther north where there is more population. We could drive 68 miles north of Grant's Pass to Roseburg and cross there. We had done that previously, so Greg was determined to find a new route. Peering at the map he found a skinny road just north of Grant's Pass running over the range to Gold Beach. On the map it appeared to be paved. We're just crazy enough to try a dicey road, but smart enough to turn around if it isn't going to work for us, so with no time schedule to meet, in case we did need to turn around and lose time, we decided to go for it!

Driving out of Grant's Pass we found a boondocking site for the night on a bluff above the Rogue River and decided to get up early to give ourselves plenty of time to traverse the mountains. After dark an old truck camper pulled in next to us. The driver, a woman with two dogs checked to see if we had a dog, and then let her dogs our to roam a bit in the dark. One had a cowbell tied to its collar, and we went to sleep listening to the clinking of the cowbell in the dark, sounding through the windows on all sides as the dog slowly wandered around our rig!