Bend Getaway

The month of July has been pretty crappy (weather wise) so far. I guess there were those two days around the 4th that were nice. But, they are far off in the distance separated by many weeks of dumb cloudy dreary days. "At least it's not raining." That is what I try and tell myself and others. But sometimes the lack of warmth really frustrates me.

On a Wednesday morning last week, we decided to take Friday off and go to Bend. It was Thursday morning before we realized that we could leave after work and spend more time in sunny, warm, lovely Bend. We got off work on Thursday, packed up the van and by 7pm we were on the road.

Our plan was to drive half way to Hood River and then spend the night and wake up early to finish the drive to Bend. Now, I'll say it was a really good plan, except when we realized that Hood River is not technically on the way to Bend. Oops! There goes my navigation skills again. So horrible, I tell ya.

Anyhoo, once we realized we weren't camping in Hood River, we sort of ran out of ideas to stop half way. That, and the fact that it was raining and foggy once we hit the Mt. Hood area made it really difficult to find a place to camp. Oh, and the fact that it is July in the NW and pretty much all camping is booked. That basically left Brian driving the whole way to Bend on Thursday night. He was nice enough to drive while I was passed out snoring in the back of Big Tom with the dogs. Good husband. :)

We arrived in Bend with no plans and just sort of drove down one of the main strips. Right about the time Brian said, "see - this is why I wanted to wait until Friday morning to drive to Bend." (Yes, it was midnight and we didn't have a plan) we say a glorious sight. WALMART! It is a thing of beauty when you see the parking lot with all the other RVers We pulled in, went to sleep and woke up to sunshine!

You can't really see it in this picture, but we were parked next to a "No overnight camping" sign. I didn't see it til the morning. I didn't feel bad though, apparently they are just kidding with that sign because there were about 15 other RVs in the parking lot.

The sun was so bright, we didn't even know what to do with ourselves!

Here I am taking a self portrait while trying not to go blind while looking into the sun. That is Brian in the background with the dogs. I think we were all dazed and confused by the sunshine.

We quickly packed up and left our beloved homestead and set out to walk the dogs, eat and go biking at Phil's trailhead. Below is a picture of the sign at our favorite trail. The Whoops trail. So much fun.

Here is a nice shot of Brian after our first day of riding. All smiles!

Also, Bitz enjoyed the sunshine quite a bit. Here are various shots of her enjoying herself.

In the last picture of her, she looks a little bit hefty. Please don't mention it to her. She is in her teenage years and is quite sensitive at this point. I don't want her developing an eating disorder or anything.

Let's not forget about Spencer, he likes the sun, but, I guess he likes the van more. This was generally what he was doing while we were in Bend.

On Saturday, we set out to do a longer ride. We were aware that some of the upper trails were still covered in snow so we had to figure out the best place to ride. We settled on the Mazrik trail as we heard the downhill was fun. Little did we know that a 100 mile mountain bike race would be riding on part of the same trail as well. It was ok though, we really enjoyed cheering them on. When we saw them, they were at mile 60 and it was about 2pm. They had been riding since 6am. Some of them really looked like they were miserable. Others were very happy. It made me think twice when I would complain about the climbing we were doing. I still complained about it though.

Some of the riders up one of the longest climbs.

We were rewarded with some really nice views. I made sure to take a picture of them.

We got to the top (after 3 hours of climbing) and began our descent back to the van. This was really so much fun. Typically, when you climb a ways and then descend, it always feels like you do hours of climbing for about 15 minutes of downhill. But, this downhill lasted for over an hour. It was literally the best downhill I've ridden ever! Swoopy, smooth, twisty, turny with an occasional jump thrown in for fun. The trails in Bend are so smooth that I'd be surprised when I would see a rock or a root. I looked forward to finding obstacles in the trail just to practice jumping.

Maps are good. They help us not get lost.

 But, alas, all good things must come to an end. And so did our lovely getaway to Bend on Sunday evening. After a long drive home with slow traffic, we returned home and disembarked from our trip. Laundry, cleaning, dinner, all the realities of returning back to normal. By evening we were settling in, except for 2 members of the family.

Even after we unpacked everything, they still wanted to hang out in Big Tom. They were ready to go again!

Nice Rack! (heeheehee)

We've been using our Thule rack on Big Tom for a while now and I have becoming increasingly frustrated with it. It is a great rack for the back of a pickup truck or SUV, but I do not like it for the back of our van. When we go to access the barn doors, the rack gets in the way. You pretty much bump/scratch your knees every time you open the doors. Not to mention, there is not enough room for me when I take my outdoor shower.

After a lot of research, we found a company in California that makes a swing away extension that we could use with our existing rack. Yay! Made in the USA, a small business called MWE!
Here are some pictures of the rack. It even matches the van!

It may not be very exciting for you to look at but I am soooooo excited.

The vertical red thing is the extension, the horizontal silver/black things are our existing Thule trays.

The rack ready to carry bikes.

The rack swinging to the left.

Look at that - opened the barn doors with ease! I have so much more room to access the back of the van, and to shower.

Seriously, I just can't get enough of it! We are going to ride the Plains of Abraham next weekend and I can't wait to camp and use this rack.