East Oregon

I asked the gas attendant what Hwy 20 heading to Bend was like and he said “typical boring Oregon highway”. Halfway there a large cougar crossed the road in front of me, the scenery was sparse but powerful and there’s a little town called Riley along the way. Not too boring…

Bend, OR was twice the size since my last visit about 9 years ago and I just blasted through there as my destination was the Oregon coast, west of Eugene. I should note that a Bend Arco had all pumps going at $4.09 a gallon because everyone else was at $4.29.

The surprising town was Sisters, OR, just north of Bend. What a tourist industry they have! Great little shops had the sidewalks jammed while traffic just crawled through town on this very pretty Sunday. I thought of what Driggs could be…

Arrived in Eugene around 4pm and located the road to Florence which is right on the Pacific Ocean, 90 miles away. Unfortunately, the rattle in the engine was getting worse.

Coming over the mountains down to Eugene the engine begin rattling when I let off the throttle. This was a new sound and had me concerned. Since it wasn’t going away I had a very hard choice to make, pass the point of no return and head south all the way to San Diego, or turn north just in case I had to limp it on up to Riley in Washington.

I went north, through Salem which has become a ten mile stretch of strip malls. Veered East of Portland along the Columbia river on 84 and traveled to Hood River where I grabbed a loose LinkSys for quick updates to Riley and Steph.

It’s 8:15pm and I’m hunkered down in a spot along the river with no internet, writing this for a post tomorrow.

I’ve changed my plans. In the morning I’m heading to Lewiston/Clarkston, WA and then to Missoula, MT along another route I’ve never been on. Hey, summer vacation is what it becomes!

After that, back home for a brief stint. I’ll get one of my local bro’s to track down that noise, and then onward…

I need to say something about gas prices before I put the netbook away. They really, really suck!

My mind is blown by how many people out here on the road are driving huge motor-homes, pulling large trailers with big trucks, and basically just putting in the vacation miles to get where they want to go. I thought we had a recession going on, how can they afford this?

I’m shelling out $100.00 a day and I drive a Mazda four banger with a five speed…

Breakfast = Shredded wheat, granola, bananas and powdered milk.

This view is better than sitting in front of my office monitor. :-)

Ok, the road is a bit boring…