This is a daily write up for a Road Trip that Noelle and I will be going on that will tour the PNW and Big Sky Country. I will try to post them every night or the next morning here on this page. I look forward to writing about the trip here.
Not a motel, not a campsite, somewhere in between. More specifically it felt like a bed in the middle of the highway. All night we were pleasantly awoken to the shaking of our bed as trucks whizzed by, we were given multiple chances at waking up to blaring horns from the oncoming traffic. GET OUT AWAY FROM THE ROAD is what imagined the truck drivers were yelling when they flew past us, its our fault for booking a motel room 10 steps away from the highway.
At 7:30 we were already loaded up and on our way to Bend. Coffee, mountains, rivers, and REI await us there.
We were only in Bend for the morning but it captured our imagination. We parked at the looney bean coffee shop, downtown, and we strolled in to get a pick me up after that rough night of sleep. One dirty chai and a candied maple mocha. We were revived.
Down in the backyard they had a lawn stretched to the banks of the Deschutes river. Joining us in the beautiful morning mountain air was an energetic dog named Nillie and their owner Ryan. Nillie was a ragtag looking fluff ball that shedded about as much hair on us as it did happiness. Running to grab any stick that moved but an inch and jumping in circles when you tempted to throw one. Ryan was a carefree individual who happened to be living out of his car. He had just returned from a trip to Sacramento, not to different then us. He was a good guy who loved his dog and I could tell was looking for that next opportunity to share a good moment with any stranger he happened upon.
A cute downtown, and beautiful weather down by the city park and thats where we started to see if there was a hospital Noëy could work at. The town seemed right up out alley. We hit our first REI and boy did it make me jealous it was a beautiful store. Noëlle and I looked at each other as we left the store, “Yeahhh that will do, Uh yeah I think that’ll work”
After a unsuccessful snowpant search for Noëy we decided to hit the road for Portland. We will be back Bend!
Infinite hills and landscapes dominated by the looming Cascades.
Mount Jefferson
The Columbia River Gorge invited us back into civilization after we drove through so much of the rangelands. We decided to stop for lunch at a cute grocery store in Hood River. A Italian sandwich and a Tempeh bacon BLAT for us and a view of Mt. Adams to welcome us to Northern Oregon.
We then did the very tourist stop at Multnomah Falls. Noelle spotted another forbidden swimming pool at the base of the falls. I had to drag her from climbing over the fencing and jumping in. She was on a mission to get in but I made sure to keep her safe outside the waterfalls landing zone. While very touristy and a bit crowded the water showered us, rinsed us of the sins of drinking like 3 Dr. Peppers/ Celsius on the road. Then we headed back to the car for our final drive to the Air BNB.
I lied. Well you should have expected it with Noëlle and I, we had to stop at Trader Joe’s first. We got some groceries then got to the airbnb. Noelle made us a beautiful salmon dinner, my contribution was a DIY ceasar salad. We ate well and watched the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The night was a 100x better than our first night. I look forward to more days like this.
