First part of the drive was on State 126, which is very scenic, heavily forested, two-lane road winding through the Coast Range mountains. Not a lot of traffic and when there was a passing lane would suddenly appear. Near Eugene, we took the Beltway to Interstate 5 and the end of scenic. On the plus side, all rest stops were open.
Later we were off on Interstate 205 and shortly thereafter at the Willamette National Cemetery. Why a cemetery on vacation? Barb’s parents are buried there, along with two uncles, and we came to pay a visit. With some recent additions, the cemetery covers nearly 308 acres and is currently home to over 188,000 veterans. Barb and I are pre-approved for burial in a National Cemetery and Willamette is a likely spot for us.
After passing through the town of Boring, and yes, it is, we picked up US 26, which would take over the Cascade Mountains to Central Oregon. Along the way, Mt. Hood, the tallest in Oregon at 11,249 feet, still had snow. Photo was taken with an iPhone while the car was doing about 55 MPH.
A sudden slowdown in traffic had us wondering what was going on until we saw the vehicle off the roadway, upside down and below grade. Had to be some serious injuries there. It was a good 15 minutes before we encountered emergency vehicles headed their way.
The rest of the way into Bend was uneventful. We saw more snow on Mt. Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Washington, all of the Three Sisters and Broken Top and the Alpaca ranch in Terrebonne had a number of young ones running around.
We were amazed at the amount of traffic going in Redmond and then between Redmond and Bend. Never saw traffic like the when we lived there.
We have three purchases that must be made before we return home. We checked off the first one on the list when we bought three boxes of food grade kitchen gloves at a really great commercial kitchen store.
Our hotel was at the Old Mill District, an area along the Deschutes River containing high end shops and restaurants. Our problem is that we are here on a Friday and Saturday and the crowds are out in force. Realizing we would never get into a nearby restaurant, we opted for old friend Jackson Corner, where Barb choose a salad and I ended up with a very good pasta dish.
Tomorrow we will have breakfast with friends and then poke around some of our old haunts.
351 miles today
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