Honeymoon Day Five - Driving on 197

We began our day by driving into downtown Gresham and having a tasty Italian meal. Some fellow diners recommended that we take the Historic Columbia River Highway on our trip out to see the gorge. We took their advice and loved the drive -- the road twisted and turned and afforded us many fantastic views of waterfalls, rolling hills, and snow-capped moutains across the river (Mt. Shasta, we think.) This small highway eventually led to I-84 which moved much faster, but we still had lots to see. We drove along the gorge and looked across the river at the changing landscape. (This area is parceled off into various National Scenic Areas, State Parks, etc.) After an hour or so driving east, we headed south on 197 with the intent on landing in Bend for the night.

Most of the view along 197 was of rolling hills (often with cultivated grasses and other crops) as far as the eye could see. We had panoramic views and an almost constant look at Mt. Hood off to the west. We stopped at a couple of scenic overlooks and finally at Smith Rock before arriving in Bend. (See the Smith Rock video. This is a very cool spot and we could have spent hours exploring the hiking trails but sunlight was fading and we needed to continue south.)

Arriving in downtown Bend, we agreed that this town appeared to be right up our alley. Jed went into a record shop to ask for recommendations for a hotel, dinner, and nightlife options. We found out that The Decemberists and Death Cab for Cutie were playing at the local amphitheatre. Bend seemed to be a much cooler town than we originally thought.

But our first task was to find a place to stay. Checking out the two places that were recommended, we found out that neither had a vacancy. Stacy was given a list of all the hotels in town and after phone calls to all 15, there were no hotel rooms in Bend or in the next closest town, Redmond. Seriously? Our phones were dying and we were getting hungry but had no place to stay. Finally, someone recommended a small motel in La Pine, 30 miles south of Bend. A phone call revealed that they had ONE non-smoking room left and despite our lack of knowledge about the conditions of the place, we begged them to hold it for us. We had another Thai dinner and had to laugh at our second night in a row of scrapping for a place to stay. One night we couldn't find a hotel and then the next night, we couldn't find one with a vacancy.

After dinner we drove south through the fog and arrived at the Timbercrest Inn at around 10pm. The place was great and even had wifi (hence this posting.) The bed was nice and comfy, causing us to oversleep! After getting packed and ready in 30 mintues, we headed out to Crater Lake!

Map Route through Oregon



Waterfall



180 Panorama, No Cars in Sight



Landscape Speeding By



Gorge-ous View



Smith Rock Panorama



Jed Running at Smith Rock