Well, we did it. Went to the 2010 Sisters, Oregon Quilt Show. FUN!
Took off at about 0930 last Thursday morning and headed south. Went around Portland (so we wouldn’t get locked in "rush hour" traffic) and picked up HWY 84 Eastbound. Cool ride! Cool scenery! Hot weather! Filled up the gas tank somewhere along that length of highway (I am NOT used to others pumping my gas!) and headed back out to HWY 197 Southbound for Redmond. Man, I love that High Desert country! (Pics)
Got to Redmond about 1530 or so and checked into the Motel. Got a bite to eat then headed south to Bend, Oregon to see some Old West Museum thingie. After another hour or so we got there to find it was closing for the day. Bummer. Sorta. They wanted $15 per person to look at stuffed animals! Can you believe it?! We had more fun watching the Chipmunks in the parking lot…
Anyway, back to the motel for a night of the History Channel.
Got up early Friday morning and had the $5 breakfast at the restaurant next to the motel. Made a quick stop at Albertson’s for drinks, ice and something to picnic on where ever we wound up around lunch time.
Headed East NorthEast for the John Day Fossil Beds Painted Hills Unit. (Pics) Wow! Impressive. Lots of great scenery along the way too. Got some great video both of the ride and the Painted Hills. Oh, did I mention? It was Hot! Plenty hot! SWMBO liked to have melted!
Left there after about an hour or so and headed further East to the Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. That was another 1.5 hours drive (or so). Nice place to visit though. Great scenery outside and a pretty good Museum with lots of fossils. Ranger girl gave a pretty good talk about the general area even if she held it outside where it was HOT. Did I mention that it was HOT?
Took off from there and headed back West almost to Redmond then South almost to Bend then back East to the Pine Mountain Observatory. Nice ride! Last 11 or so miles is all dirt road up to the Observatory. Cool! We walked to the top of the mountain (even above the Observatory) and took some pictures and video then back down to the car. We were going to leave but one of the Astronomers invited us to hang around and watch the presentation. So we just relaxed a couple of hours until that started.
Was a pretty good introduction to Astronomy and info about the Observatory and other related stuff. Afterwards, after dark, we walked up to the 24" telescope and got to look through it at Saturn. Got to see the International Space Station go overhead also. Cool! Double Cool!
But it was getting really late, we were freezing our butts off and getting hungry so we left and headed back to the motel in Redmond. It was only about a 1.5 hour (or so) drive. After showering the days grime off we crashed.
Got up early Saturday morning and had the $5 breakfast again. Headed out for Sisters, Oregon where I dropped SWMBO off so she could see the quilts. Headed back to Redmond, then North through Madras to some podunk little town where I turned back East to go to the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. One Hundred Thirty Miles Later I get to the place. Really not much to see. We should have seen it as part of what we did Friday. Maybe started (or ended) there. Some really impressive rock formations! (Pics) I started up one of the trails but got only about 3/4 of the way before I wasn’t too sure of my footing and turned around. Hot? Triple digit temperatures!
Took the Long way back to Madras then south to Redmond then West to Sisters and met SWMBO for dinner. She was pretty much done with walking around in that heat and looking at quilts. (Pics) So we grabbed a bite to eat and headed out.
West to Salem through some really beautiful country along lakes and through forests on Hwy 22. Turned North on I-5, went around Portland (again) and, except for a stop at the Rest Stop, got all the way home (on one tank of gas!) about 2230. CRASHED for the night and here we are.
What a great trip! What great company! What great scenery! What great weather! This trip was more than worth whatever it cost for me.
More later!