Travels With Auggie: Loving the Northwest

Idaho provided an extremely welcome surprise. Boise, intended as a simple sleeping point, was lovely. It was clean, the people were friendly and we were provided with much needed reemergence into society after hanging in the wilderness for what seemed like forever. After a fantastic sleep we woke up to a brilliant breakfast buffet (hey now, unintentional alliteration! +5 points) in the "hospitality room" of our $50 hotel.

At any other place you would be skeptical of the breakfast buffet at a cheap hotel, not in Boise! They take this stuff seriously. A wide array of cereal, bread items, waffles and biscuits with gravy were spread out in front of us. Ch'nel and I sat down and began making our way through. It had been awhile since we had eaten and we didn't know when the chance to eat would come again.

We spent a good hour and change there until Linda, the breakfast woman, kindly kicked us out. But we weren't going peacefully. I distracted Linda while Ch'nel ran to grab our t-shirts so that she could sign them. Linda was confused as to why her subtle hints such as taking away the food and closing the door weren't getting me to go, but was overjoyed to be invited to sign our road trip t-shirt. Not only did she sign our shirt but regaled us with tales of her son in New York and his adventures with Bette Middler and her backup singer. Apparently they're all best friends. Linda's not too pleased with this, however, that Bette has a bit of a mouth on her if you know what I mean. We nodded and assured Linda that we did in fact know what she meant.

We went back to our room to pack up and instead lay around watching tv for awhile. We were comfortable and had no intentions of moving. Realizing that we had a 12 noon check out time we raced to the front desk at 11:57. After checking out we grabbed all the free popcorn, fruit and cookies that the bags we had brought in our pockets could carry before hitting the road for Bend, OR. Let me just take this moment to highly recommend the Shilo Hotel chain if you're ever in the west. Maybe this was an anomaly, but this hotel was fantastic.

The ride through Oregon was long but enjoyable. Like Idaho, the scenery threatened to be boring but changed just often enough to keep you interested. We spent the first two hours following a school bus where crazy things kept happening. Kids were jumping from seat to seat, lying on the floor and at one point we managed to convince ourselves that one of them had a crack pipe. When they pulled over for gas we pulled over as well because we had to find out what kind of juvenile delinquents were on that bus. The answer? A high school girls volleyball team. Hm, unexpected.

We carried on to Bend where we were going to stay with my cousin, Diane. As we got closer and closer to the city there were no signs of development. We wondered if maybe Diane actually lived in a tent in the desert. I had no idea. The desert continued right up until the city line where gradually houses began to spring up. We found Diane's house, and with that Diane. She welcomed us in and after catching up we settled in for an incredible meal of bbq chicken and vegetables. So many vegetables. I was in heaven, a real meal with real vegetables. So satisfying.

During dinner we figured out what we should do the next day. Diane is really into outdoor activities like biking and hiking and we were anxious to do anything that didn't involve a car so it was quickly determined that we should go hiking. Diane asked us if we were up to an 8 mile hike because she knew of a fantastic one. Feeling on top of the world due to my full stomach and the newly replenished iron in my blood and I agreed that that sounded like a perfect distance. So we cleaned up and watched some Planet Earth before going to bed to rest up for our hike.

We arose the next morning and began getting ready for my hike. I had to change once I put on my clothes and realized that every piece of my outfit, hat and backpack included, advertised Princeton. Damn them and their comfortable clothes. We set off for the trail, getting a quick tour of Bend along the way.

Bend is a cool little city in that at no point do you actually feel like you're in a city. Nor do you feel like you're in a small town. It has a very distinct identity that I don't think can be replicated anywhere else. It's very comfortable with all of it's chain stores on the outskirts of town so the downtown area really accentuates the towns identity.

At the same time I couldn't help but think of that Simpson's episode where Homer gets the job at Globex and moves to that perfect town where everyone bikes everywhere and gets along swimmingly. Then at the end of the episode you discover that the head of Globex is actually some evil mastermind? Yea, you all know the one I'm talking about. There were plenty of bikes in Bend and on Saturday evening everyone was walking around in shirts that said "I Love Bend". The houses on the West side looked right out of The Sims and the replacement of traffic lights with traffic circles made everything run a little too smoothly for comfort. There is definitely an evil mastermind living somewhere in that town.

Back to our hike. We reached the trailhead and set off towards the mountains. I was blown away by the beauty on this trail. Mountains with small traces of snow rose up all around us while crystal, and I mean crystal, clear water raced along the side of the trail. I didn't even notice the first two miles or so. Gradually the trail began to climb higher and higher, and I began kicking myself for agreeing to an 8 mile hike. Who the hell do I think I am? I've just spent two weeks sitting in a car for most of the day. I'm lucky my legs haven't atrophied yet. But I soldiered on, this place was beautiful and I wanted to see all of it.

We made it to our destination of Green Lakes, in between South Sister and Broken Top Mountains. The view was stunning. There aren't any superfluous adjectives to describe it, it was awesome. We sat along the banks of the lake and ate our delicious turkey sandwiches on bread that Diane had baked the night before while staring in silence at the lake. With our energy replenished we broke out the cameras and began taking group shots, including the obligatory jumping shots. I can't jump. Do I look like I can jump? I can't. I always look like a fool in these photos...and today was no exception.

When I had been made enough of a fool we headed back down the four mile trail to complete the eight miles. Going downhill, while not as strenuous, requires more skill and attention. Now that I had to be attentive to every step so that I didn't go tumbling down a steep slope I was also more attentive to my legs starting to ache. I didn't have any sort of time telling device on me so I had no idea how long we had been out there nor how long I expected us to take to get back. I never reached that point where I was struggling, however. I surprised myself. 8 miles uphill sounds like so much when you're used to...no miles on flat land. But when you're interested the distance just flies by. In no time we reached the long bridge to get us back to the parking lot. As I stepped up onto the bridge I felt the effects of 8 miles and decided that maybe I wasn't as prepared to become a hiker as I thought I was.

We got back into the car and Diane asked us if we wanted to go up to the top of Mt. Batchelor next. Ch'nel and I were hesitant until Diane told us that we wouldn't have to hike it, just take the ski lift. I was still hesitant, ski lifts are one of my biggest fears, but fresh off of standing in a glass box hanging off of the Sears Tower I decided "screw it" and eagerly agreed. Luckily when we got there it was closed and I wouldn't have to face another one of my fears just yet. That's probably for the better.

We returned to Diane's house to rest for a bit before popping back up and heading back into town. There we went to Bend Roots, a music festival at one of the traffic circles. I must say, I hate traffic circles. Hate them and all that they stand for. But Bend has really embraced them and uses them for a variety of purposes besides traffic flow, including art display and music festivals. I almost warmed up to traffic circles during this trip. Diane had warned us that she is a pretty big deal in Bend (my words, not hers) and we had taken no more than one bite of our dinner when people began to flow over to greet her. I felt popular just eating dinner with her.

The bands were fantastic! One used a harmonica and a didgeridoo, the other was a great funk-esque band and the final one had a girl drummer who was out of control. To use a phrase that the kids are using, disgusting.

You couldn't help but notice the abundance of white people in Bend, especially when a black man trying to sell his book of poetry took Ch'nel's hand and said "sister, we don't see too many of our kind around here". Awkward for everyone. On the plus side it led itself to a variety of "Holy shit, are you black? I never knew" jokes for the rest of the night.

On the whole, however, Ch'nel and I fell in love with Bend, OR. Leaving the next day was hard. We took our time getting out of Oregon, stopping at Crater Lake National Park along the way. The lake was covered with smoke from a nearby forest fire but still stunningly gorgeous. Crater Lake was created from a collapsed volcano so what you now see is a giant lake in the middle of a mountain with the cone of the volcano sticking up in the middle. Even with the layer of smoke the water was still brilliantly blue. It reflected the sky so perfectly that when you looked down you felt like you were falling into the sky. If you let yourself get lost in the water you could convince yourself that you were floating somewhere between sky and ground with no idea which way was up. Very trippy, very awesome.

We're now in California at Redwoods National Park. I will do a full update on this tomorrow but I'll just say it hasn't let us down. The forest is incredibly peaceful and you're instantly relaxed the moment you walk in. Also I drove my car through a tree today. Yes, through a tree. Think about that one for awhile.