We arrived at Jerry and Sue’s in the snow, and it took a
couple of days before the weather got warm enough to be outside. This was fine by me, I was still sick and
coughing and hacking through the day. Wayne and I went into Bend one day to
look at mountain bikes and motorhomes. Remember
Wayne’s bicycle was stolen in Vegas, and we have officially had it with this
coach. Paint it yellow, it’s a lemon. We’ve been looking at coaches everywhere we’ve
been since that trip to Tucson in March.
We feel like we have done all the research and are reasonably sure we
now know what we want. We just have to
find it all in one coach and at a price we are willing to pay. We aren’t in a
big hurry, but will continue to hunt at every stop in our travels. At some point we will find ‘the one’; it will
jump out and bite us and we’ll buy it.
So for now we continue to hunt.
Bend seemed like a good place to find a used mountain bike
for Wayne, so he was on Craig’s list each night, and we went to several bike
shops to get educated. Boy some people
really know their stuff. On Thursday Bob and Cindy took us out to a local mtn.
bike trail area for an evening ride.
Wayne and Bob on the trail
Wayne
borrowed a bike and I rode my white ‘old ladies’ touring bike. It did ok in the trails until the central
Oregon lava rocks bit my tire and it went flat.
Boy it is easier to fix a flat bike tire than it is a motorcycle tire. Although my bike worked, it was obviously not
going to work for anything more strenuous than those few miles.
Friday found Wayne, Bob and I out scouring the bike shops
for a bike for Wayne. As we were going
to ride the Deschutes River Trail (15 miles) the next day, we decided to rent
bikes. This would give us a chance to
see if we really wanted to put out the big bucks for new bikes. A new full suspension 29” wheel mountain bike
is close to 2 grand. Ouch. So we rented and I found out that the right
bike does make a difference. The things
I could ride up and over, around and through amazed me. So yes, Wayne is looking for a used good
bike. Me, I think I’ll wait awhile. I still need to get a GPS!!
So Saturday morning we took two trucks into Redmond to the
car show, on our way to our bike ride.
Jerry and Sue’s entry into the show won second in their
class.
From the car show, we went to the shop, picked up our rental
bikes and then dropped off our truck at the bottom of the trail. Then we all hopped into Bob’s truck and drove
to Sun River which is south of Bend.
Here we unloaded at a trail head and started out on single track.
The trail
was relatively flat, with only 177 ft. of elevation gain as we went up and over
to Benham Falls.
Our rental bikes with their very fashionable pedals. I guess it is so no one would want to keep them!
Bob, Patti and Wayne at the Falls
The rest of the trail
went down stream, with us going up and down along the bank of the Deschutes
River.
The Deschutes River
Wayne, ready to ride!
Bob at the pond
Cindy and Bob
The scenery was wonderful, a mix of woods, meadows, hill sides and of
course the river. It was a busy day; we
met many hikers, joggers and other bikers.
We stopped for lunch at one of the many picnic areas.
Then it was off to Dillon Falls.
Patti and Bob
After that Cindy and I continued to chase the
boys down the hill.
Off we go....
More beautiful views
The rented bike made
climbing any hills much easier and I just rolled right over the rocks. As we got closer to town, and our truck, we
had to climb out of the river bed and up to the level of the highway. And it was a climb! On my white bike I might have needed to get off and push, but on the rental I just kept pedaling! Once at the truck (15.21 miles from the
start) we loaded my bike and I drove back to the shop. Wayne, Cindy and Bob chose to ride back
down. Next time we will know that we can
just park somewhere near that shop, because even I (the one that is not in
shape) could have rode my bike the additional miles back to the shop. As it was, I drove back (only got a little
lost) and had my bike unloaded and turned in by the time they got there. What a great day! We finished it off by going to one of the
local brew pubs for food and good beer.
On Sunday Cindy got out all their dual sport camping gear
for us to look at. The four of us, plus
our friend Lyon, plan to do the Trans America Trail or TAT during the summer of
2014. We are looking for more people to
come along. If you are interested let me
know. We will start at Virginia Beach VA
and end on a beach in Oregon. It is 80%
dirt, primarily farm roads, jeep roads, Forrest Service roads, washes, two
tracks… you get the picture. Most of the
paved stuff is back east where apparently they don’t know what dirt is. It is about 5800 miles and should take about
a month. We’ll be camping, which is why Cindy
got their gear out. Wayne and I used to
tour/camp on our road bike, that was pre-Becca, so 1980 something. Boy has gear changed. And bikes!
Before we were two up on either our Honda Gold Wing or one of the BMW’s
we had. This time we will each have our
own dual sport bike. We aren’t sure if
we will use our current KTM’s or if we will get a couple of used Suzuki DRZ400’s. The DRZs are better prepared to handle the
camping load, but I really like the light weight of my KTM. Hmmm… we’ll just have to see what happens.
After the gear check we loaded up the motorcycles to go on a
trail ride.
We unloaded at their friend Ron’s
house as the trails start out of his back yard.
Up the hillside, out through the gate and off we went. I haven’t been on much single track lately,
due to various injuries, but this was fun.
Scary, bumpy, lots of rocks, dodging trees, sliding in the silt kind
of fun! But boy was I wore out at the
end of the day. Like I said, it’s been a
long time.
We also spent some time out at the local ORV park, as it was right
there. This was a mix of
single track and quad trails, with some loose silty roads thrown in to keep me
on my toes! Great fun, followed by
dinner at a local Italian Restaurant.
Another outstanding day!!!.
Info board at the ORV park
Marked trails, easy to find your way around
We finished our stay in central Oregon by taking a long road trip with Jerry and Sue. They have owned something like 13 RV's over the years, so it made sense to ask them to go motorhome shopping with us. I wanted to make sure that we were looking at the right things, asking the right questions, that sort of thing. I'm hoping that the next coach we buy keeps us happy for more than 2 years this time. Sue gave us the thumbs up, so I feel more confident. I know, this will be our 4th coach, but after the luck we've had with this one? My confidence needed the boost. We left at 8:30 am and returned at 11 pm. What a day! We found one coach we really like, but not only is it out of our price range, there were one or two things I would rather live without. So we are still looking!!! But it was a fun way to spend a day with friends.
