A Bend In The Road

As always, we want to get as far from home as possible on our first day, so today we rode about 500 miles to Bend, Oregon.

As we rode, the sun rose and warmed the cool air.

Today’s ride was uneventful but enjoyable. The weather was perfect and the ride was familiar; farmlands, orchards, high desert and forest.

We saw a crop duster spraying fielids and we even saw some fighter jets but they seemed to disappear before we could get a picture of them. We ended up with a bad photo of the crop duster.

Today was full of relearning the drill of long rides after an almost three-year absence due to the pandemic. We took several breaks and realized we need to work on how to get on the darn bike. Cathy is so short that getting up and over the thing is a challenge. We’re working on some fixes and hope to have the cussing sessions minimized in the next few days. Once on the bike, the ride is fabulous.

We got to Bend around 5:00pm, unloaded and took a brief rest before heading to dinner at the Pine Tavern (thanks Lin and Nick for the recommendation!) which is right on the banks of the Deschutes River.

There were many bends in today’s roads but Cathy’s favorite was not being bent over her desk! She loves her job but it was time for a break.

Tomorrow we head to Leavenworth, Washington, a Bavarian style village in the Cascade mountain range. Hopefully we’ll have some better photo ops! Here are a few more from today.

And the barn picture of the day…