On a Bender…

Jill's Journal: New shoes! We’re in Bend, our penultimate stop in Oregon. Before we cross any borders and head back to the vicious world of sales tax, I decided to get some shopping done today. Among other things, all three girls needed new tennis shoes. We found exactly what we needed at a Nike outlet store and two of these girls proved over and over again today they’re all girl and L-O-V-E to shop. I’m not a big shopper; where do they get that from?

Yesterday we completed our drive from Pendleton to Bend. It was both a pleasant drive through some really gorgeous country and an eventful one. We even spotted a “shoe tree” off the side of the road. It was a tree in the middle of nowhere with hundreds of tennis shoes hanging from the branches. How I would have loved to snap a picture, but you'll just have to believe me when I say it was very whimsical!

And we’re not so sure about Oregon wildlife, or at least the winged variety. Rob artfully dodged a wild turkey living on the wild side and the darn thing decided his near-death experience wasn’t enough. He turned around and committed suicide via the trailer tires. It was quite the spectacular and sad show of exploding feathers.

Then two birds decided to play chicken with me. One chickened out and pulled up over the car roof at the last second; the other didn’t and hit me square in the windshield. It was quite the impact and scared the bejeebers out of the girls. No damage to the windshield...I don’t think the bird was so fortunate.

We stopped in Prineville to see a bizarre little fair racetrack where the stretch doubles as a rodeo arena. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kentucky anymore.

And finally Bend. Gone are the mere 2 1/2 weeks of “summer” we experienced in this crazy and wonderful state. We’re back to very

pleasant and often cool temperatures during the day and the low 40s at night. The girls even got cold and asked for their sweatshirts late yesterday afternoon. This former desert gal is so thankful for the time we got in Hermiston, Pendleton, Baker City, and Dayville, because without that fantastic desert time (and accompanying warm weather), I would feel seriously gypped in the summer department this year!

A Portland resident we met this weekend said this has been the most unusual and coolest summer he’s seen. He swore it’s not the norm. A woman, who was also from Portland, walked up in the middle of the conversation and heartily agreed. So…maybe Oregon isn’t always like this?

Most of our stops in the coming weeks are in the mountains, so it’s bound to be even cooler. I think I’d better just suck it up and be thankful for the 18 glorious days of sunshine and 90+ degrees (with no humidity to speak of, thank you very much) we did have in Eastern Oregon!