Date: 20 July 2001 (Friday)

Start:

End: Cousin Luann’s house, Bend OR (0 miles)

The temperature was 52f when we arose, under mostly cloudy skies with intermittent rain. It warmed up a little through the day, but remained cool, and rained occasionally.

We got up and ate quickly. Then we turned the trailer around in the limited space available and put it with its back to the garage. Then we reconnected the electrical supply and re-tested everything.

We decided to leave the trailer here for the remainder of the time here, rather than to move it down to the resort.

In the process of looking around for room to turn the trailer, Dolores noted a llama in an adjacent field. When we asked Helen about it, she said that many people out here keep one in with their flocks/herds because coyotes stay clear of llamas. The person next door raises them for this market.

We took the truck to the Cummins Northwest facility to see if we could get them to check it out, change the fuel filter and change the oil and oil filter (maintenance due - didn't want to risk spilling anything in Luann's driveway). They were very friendly and told us to come back at 4:00 pm and they’d fit us in.

We found the visitor’s center across the street and raided their supply of brochures and chatted with an employee about nearby attractions.

Then we went to the Wild Oats Market, an environment-friendly grocery store, and bought a few items there. It’s a very nice store, with some really great items. We stopped at the nearby Safeway for our mundane purchases.

After returning to the trailer to put the food away, we went to Art & Helen’s for lunch. They had things to do in the afternoon and so did we. We plodded (heavy traffic this Friday afternoon) around town.

First we dropped off our film for one set of prints plus CD storage, with the agreement we’ll get back all 15 rolls by Monday at 1:00 pm, but without the panorama shots printed as panoramas (we’ll get those we want printed later). The CD format will be jpeg.

Second, we stopped at Jerry’s RV to pick up the furnace cover we’d ordered yesterday. It was there as they said it would be. That's good service.

Third, we drove the campus of Central Oregon Community College so Dolores could report on it back home. It’s a large campus with resident facilities, quite different from the situation at NVCC back home.

Fourth (this does go on, doesn’t it?), we walked the downtown district with the historic guide in hand. We checked out the shops as well. Nobody will ever go hungry in this city; there are 85 restaurants in the yellow pages listings, many of them in this downtown district.

Fifth, we went back to the Cummins place. They fit the truck in to their schedule and we got it back at 5:00 pm. Their lounge was fine for that hour and the service was good – they even checked the differential and found it low, and traced it to a leaking right rear axle seal, which we’ll have to attend to soon.

Then we ran back to Art & Helen’s; they drove us to a local restaurant where we bought dinner. Just as we received our salads, Morgan came to join us. The restaurant had 60 BMW motorcycle enthusiasts there for dinner; they’re part of a 1,000-strong contingent having a get-together here this weekend. The bikers were having a good time. So did we as we chatted and ate. Helen & I had salmon, Art & Dolores had prime rib, Morgan did a big Cobb salad. They had Alaska Amber in stock, so I had one of them. The food was very good.

Morgan ran off to have fun with friends, and the rest of us returned to Art & Helen’s. We chatted a bit, then Art showed a video made by my brother John of conversations in Wisconsin with my now-deceased Uncle Ed. That brought back all sorts of memories.

Art recently had most of his left leg amputated due to circulatory problems. It’s interesting to see how he gets along, really quite well. He’s working toward beginning to fit a prosthesis in August and regaining better mobility as the rest of the year progresses.

We chatted some more, then decided to save some of it for tomorrow and returned to the little house in the driveway at Luann’s.

We found we’d left the heat off, and the temperature in the trailer was around 60. As we warmed up, we settled in.