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Hanging Around Bend, OR

I went back to the Thousand Trails park for some more hot tub time. Had a great time for another two weeks then was supposed to head on south but got a call from a friend in Idaho that wanted to come visit. I had found a great flyer at the store here with all the highlights of this area in gorgeous color and sent it to her along with a postcard of the lava tube to see if I could tempt her. It worked! She and her husband decided they needed a getaway before winter sets in and visiting me and a volcano was as good an excuse as any. So, I have extended my stay. They got here in time to use the hot tub and have dinner with me before I had to move my trailer 5 miles away for my week out. I went back down to Cascade Meadows in La Pine, OR.

Bend Thousand Trails Hot Tub

We met up the next day at their motel in Bend and went looking for something to do. Unfortunately, we missed the chocolate factory tour there but their exhibits were interesting. We ended up late at the High Desert Museum. It was pretty informative and large. We didn’t get to see all the outside stuff due to being late but they were nice enough to sign our tickets to give us a second day there if we could squeeze it in. We saw a declawed bobcat and declawed lynx there that had been pets that were dumped out in the forest with no chance of surviving. They are now living at the museum permanently.

Declawed cat Desert lizardsPioneer desert crossing

The next day, we met up at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument Visitor’s Center. I got to see a bit of what I missed before including a different movie they show about the area. After that, we headed on down to the mile long lava cave. This time, I had a warm coat and two good flashlights with me while also wearing my boots. I was prepared! My friends enjoyed it very much. I thought the husband might get bored since he is a miner and goes underground all the time but he was pretty gung ho for it and told me a lava cave is different and interesting to him. He checked out the walls thoroughly and pointed out some things to us which helped make it different for me. I had to lend one of my flashlights to someone when theirs started going out. On the way back out, my friends gave away one of theirs as well to another unprepared spelunker. We did note that following my friend’s white pants in the dark made the hike easier. Good wardrobe choice!

My friends before going in the lava caveMy friends after the lava cave

We ended the weekend visit with a BBQ at my place. They went on up to the caldera to look around and see the lakes and waterfalls then came by. We got a game of Uno in and lots of chat.

Now I’m back at Thousand Trails again. Might as well catch two more weeks of cheap membership camping before heading out to areas where there are none of these. It’s a little different this time. The park is starting to close parts down for the winter so I couldn’t stay where I wanted to. Even many parts that are still open will be closing and blocked off at various times. I managed to scout out a decent site up front where they will be open all winter and it is close enough to the town square in the park to connect to their WI-FI with my repeater. The neighbor next door seems very nice and has an electric bike I will have to go see and get a picture of for my other website, rvelectricscootersandbikes.com .

I should also mention there is a pretty good thrift store over in Sunriver that is worth looking at. They are only open a couple days, Friday and Saturday, but they have great stuff and benefit the local observatory, another good tourist attraction. I found a used RV water tank there for only $5 (it was 50% off day). I’ll be mounting that along with a water pump I got from Harbor Freight in Bend in the back of my SUV to ferry water in when boondocking. My SUV has a DC plug right at the back for easy use. Still need the solar panels to boondock and working on that.

Second Tern Thrift ShopUsed RV water tank and pump

For more pics click here.

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