We were all picked up and out of TT Bend / Sunriver RV Resort by 10:45 this morning. We got back on 97 northbound headed the 15 miles or so to Bend where we got off on Business 97 for a while. After numerous red lights, we turned east on US-20 into the Great Basin area.
US-20 from Bend has a few curves and is mostly long, straight sections of highway that rise over long peninsulas of lava that crisscross this high desert terrain. The Ponderosa pines in Bend give way to Juniper forests as you head east. Some of the Junipers are very old and have twisted trunks that give them an almost alien appearance. As we progressed east, the Junipers petered out to sage brush terrain bordered on the horizons with massive lava and basalt mesas that stood several hundred to thousands of feet above us as we passed by on US-20. Recent rains have made almost everything green and the scenery was pretty spectacular.
Just before Burns, we turned south on some back roads until we finally made it to OR-205 which runs mostly south through flooded grasslands adjacent to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. There were birds everywhere. I told Peggy that I spotted yellow-headed snot whistles, triple-toed buxomboobs and purple-kneed phalaropes but she expressed some skepticism about the accuracy of the names for the magnificent birds we saw. She elected instead to look up the names someone else believes they should have in our Peterson Western Birds book.
After about 25 miles going south on OR-205, we turned off into Narrows RV Resort at the intersection of Sodhouse Lane. The park has a big store, propane for sale, free cable TV and wi-fi, sewer hookups, 30 amp electrical service and, most importantly, a bar. As Passport America members, our cost for 3 nights stay was $13.13 per night for a grand total of $39.39. It was about 45 degrees outside and the wind was blowing at about 25 knots so we did a minimal setup and climbed inside to enjoy the benefits of electric heat. Just outside our trailer we spotted a couple yellow warblers who seemed offended about our presence in their ‘hood. They initially showed their dissatisfaction by bashing their heads on our trailer windows but they gave up after a very short time and decided to allow peaceful co-existence between their noggins and our pricey tinted glazing.
The cloud cover started to break up about 5:00 PM and by 7:00 we were outside again getting some shots of the stunning cloud formations and a pink and orange sunset. The wi-fi at the park was so fast and clear that we were able to stream videos on Netflix and we spent most of the evening enjoying a few episodes of Sherlock.
We took a few pix today which you can see if you click here