June 16 - 18, 2024 - Lafe and Faith's Odyssey

A Tale of Two Rivers

When we finally decided to poke our heads out of our sleeping bags, the sun was well on its way around the sky. So, we followed suit and showed our faces to the beautiful deep blues and high cliffs of Crater Lake. There wasn’t much else we could do at the lake, so we drove back down the rim and on north towards Bend, OR. Almost the entire 2.5 hours to Bend was on a 2-lane road absolutely packed with traffic despite the dearth of populated towns. The driving was not fun, to say the least. Just before getting to town, we stopped at Newberry Volcanic National Monument to see the visitor center and determine if we wanted to do anything else there. We were a bit volcanoed-out, and the primary attractions involved going back the way we came about 30 minutes. I was pretty stressed out from the zoo on the road, so we agreed that some rest was in order: we went into Bend and straight to a brewery. We got a flight of beer and some fries topped with all sorts of meat, cheese, and other goodness. It took us a solid couple hours to enjoy our food and drink, by which time the sun had mostly finished its course across the sky. We headed downtown and found a spot amongst many other van dwellers along the river. The evening was beautiful, so we took a walk around the nearby neighborhoods before settling in for the night.

You may remember that Faith has “nap attacks”, well, apparently she can also have other attacks. It was about 3 AM when I was awoken to Faith declaring that she needed to use the bathroom immediately. Immediately. So, we walked down the path through the chilly night air towards some porta-potties we had spied earlier. Thanks to her great willpower and fortitude, she made it to the toilets, but it was a close call. Back in bed, we slept soundly through the rest of the night. (If you’re wondering, Faith O.K.’d me telling this story.)

The next morning we got up early so I could get my hours in and be on at a normal time for my coworkers in Central time. Bend’s library didn’t open until 9 AM, so we sat in the parking lot and worked for a few hours. Well, I worked, and Faith kept sleeping, making up for the time she had lost to the attack. When the library opened, I went inside to continue working while Faith ran errands and poked around town, exploring thrift and outlet stores and getting groceries and fruit from a roadside stand. When the agreed-upon hour came, Faith picked me up from the library, and we had a lunch of fresh fruit and salsa that she had just gotten. Fueled up and ready to go, we set our GPS to Hood River, a small town along the river in the Columbia Gorge a couple hours north of our current location.

The drive there was beautiful but a bit cloudy. I intentionally chose a route that would take us right up on the should of Mt. Hood, a volcano and the highest peak in Oregon. The clouds decided that was laughable idea, so we didn’t see any of the peak until we got almost to Hood River, where we were blessed with a spectacular view of the mountain in the setting sun. Mt. Hood is only 11,249 feet high, which might not sound all that high to you, but when the surrounding terrain is sitting at only two or three thousand feet, that makes the mountain absolutely gigantic by comparison. We descended past numerous vineyards, orchards, breweries, fruit stands, and distilleries into town and decided that we needed to come back the next day to explore them. That night, we slept in our van down by the river. Quite peacefully and restfully, I might add.

The next morning was Tuesday, so there was again work to be done. We plopped ourselves into some chairs at the first coffee shop we could find while I got some work done and Faith figured out what our plan for the day would be. She discovered a local route called the “Fruit Loop” that would take us through the numerous nearby fruit-based enterprises that we had seen on our way into town. We embarked on this journey, stopping at a few fruit stands and mostly skipping the wineries and breweries as we didn’t really want to pay $20 for a small flight of ciders or wine at all 12 of those places on the route. It’s still fairly early in the season, so many of the orchards haven’t even opened for business yet. So, we’ll have to make a return at some point. We did manage to get some excellent cherries and peach milk, which we enjoyed as we drove down the gorge towards Portland.

The Columbia Gorge is known for some beautiful waterfalls along the cliffs. We stopped at a few of these, Horsetail and Multnomah Falls, and attempted to enter the Oneonta Gorge. Unfortunately, due to debris from a forest fire a few years ago, this gorge is indefinitely closed. We still had miles to get done, so we got moving to and through Portland and off the interstate onto back roads that took us to Astoria, OR. We stopped a little ways outside of town to see the ocean for the first time in quite a while, watched the sun set over it, and made dinner. With warm food in our stomachs, we headed back into Astoria and found a park to sleep in for the night. We settled in and fell asleep quickly. This was not to last, however, as we were soon awakened by a knock at our door and a light in our window.

“Police! I just want to talk.”

I had just been rapidly awoken from the deepest part of the REM cycle, so I was not functioning and, to be honest, can hardly remember how exactly the interaction went. Fortunately, Faith was a bit more put together.

Me: “Hello?”
Officer: “Police!”
Me: “One second, I need to put a shirt on.”

So, I put on my shirt, unlocked the van, and opened the door to a rather bright flashlight in my face. The officer informed us that, despite the lack of signs, this was a park and closed at 10 PM. He took my ID, called it in, then returned it (twice) and told us that he has relatives in South Dakota. He asked where we lived in South Dakota, and all I got out was a “S…. S…” before Faith said “Sioux Falls”. As I said, my brain wasn’t really working, and the two syllables of my address were apparently just a bit too much to handle. I was certain he was kicking us out, so I asked, “Do you have any recommendations for where we can sleep?”

Officer: “You guys look normal, so I’m not going to make you move. I wanted to make sure you weren’t doing drugs or something. There are other cops out that may stop by tonight and make you move, though. You have a nice set up in there.”

We were willing to take our chances, so we thanked the officer for his graciousness and went back to sleep.