Bend: Our kind of town part One

We got to Bend mid-afternoon. At first, it seemed a funny little town. We arrived on a road of chain stores, fast food joints and strip malls. Really? Medford, OR reborn? Karla and Brian really sent us here? SM was fast asleep... Our first stop was the visitor center - we've found that if a town has a visitor center, it's the best place to start a visit and get a really good feel for what lies ahead. As we arrived at the visitor center, we (CP and Murphy) could see the downtown core adjacent. Oh yes - now that looked like the kind of town we wanted to visit... it contained buildings of older, but remodeled architecture with small, quaint shops, restaurants, and watering holes.

CP ran inside and grabbed a bunch of flyers about stuff to do in Bend. One flyer showed listings of all the off-leash dog parks in the area. Really? 6 in Bend and 8 more right outside! Really? Murphy had been very patient during our visit to Medford, so our 2nd stop after the visitor center was an off-leash dog park. (SM still sleeping)

Murphy tore up the park, sprinting around three other dog patrons. It was three acres, entirely fenced in, with trees and trails and plants. He was in heaven, sniffing and peeing on everything in sight. CP and Murph walked around the entire park and returned to the RV seeing SM still asleep. On to the Scandia RV park- our home for the next three nights!

We arrived at the park, SM finally awake, and set up camp. One of the brochures we had gotten at the visitor center was a great little caricature cartoon map of the city and it's surroundings featuring the "Bend Ale Trail". FYI - There are 7 craft breweries in Bend, OR - population 81,000. Our kind of town!! If we were to visit each brewery and get our "Ale Trail Passport" stamped (no purchase necessary) at each, we would get a free gift. Are you kidding??? We were SOOO up to the challenge! Heck, with us staying there three nights, we would have tried to visit all 7 even without the free gift! But, who doesn't love free shwag...?

We grabbed our bikes determined to knock a few breweries off the list the first night and headed to the Cascade Brewing Company. Or did we? We kept riding and riding... no brewery. We stopped. Pulled out the map. Kept riding. Pulled out the map again... Hmmmm... Somehow we (SM - CP, really... CP- Um, feel free to wake up and look at the darn map any time, mr expert. SM - awake or asleep, I can find a brewery anywhere... :) CP- oh really? because I gave you the map... and it took you another day and a bus driving us by it to find it. :D) had missed it! As SM said with deep sincerity - it was a nice night for a bike ride. We realized we were not too far from another brewery - the 10 Barrel Brewing Company.

It was in the middle of a residential neighborhood... but a cool space... kind of a brewery/garage feel to it with big metal doors that opened the bar up to the patio outside.

The beer was just as cool. We tried a few beers. Delicious. The moment we sat down our bartender commented on my "Boston Marathon Finisher" t-shirt. Turns out he was a transplant from Hingham, MA whose mom currently lives in Scituate, MA (Hatherly Road) SM's home town. Gotta love the local connections!

We reluctantly left the brewery in search of another stamp on our passport and to explore the unfolding Bend, OR...

Looking at the map, the second stop on our tour would be McMenimin's. It actually took us right into the heart of downtown. What a cool little downtown in this great city!!! We decided it was time for a little food. So, we split the buffalo burger covered Rogue blue cheese and caramelized onions. Ahhhhhhhhh! The angels sang. Truly amazing!!! The beers (SM - an IPA, CP - a brown) were solid - good, but nothing special. But that burger... oh, that burger... it was perfection. :)

In a yummy food-daze, we headed two blocks to the Deschutes Brewery brewpub. To ensure we could ride our bikes back to the safety of Mel, we ordered two half pints. (CP - the porter, SM - the IPA) It was almost too crowded. We drank our beers (a solid IPA and an amazing Porter) and left the crowd to head over to Boneyard Beer. Uh, Oh. They were closed. :( No info on when they might have closed but a sign saying they would "likely open at 9 am".

Undefeated, we looked at our Bend Ale trail. Turns out that the Silver Moon Brewery was right around the corner... So, we hopped on our bikes and decided that we would have one last bump. We needed a little more food anyway... Well, that was our excuse....

Silver Moon was an absolute trip. Imagine walking into a craft brewery/lounge from 1977. The entire menu of food and beers were written in psychedelic chalk on little chalkboards. And then it got even weirder... next thing we knew, we were witnessing a two-man (as far as we know) play. Yes. As in acting... a play in the corner of the brewpub.

We split an appetizer - slightly off-tasting pulled pork nachos - and watched a bit of the play. We never really got into the play. Too distracted by beer. :) So, when we were done with our snack, we hit the road back to the RV.

Day One in Bend was great! We couldn't wait for tomorrow!

We woke up bright and early. We'd been wanting to go white water rafting on the trip and Bend seemed the perfect place to do it. Neither of us had ever been white-water rafting and were really looking forward to tackling the challenge. We researched a few rafting companies and settled on one. We made a reservation for the 1:00-4:00pm trip.

We had plenty of time before rafting, so we decided to ride our bikes around town and investigate a bit more. On the way, CP disappeared. SM had gone only a block or two before noticing she was gone. He doubled-back and circled a parking lot waiting for her to surface. Without notice, she had peeled off course and into a bike shop. She was having her back tire and gears looked at to correct a horrible back wheel wobble and loud rubbing noise. Team effort next time? The shop was able to do a couple quick repairs and for only $19 the bike seemed back to normal!

Around the corner from the bike shop, we ducked into a locally-roasted organic coffee shop to replenish our coffee stock for the RV. Well, you didn't think we would go caffeine-free on the trip, did you? Several years back, CP inherited a stove-top percolator from her Auntie Rose. Besides Mel herself, the percolator has become our most prized possession on the trip thus far. Although CP (a morning person) seems to have a natural caffeine buzz as soon as she wakes up, SM (a slow to wake morning person) needs a boost or two to get the motor running. Imagine CP with two cups in her before SM even gets out of bed. She's like 4 steps ahead!!!!!

It was getting to be lunch-time on our bike ride. Earlier, we passed by two guys setting up what appeared to be a roadside food stand. It was off the main drag tucked on the corner of a side street behind a half brick wall. If you didn't know it was there, you'd miss it. There was no parking and no tables, but the food was just amazing. Soupcon y Sancho!! They are two locals who operate two separate food carts, but had consolidated their "marketing effort" on this little street corner. We got a half warm pesto chicken salad, grilled eggplant, and tomato sandwich from Soupcon and two small pork tacos and an enchilada from Sancho. We rounded off our order with a bottled water and the entire bill came to $9 with tip. By far, the most well-spent $9 on this trip so far.

We rolled the 2 miles to the rafting tour offices where we boarded a school bus with 32 of our closest friends. SM - I haven't ridden a school bus for some time now and I was painfully reminded why I hated riding in a school bus. They are constructed for 4'2" pimple-faced brats. My knees were thoroughly lodged underneath my chin as we made our way to the river.

We have the most awful luck with bus tour drivers. With the exception of Jerry in Nashville, there is a reason why some bus drivers play to a "captive" audience on a bus and not to paying patrons at a book reading or comedy club. It was Pat, revisited. This woman had to speak aloud (very LOUDLY!) her driving thought process for the entire trip. "Well, I have to drive slow now as we go over these speed bumps..." Ever heard the Pink song "Shut-up and drive!" It was playing in our heads for the 15 minute trip.

We finally got out of that damned bus!!! The guides then outfitted us in life vests. SM - So funny... Anyone ever seen the Saturday Night Live skit with Chris Farley - "Fat Guy in a Little Coat". Well, some small child must have worn the vest before me. The front two foam floats barely covered shoulders hanging between my armpits. I sang the Fat Guy song to Carolynn as she adjusted my straps.

Into the boat!!! Thankfully, we were paired with a really good rafting tour guide - Abby. Short (in stature 4'10" and 95 pounds soaking wet and in speech), to the point, no frills. We were also put in the boat with a NORMAL family of five from California. We were taught the basics of rafting - paddling, how to balance without falling in the water, and Abby's verbal commands on how and when to paddle. We were off for the 1 and 1/4 hour ride down river. We started off and ended slowly. But in the middle, we ran through a few level 3 rapids and four level 5 rapids. None of us fell in, but we were all soaked! So glad we went on the trip.

Well a trip like that makes one thirsty, right? We were only .6 miles from the ubiquitous Cascade Brewing Company that we had missed several times the prior evening. We were the only ones in the place for happy hour at 4pm. The beer was... eh. But, we did get another stamp on our Ale Trail map and one step closer to a free Bend, OR gift!!!!

We biked the few miles back to downtown to the Bend Farmers Market. Holy mother of all finds!!! CP really earned her keep on this one. There were 25 or so vendors selling fresh local produce, cheeses, breads, sodas, and meats... Yum!!!! SM - "I'll have one of everything, please." We picked up the following... a box of strawberries, two types of cherries, three decent chunks of cheese, spring onions, snap peas, beef jerky, zucchini, tomatoes, a 2' long parmesan pepper breadstick, and a 3' long baguette. We scored. Oops - how do we transport all this by bike the 4 miles back to the RV? Well, lets have a drink and discuss.

We made our way to Bend brewery #6 - aptly named the Bend Brewing Company. CP scored a tasty porter and SM opted for the old stand-by, an IPA. Both were quite good. The menu did include an Imperial IPA that they were out of on draft. So, we bought two 22 ounce Hop Head Imperial IPA bottles for later and a matching t-shirt (SM). We clearly had to discuss transportation strategy.

We bought two new bikes before leaving on the trip. We had two road bikes and an antique mountain bike between us, but we needed two more reliable (than the road bikes) and lighter-weight (than the antique) bikes for touring. We found a decent sale and got two decent "commuting" bikes. CP had a bike rack installed on hers. She had such a nice bff (SM) on her birthday last year who bought her two touring panniers - a fancy term for bike rack bag. So, we had that going for us in Bend. At the time of bike purchase, CP had "suggested" that SM get a bike rack as well. She knew it was great to transport stuff. He said he would "later" and then reconsidered - i.e. forgot and never got them. So, this day in Bend, CP would be our mule. Looking back now, it was quite a funny sight... CP - at the time - not so much. The panniers were jam-packed with food and drink with the baguette sticking a foot or so out of one, pointing skyward. She's a trooper.

We got back to the RV park and gorged on famers market fare and Bend Brewing Company Imperial IPA. What a day!!!