Tuna
Sunday 03 March 2024
It was snowing when we woke up!!!
Today is the second transfer day. Our destination today was Bend, OR. We had originally thought we could do the drive in one go, about 6.5 hrs according to Google maps. I am glad we split it into two days as we had another day of driving in snow and it would have taken us much longer than 6.5 hours. Not as bad as yesterday and we stayed on the big, wide and straight roads. The original route we were going to take was to go near Crate Lake NP. I really, really wanted to go to this NP as it looks really pretty. However, doing some research, by looking at their webpage and looking at the webcam stationed there we chose not to go there. The road in from the south entrance/village was closed. The webcam yesterday showed snow piles about 5m high on the side of the carpark at the village, today the webcam was noted as: ***The webcam is currently down due to a major winter storm.***
We had a couple of alternate routes, but both of those when to over 4,000ft. Considering where we stayed last night which was at about 1,000ft and was snowing when we woke up, we chose a longer route that, whilst the roads were still high up, they were major routes, being ploughed and not winding too much. It added about an hour to our trip but we felt safer. Once we got on the road, we were very happy with our choice. It kept snowing and the divided highway was a mess of snow, slurry, dirt and trucks going up and down the mountains. But the scenery was really beautiful.
Thankfully that type of driving only lasted about an hour before we turned off and drove through some flat countryside.
Back on the major highway, the weather and conditions stayed good, but the traffic was heavier. There weren’t many spots to stop for lunch. The first on The Albatross had spotted on the map was actually under 3ft of snow. Eventually we stopped at a Visitors Centre and Casino and ate lunch in the carpark. Not the best view, but we were off the highway and warm.
Back on route we continued north and it snowed intermittently the entire way, only getting crowded coming in to town with the windscreen constantly being obscured by the filth from muddy road spray. We did see a coyote slink across the road.
Finally, we got to Bend and found ourselves a supermarket to get something for dinner. As with all the other towns we’ve been to, there is a huge range of microbreweries. So, we found the closest one, Monkless Belgian Ales, and enjoyed a tasting paddle whilst we wait for the 4pm check-in time. Apparently, there are more breweries per capital in Bend than anywhere else in the world.
Our apartment seems to be in a holiday/condo village. We have a nice little balcony with a bbq on it. I don’t think we will use it as the balcony and everything on it are covered in snow. Not to mention that it is cold outside. About 1C at 4pm with predicted to get to about -5C overnight. We have heating so all is good.
