Bend, Oregon........I could live here

The river in Bend

In our travels we have come across different places that we have enjoyed and a few we even thought we could live in. Bend is probably at the top of our list. This was our second visit here and a short one but we get the same feeling we did last time we visited. It is a beautiful town with lots of tings to do and just a feel we love. Of course the number of microbreweries here (one person told us the current number is almost 30) doesn't hurt either.

We have some RV friends who have settled here and we got together with them. They so fell in love with this area that they settled back down to a sticks and bricks house with a small travel trailer for camping adventures. The reasons they stayed are the reasons we could see ourselves here. A vibrant community with outdoor life as a way of life here. Plenty of trails, hiking, water sports and if you like to ski, the slopes are not far away. It does have all four seasons but a little milder than the Midwest winters we came from. Being on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains makes for a dryer climate than Portland. Pam says there is plenty of sunshine most of the year.

Our guide
showing us the hops

While here we also did a tour of the Deschute's Brewery. Though considered a craft brewery there is nothing micro about it and they are expanding in Bend to keep up with demand and adding a second brewery in Roanoke Virginia next year. We had an excellent guide and felt it was one of the best brewery tours we have taken so if you are in Bend definitely check it out. An added bonus is it's a free tour; we always like free.

We had lunch with our friends Pam and Vic, who we met in Georgia about 3 years ago. We got to check up on their life in Bend. We had a great lunch at a local spot and then they took us to a very unique small brewery that is one of the highest rated in Bend called the Boneyard. I'm glad they knew where it was as it is tucked back into a dead end road in what looks to be a former auto mechanics garage. This is the only place you can get this beer. The brewing goes on back in the garage and the office area is the tasting room. No tables and no chairs. You order tasters of the beer you want to try for a small fee. Then if there is one you really want you can either order a growler or a large can and they get it ready for you. The beer was excellent and John decided to get a large can of their IPA, with a little push from me as I think their logo is pretty cool so I wanted the can. I also talked John into a hoodie sweatshirt that is quickly becoming his favorite.

Some of the kettles at the brewery

Pan, John,Vic and Janie
the tasting room at Boneyard Brewery

The remnants of the typhoon off the Northwest coast brought tons of rain and flooding to the coast and some of that followed us here. We were glad to be moving away from the coast. The winds were suppose to get brutal so we moved on to Burns OR where we let it all calm down before heading into Nevada. This was a couple of weeks ago and I have lots more to tell you but I wanted to get this posted. We have had some challenges with our MiFi data and Verizon is investigating. We had one night where there was a download they said was audio that took 8 gigs. Yikes. Funny thing is we don't have a clue what it was, since we are sleeping. They also had us using about 4 G on gaming and a couple months ago I deleted all the games (there we only 2)  and we have done no gaming. Needless to say we are very puzzled. They did credit us for 8 G and are trying to figure it out. We hadn't been turning the MiFi off at night but now we do. Until all this is resolved we will be using the library a lot. Each time we come I'll try to post again until I catch up.

Happy Trails........................................................