{"id":995,"date":"2008-12-14T04:40:56","date_gmt":"2008-12-14T09:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zachbardon.com\/tour\/?p=995"},"modified":"2023-03-21T00:47:04","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T05:47:04","slug":"bend-or","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zachbardon.com\/tour\/2008\/12\/14\/bend-or\/","title":{"rendered":"Bend, OR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bend!<\/strong> Besides being the home of famed cluster balloonist Kent Couch (undoubtedly the first cluster balloonist to fly in a lawnchair from Bend to Idaho), Bend is also known as one of the most scenically scenic places around.<\/p>\n

“Excuse me,” interrupts Attractive Girl, delightfully.<\/p>\n

Well, it’s been a while! I was almost afraid you had moved on to someone else’s blog.<\/p>\n

“Nope, not every girl is like that,” she replies, winking.<\/p>\n

You have to stop winking like that, it’s very distracting.<\/p>\n

… What was I talking about?<\/p>\n

“Bend. And what I want to know is, why Bend? It wasn’t originally on your itinerary.”<\/p>\n

I went to Bend because of —<\/p>\n

MPM: THE LONG ARM OF RAMON.<\/p>\n

— um, yeah. Geez, we had two entire posts with no narrative devices and now this.<\/p>\n

I had not yet located a host on the way towards Boise (the next stop) so Ramon very generously bought me a night at a bed & breakfast in Bend, which was pretty much exactly halfway to Boise from Portland.<\/p>\n

“Hey,” says the ugly passerby, “did you by any chance steal that phrase about Ramon’s arm from a song by your friend Michael Olson, entitled Long Arm of Love<\/em>?”<\/p>\n

Dang, you caught me. Can I continue?<\/p>\n

“I knew it!”<\/p>\n

On my way to Bend I saw many scenic scenes. I even, on a lark, decided to follow a sign for a “Scenic Route” which ended up adding only a half hour to my trip, and negligible distance.<\/p>\n

\"Watch<\/a> \"On<\/a><\/p>\n

A few times the scenic route actually came out from amidst all the trees to give me a view of something, but unfortunately it had started misting.<\/p>\n

\"Look!<\/a><\/p>\n

At one point, I knew I was really high up and there was a ridge to my left so I got out and climbed up the ridge…<\/p>\n

\"Just<\/a><\/p>\n

I thought if I just went a little further I could have a spectacular view. At last, I came over the top of the ridge and saw:<\/p>\n

\"Wow.\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ok, not quite so nice. But I turned around and got a decent shot of my car.<\/p>\n

\"Car,<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, I reached the summit. It was dark.<\/p>\n

\"Taken<\/a><\/p>\n

The bed and breakfast I stayed at was called Country Inn the City<\/a>. It was a nice homey place run by two very kind and motherly young ladies.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

I had a bed!!!<\/p>\n

\"It<\/a><\/p>\n

The following day, after an exemplary breakfast, I was on my way. I poked about Bend for a bit before heading along towards Boise.<\/p>\n

\"Mountains.<\/a> \"Driving<\/a> \"More<\/a> \"There<\/a><\/p>\n

On behalf of Attractive Girl, the ugly passerby, the mob of teenagers, Movie Preview Man, everyone who hears and enjoys the final product, and of course myself, thank you Ramon!<\/p>\n

NEXT: Boise — where is it and why doesn’t it rhyme with “tortoise”?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bend! Besides being the home of famed cluster balloonist Kent Couch (undoubtedly the first cluster balloonist to fly in a lawnchair from Bend to Idaho), Bend is also known as one of the most scenically scenic places around. “Excuse me,” … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3],"tags":[321,322,304,307],"class_list":["post-995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sceneit","category-tour","tag-country-inn-the-city","tag-exemplary-breakfast","tag-mountains","tag-ramon-chaparro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zachbardon.com\/tour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zachbardon.com\/tour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zachbardon.com\/tour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zachbardon.com\/tour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zachbardon.com\/tour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=995"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/zachbardon.com\/tour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1392,"href":"https:\/\/zachbardon.com\/tour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions\/1392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zachbardon.com\/tour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zachbardon.com\/tour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zachbardon.com\/tour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}