Bend, Oregon: The Beginning of the High Desert

We came on to Bend to see Papa and Grandma, who are attending The Rally--a gathering of 6000+ rv enthusiasts. We got a day pass into The Rally today, and Gloria had a ball shopping and gathering freebies from the vendors with Grandma. Dad, Noni and I toured new motorhomes and trailers. It was fun, but I just don't think that many people should be in one place together. Noni's favorite thing was the free watermelon.

We visited the High Desert Museum. They have animal exhibits as well as cultural exhibits. We saw otters, raptors, a bobcat and a lynx, as well as fish, bugs, spiders, reptiles, etc. Gloria and Leona made spider bracelets and egg crate bugs and caterpillars. They scrubbed floors, carried water, and stacked wood at a living settlers exhibit. Gloria made rope inside a teepee. And they climbed around a giant spider web, dug up fossils, and crawled around tunnels. Gloria said the spider web was her home. They would be happy to come back here everyday.





We also went to Lava Lands National Monument. We took a short walk that gave us a chance to talk about the things we learned a Craters of the Moon, but rain and a tired two year old cut short our visit.

Then we visited a small nature center in Sunriver. The girls looks through microscopes at various samples of things from the woods, they studied reptiles and rocks, and then we took a nature walk. The biggested adventure there was the toad migration. The baby toads, only about an inch long, are leaving the pond and going to the woods. They were everywhere. Volunteers were clearing them from the roadway as we tried to enter the nature center area. Gloria caught and cleared dozens from the path during our walk, and we stopped so I could gather more off the road on our way out. We also saw a bald eagle that lives on a small island in the lake that borders the path, and we came across a bunny just beside the path. It sat quietly and watched us and we stared right back at it.

Bend has been much more fun that I expected, but we are going to leave in the morning to start making our way back to Texas. This leg of the trip will teach us about deserts and will require us to detour around wildlifes. It will be much different from the lush green landscape we spent the last month in.

See you soon!