Gypsy Truck: Day 21: Bend

Headed in to Bend today. I have always wanted to spend time in this little city. It reminded me of flagstaff AZ with the ponderosa trees, basalt mesas, volcanic soils and cone shaped mountains all around.

We woke up next to the lava field, and the temps were cold. Too cold to hang out and make breakfast, so we ate at the diner in La Pine.

Went to the Lava River Tube on the way to Bend. It a 1.5 miles, 30+ foot-tall lava tunnel. The whole way is unlit, so the FS rents out lanterns or you bring your own headlamps. Inside it was so dark and cold and damp. Ugh! Maybe only 45 degrees or colder, and humid.

You know how when it is cold you can see your breath? The clouds of our breath would go out 5 feet from us in to the pitch black when we would breath in the tunnel. It was so eerie, until Adrian started breathing "smoke" rings with his breath.

It was just such an uncomfortable cave that we only went about 1/4 of a mile, not the 1.5 miles underground.

After the cave hike, we went in to town. First stop in Bend - the Deschutes Brewery. We had tasters of 13 of their beers and I think it is the best beer we have tried yet. Amazing food, too. I am I spired to make mixed veggie pickles just like theirs (cauliflower, carrots, celery, jalapeños, onions, pepper flakes) yum!

Next stop, the farmers market we just randomly walked in to. Blueberries, bing cherries, rainier cherries, tomatoes, cucumber. Then we just randomly saw the Worthy Brewery guys handing out free samples (now we are up to 15 beers tasted today).

We finally headed to McMenamins, where we had 6 more tasters of their beer! That is a total of 21 beers sampled in one day (we shared them all, and of course they were only 4oz each)! A live band played great covers of Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, Curtis Mayfield and more. What a cool place to hang out!

Tomorrow, on to Mt Hood.

************************************************************PHOTO UPDATE

I love the Deschutes label on their water pitchers