The cute little town of Bend

13 August 2018

Once again, Bugsy slept in, and she woke in a happy mood which meant I had time to have a shower and start my call to arrange cruise insurance, which we have to have in place for later this week, but which isn’t included in our existing insurance as we are not leaving from the UK. After a long conversation with a very helpful woman, I eventually ended up with an even better deal than we had hoped for. That doesn’t happen very often!  Thanks Voyager!

There was a coffee machine in the room, so while Ian was showering, I thought I’d try and make a coffee for him. I started watching a You Tube video on how to use them, but figured it couldn’t be that difficult and switched the video off before it had finished. I clearly should’ve left it running, as apparently you need to close the lid so that the coffee and water filter through. Ian had to redo it, and thus my attempt to be helpful and thoughtful was over…! 😂🙄

As I made the calls, and Ian was showering, I let Bugsy watch some TV.  She lost interest in the TV quite quickly, instead building a tower out of pillows. But when Ian came out of the shower, he moved one of them without warning her, and all hell broke loose (while I was still on the phone, which made for an amusing conversation!) and she turned back into a threenager again, quickly losing her Fire Phone for the whole day, which brought on another burst of tearful apologies followed by toddler rages when her request to have her Fire Phone returned was refused. As always, she got over it eventually, despite still not being allowed her Fire Phone, and having updated our cruise info at last, I have “Complete” against all the things we need to do in preparation and we left our motel in search of brunch.

We weren’t sure where we would be able to park in an RV so found a quiet side street in downtown Bend about five minutes away from the river. We walked down to the riverside but we must’ve been either the wrong side of the river or the wrong end of it, because we couldn’t find a decent-looking brunch place. Cornelia was particularly after pancakes… I googled and found a popular spot called Bad Wolf and we walked up to join the queue. It took about twenty minutes to be seated, and we had a table outside, half in shade and half in the sunshine.

Cornelia almost lost it again when I told her they didn’t have pancakes but recovered quickly to settle for a cardamom waffle with strawberry jam (they didn’t serve plain waffles), and, when we were eventually served, I opted for ginger and bird seed granola with yoghurt, and Ian ordered Eggs Benedict. About half an hour later, our food still hadn’t arrived, and we were just about to ask after it, when our waitress came over to apologise and let us know that the kitchen staff had “overlooked” our order and did we still want it?! Well, “yes” was the answer to that! Then I was told that they had now run out of yoghurt, so I could have whatever I wanted with the granola. The only other thing I could think of that goes with granola is milk. She said she would knock it off the check at the end of the meal, which made up for the wait a little bit! Five minutes later our food finally arrived. The granola was absolutely delicious- one of the nicest things I’ve eaten all trip. Bugsy enjoyed her waffle and Ian wolfed down his plateful, and polished off my leftovers.

There was only two hours of free parking, and thanks to the lost and delayed order, we had run out of time to look around Bend further.  Ian was keen to visit the Retail Outlet Park as there is a Pendleton there, and he has had a shirt for about thirty years from them, and was hoping to get another (slightly more up to date) one.  Well, Ian was in heaven!  Honestly, first Walmart, now Retail Outlets…. Ian has had an insight into my love of shopping!! He came away with a t-shirt, a fleece, two woollen shirts and a lightweight jacket. I bought a t-shirt and a zip up hoodie and Bugsy had new leggings and t-shirt combo and a pair of shorts. Result!

It was getting late in the afternoon and we still had a couple of hours to drive before we got to our next stop.  We passed the 45 degree latitude mark (exactly halfway between equator and the North Pole) as we drove through desert-like landscapes then into lush mountainsides, thick with firs, completely covering every inch of the ground.  Finally, in the distance stood the mighty snowy peak of Mt Hood, glistening in the bright sunshine. It is 90 degrees outside and there is still snow here. Mt Hood is one of the few year-round skiing resorts. We are deeply in love with Oregon!

We arrived at Mt Hood RV Resort Village, and had a easy check in, with a hilarious conversation:

Did you drive that RV here?

No, my husband did. I’m not sure my feet would reach the pedals!

I have the same problem. A friend of mine’s husband bought a vehicle without checking she could drive it. If I were her, I’d have sent him right back with it.

If I were her, I’d have made him buy me a car where I could reach the pedals.

I like your thinking.

My husband doesn’t.

Bugsy was exhausted but had managed to stayed awake for the whole trip, so bedtime looked promising.  We rumbled through the enormous resort and parked in Doug Fir Glen, plot 3.  The sun was setting and it all looked very beautiful as we nestled in between the firs.

Ian hooked us up straightaway as I started tea and then he took Cornelia to playpark  which was a fifteen minute walk away!  Like I said, it’s a big resort!  It was salmon for supper – with boiled potatoes and broccoli for her, and teriyaki noodles for us.  Yum.  But of course, Bugsy decides she doesn’t want salmon, she wants pasta.  She yells that she wants pasta.

It all deteriorated from there. She lost her Fire Phone for tomorrow and The Smurfs DVD tonight.  I ignored her yelling and screaming, and eventually she started crying, wrapping her arms around my legs. I didn’t give in! She had six minutes to finish her food or no bedtime story.  Immediately, she started eating brilliantly, asking me to help her, eventually eating most of the salmon and all of the potatoes. And we got her into bed with a bedtime story, and no tears. She went to bed happy, but despite her exhaustion stayed awake until 22:00 again! 🙄