We left you on our way to overnight in Bend, Oregon. We were pretty tired and planned to just stay overnight and get back on the road Sunday morning to finish our weekend quest. We had planned on a Hampton Inn, but it seems the Hilton group is very rare in the northwest due to some company policies that don't fit with many of the inns in the area. When I called, I got the Bend Inn and Suites which used to be a Hampton. It was supposedly the same, only the name changed; "to protect the innocent" Anyone old enough to know where that line comes from??? We arrived about 3pm. The road (97) up from Crater Lake was straight and smooth. They guys who checked us in were great. The room looked like a Hampton, but there was a smell. Georgia with her fantastic sense of smell recognized it from the room we had in Truckee, California in April of 2008. The stuff they sprayed really kicked up her allergies. We debated our course; decided to buy some spray that she could tolerate, spray it and go sit by the pool while it did it's job. Problem is, the pool gate was locked and the little kid who was in the parking lot said we needed to get the manager to get in. Went in to the desk and Kevin (I think) said, how about we try another room. We didn't think of this because we assumed the rooms would all smell the same. We went to the room next door and it was much better; we felt tolerable. It seems the degree depends on how much is used and for some reason room 219 got an extra heavy dose. It worked out well and we got a good night's sleep. I'm getting ahead of myself. We went out to find some dinner and in a really cool mall found a good looking Italian spot called: Carino's (
http://www.carinos.com/) A different place for us, but really good.... again. Neither of us were very hungry so didn't finish our meals and weren't in a very good spot to box it up. Oh well... We went through Sisters (their rodeo is next weekend, but we plan to be on the coast then). We had been down this road several times before, but it looks different with the green and flowered growth.
Besides Crater Lake, Becki said the Robert Aufderheide Memorial Highway was also a good trip. It runs through the forest long a fork of the McKenzie river and a fork of the Willamette river in the Willamette valley. I tried to research it online to see how long it would take. That is confusing because it is part of the cascade scenic byway that starts near Portland. We decided to stop at the Ranger Station along 126 and find out before venturing down the Aufderheide. I also asked several people along the way, but no one seemed to know what I was talking about. I'm getting ahead of myself again. Just after leaving Highway 20 on 126 we came across Sahali Falls. We visited here in March of 2008. See the post for March 2, 2008 to see the pictures. At that time, we didn't know the walkway seen here was even present because we walked over it in snow; probably 8 feet deep. This little shelter only peeked out of the snow at
that time. We then found the ranger station who said we could do the Aufderheide in about 2 hours. Although it would take a lot to top Crater Lake, it was a really nice scenic drive. To make it more informative, at the ranger station, we checked out a CD where 2 rangers narrated the trip. We learned a lot more that we would have by just driving through. There was some difficulty however. First, we could find no way to pause the CD. We looked at the owner's manual and every button on the dash. This is important because the narrators
would say, "Now stop the CD until you have reached milepost XX" or " stop the tape while you ..... then restart it when you are safely back on the road".. Finally we figured out how to make it work. We would kick out the CD, then when we restarted it we had to go through a bit of a ritual to pick up where we left off. It was also a bit difficult because while trying to enjoy the view, we found ourselves searching for little brown posts (the mileposts). We learned to use the odometer, but of course the mileposts were going backward relative to the odometer. We missed a couple of important sites, but again we saw more that we would have without the narration. Sometimes we did feel like saying " shut up, we just want to enjoy the scenery". The history of the area was about as interesting as the scenery. Again, my facebook friends will see more pictures where they are
easier to post.
Besides Crater Lake, Becki said the Robert Aufderheide Memorial Highway was also a good trip. It runs through the forest long a fork of the McKenzie river and a fork of the Willamette river in the Willamette valley. I tried to research it online to see how long it would take. That is confusing because it is part of the cascade scenic byway that starts near Portland. We decided to stop at the Ranger Station along 126 and find out before venturing down the Aufderheide. I also asked several people along the way, but no one seemed to know what I was talking about. I'm getting ahead of myself again. Just after leaving Highway 20 on 126 we came across Sahali Falls. We visited here in March of 2008. See the post for March 2, 2008 to see the pictures. At that time, we didn't know the walkway seen here was even present because we walked over it in snow; probably 8 feet deep. This little shelter only peeked out of the snow at 
that time. We then found the ranger station who said we could do the Aufderheide in about 2 hours. Although it would take a lot to top Crater Lake, it was a really nice scenic drive. To make it more informative, at the ranger station, we checked out a CD where 2 rangers narrated the trip. We learned a lot more that we would have by just driving through. There was some difficulty however. First, we could find no way to pause the CD. We looked at the owner's manual and every button on the dash. This is important because the narrators 
would say, "Now stop the CD until you have reached milepost XX" or " stop the tape while you ..... then restart it when you are safely back on the road".. Finally we figured out how to make it work. We would kick out the CD, then when we restarted it we had to go through a bit of a ritual to pick up where we left off. It was also a bit difficult because while trying to enjoy the view, we found ourselves searching for little brown posts (the mileposts). We learned to use the odometer, but of course the mileposts were going backward relative to the odometer. We missed a couple of important sites, but again we saw more that we would have without the narration. Sometimes we did feel like saying " shut up, we just want to enjoy the scenery". The history of the area was about as interesting as the scenery. Again, my facebook friends will see more pictures where they are 
easier to post.
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