interfaces: Oregon High Desert

This weekend, we did get away. Drove into the Cascades to stay at a favorite place, The Lodge at Suttle Lake, near

Sisters. We were planning to sight see Sunday. As we drove on Saturday afternoon, it rained and rained. We drove through rain and fog and clouds and more rain. I was getting concerned that we would not get to see much because of the weather. We stopped and checked in, then drove the 10 miles or so on into Sisters. During the entire day we couldn't see much. We couldn't see the 3 sisters mountains, 3 fingered Jack, Mount Jefferson or much of anything. Before we left, the tripcheck.com road camera showed the road through the Santiam pass to be full of snow. Becki, bless her heart, loaned us her tire chains (which is a legal matter in the mountains), but by the time we got to the pass, the road was clear. Speaking of Becki, she has become our travel consultant. She sent us to Crater Lake and down the Aufderheide scenic byway. Jason se

nt us to Astoria. Let's roll back to last week. We were trying to decide what to do this weekend and on one of the radiology computers the screen saver is a collection of beautiful places from around the world. This picture of Smith Rock State Park in Oregon came up. (www.oregonstateparks.org/park_51.php) I had heard of it but knew nothing about it. I turned to Becki and said, "where's this" She said, it's up near Sisters..... See we had been to Sisters several times and across to Bend a couple of times, but never strayed from the "beaten path" ..... much..ha ha. We discussed and found that it was a favorite place for rock climbers. Jack, the ultrasound guy is a rock climber. I checked it out to see if we could see worthwhile sights without hiking or backpacking into the wilderness.... cause we are NOT there. Jack and Becki assured me that we could see some neet stuff.

We woke up Sunday morning to clear skys and sunshine. We drove back into Sisters, then the 20 miles to Redmond and another 9 through the small town of Terrebonne, following the signs to Smith Rock State P

ark. I should tell you that since we started the locums, this is the first trip we have taken without my trusty (most of the time) Mapquest printouts. It worked out great (til we were almost home.... later on that. We stopped in the Terrebonne Assembly of God Church to take an overview of Smith Rock.... Wow. I also found out that Smith Rock is a WORLDWIDE favorite rock climbing destination. We spent the afternoon taking in the different looks of Smith Rock and met several neet people. A retired Coast Guard guy who was in Astoria when the Columbus Day Storm of 1962 occured (google it.... quite a d

eal). ..... and his wife had visited the Lincoln Library in Springfield (IL). A local guy who was hiking back from a walk along the Crooked River at the base of Smith Rock was born in Champaign-Urbana while his dad was stationed at Chanute AFB. How's this for the

influence of a mother. This guy was born and raised in America to an american dad and an English mother..... He had an English accent. You would have thought he was from the British Isles. Well, Becki did it again. Along with info she gave us on Smith Rock, she included lunch at the Terrebonne Depot.. Another gustatory delight. (http://www.terrebonnedepot.com/) Georgia had a great pizza (part.... we had the rest for lunch Monday). I had the South of Central Oregon Buffalo Burger... good... very good. And although I'm trying to stay away from French Fries.... these were GREAT! As a little extra "while you're there" Becki threw in info on the Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint. (www.oregonstateparks.org/park_50.php) It was just north of Terrebonne on 97. At this spot, the Crooked River had cut a 300 foot deep canyon. I'm not sure the pictures do it justice... as usual. There we found that Peter Skene Ogden was a guide to early explorers and Ogden, Utah was named after him. Another WOW! It was then time to head back "home. we decided that since it was close to 5p

m, we didn't want to go back down highway 20 which is notoriously twisty and turney.... Not a good thing for old folks in the dark. So we went down the way we had used when we came to Corvallis the first time in February 2008. We took route 22 via Detroit Lake. This road was much easier to drive, especially in the dark although it was quite a bit longer. I had found that I could cut 30 miles from the trip by turning off onto 226 at Lyons going directly to Albany rather than going up to Salem and back south. All was going well. We went through Detroit, stopped at the same rest stop that we hit on our first trip. We went through Mill City, then found the turn off to 226 at Lyons. We were essentially home free. as we drove I was looking for Scio, the next little town when a familiar sign appeared.... Mills City.... uh oh! Somehow we had missed a turn and had doubled back to Mills City. Hmmmmm!!! So we retraced our path to Lyons. About this time Georgia was in need of a Diet Coke fix. She remembered the little Corner Market that we saw just as we turned off 22. As we pulled over to the store which was right along the road, she saw a sign saying that 226 turned right just after the store. It had been h

idden by the store's big bright white lit up sign. If we hadn't stopped at the store, I'm sure we would have bypassed it again heading back to Mills City and into our own "Ground Hog Day" experience. Even a diet coke craving can have it's redeeming qualities. After we made the turn, we were in good shape and got into Albany. We drove past "our" Walgreens" and from there on were on a familiar path.