Rodeo

Last Wednesday night, Dave and I went to the Deschutes County Fair in Redmond, Oregon.  The main event that we attended was the rodeo.  Since the price of the fair ticket ($10 for me, free for Dave since seniors were free on opening day) included the rodeo, we couldn't pass up the chance to go to our first rodeo.  We were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the rodeo.

The event started promptly at 6:30 pm with the entrance of a limousine containing the emcee, rodeo queens, and some of the better known rodeo participants.

The emcee was a great announcer.  He explained what was happening in each event so that we weren't totally in the dark about the competitions.  This announcer, making no apologies, opened with a prayer in Jesus' name.  Before he prayed, he said, "this is how we do things around here."

The rodeo was patriotic and family oriented.

The rodeo queens were impressive, especially when they rode their horses around the arena.  Look quick, because they go fast!

One of the queens opened the rodeo by singing the national anthem.

A drill team performed...

...and then it was time for the events.  We saw bucking bronco riding, both with saddles and without, calf roping, breakaway calf roping (done by women), and steer wrestling. 

All events happened very quickly and it was hard to snap a picture before the event was over!  We didn't stay for the whole rodeo because we wanted to have some time to see the rest of the fair, but we now have a new sport to follow--rodeo!

The midway rides were run by Funtastic, the carnival that our blogger friends, Ali and Ron, worked for last spring and summer.

This ride looked fun and different:

This fair was a lot of fun, especially since we were camped next door at the RV park and could walk back and forth. 

From Smith Rock to Juniper Golf

Yesterday was a full day--no time to write a blog.  After our early morning eight-mile bike ride around the fairgrounds, we made another trip to Cove Palisades State Park.  It was nice to see the lake again and even more boats were out enjoying the warm weather.  We drove through Deschutes Campground and even though it has full hookups, it didn't "float our boat"--sorry for the bad pun.

We drove on to Smith Rock State Park, located only three miles north of Redmond.  What a great park!  The rock formations reminded of the "rocks" we saw last year in Utah.  This is a climber's paradise, but we didn't bring binoculars, so we didn't witness any climbing.  And, of course, we didn't do any climbing ourselves, except for climbing in and out of the car to take pictures.  

After touring the state park, we came back to the RV for lunch and a break, and then Dave went next door to play golf at the championship Juniper Golf Course.  I did some errands and then joined Dave at the golf course to ride around with him on the cart for his last nine holes.  By then the usual afternoon breeze had come up and the temperature was pleasant at the golf course.  

About 7 pm we finished up at the golf course and decided to head to McMenamins Old Francis School restaurant in Bend.  We had a delightful meal while enjoying the ambience of one of their patio areas. 

Each of the McMenamins restaurants is different in style and theme. The Old St. Francis School has undergone a transformation from a 1936 Catholic schoolhouse to a hotel complete with classrooms-turned-lodging rooms, a pub, brewery and bakery, a movie theater, private meeting and event space and a soaking pool.

This morning we drove up to Sisters, Oregon, had breakfast, window-shopped, went to a couple of bookstores, and drove through the city park campground to make sure that we could fit our motorhome into one of their spots.  It's a go for a future RV trip to Sisters!

Tonight is the opening night of the Deschutes County Fair, and we'll walk over there from the RV park.  Tomorrow--we head for home!  Despite the hot temps it's been a great week here in Redmond, Oregon!

Mount Bachelor, Oregon

Due to the hot day that was predicted, Dave and I went for our bike ride early in the morning again today.  The first two days we were in Redmond we rode around the fairgrounds.  Yesterday we drove to Eagle Crest Resort to ride, and today we drove to a bike path in Redmond called Dry Canyon.  Today's ride was 10 miles.  We always feel good when we've accomplished what we set out to do.

After returning to the motorhome, taking naps(!), then eating lunch, we were revived enough to leave for our day's excursion to Mount Bachelor.  We drove south to Bend, then west and south on the Cascade Lakes Scenic Highway.

Mount Bachelor

Mount Bachelor offers a summer sightseeing ride on the ski lifts to the top of the mountain.  We paid our $16 each, and hopped on the ski lift. 

When we arrived at the top of the ski lift, we got off to look at the scenery.  We got a close up view of the mountain.  We saw good views of the Three Sisters Mountains, too.

Proof that I was there...

...and so was Dave!

On the way back down the ski lift my phone camera refused to take any more pictures after this one.

The price of the ticket allowed us to ride as many times as we liked.  At the top of the mountain, a restaurant was open.  We were surprised to see a disc golf course at the top, too.  Players ride up and then work their way back down playing the disc golf course.

It was another fun, scenic day in the Redmond, Oregon area!

Prineville and Meeting A Blogging Friend

No, we didn't meet our blogging friend in Prineville.  Dave and I went to Prineville yesterday and this afternoon at the RV park, we enjoyed meeting and visiting with Loree (Life With Luci & Loree) and her dachshund, Luci.  Loree doesn't live too far from the fairgrounds RV park where we are staying.  Luci is a very well-behaved dog that likes to keep her "mom" nearby. 

Loree with Luci in her arms

The visit flew by and before we knew it, it was time for Luci to be taken home to eat her dinner.  Loree, we hope to visit in person with you again, and until then, we'll keep on reading your blog!

In the midst of Loree's visit, Dave was dealing with a problem with the motorhome's transfer switch.  Earlier we had smelled an electrical odor--never a good thing.  A mobile RV repairman came to our site and fixed us up temporarily until a new transfer switch can be ordered.  You can read all about it on Dave's blog.

Yesterday, Dave and I drove to Prineville.  We had a picnic lunch in the shade of an outdoor pavilion (I would have called it a band shelter) at a city park.  The weather was too hot for working outside, but it was nice sitting in the shade.

A bird's eye look at Prineville from Ochoco Viewpoint

Crook County Courthouse in Prineville, Oregon

Even though we've made several visits to the Bend area, we never happened to visit Prineville.  It's a decent-sized town and seems like a nice place to live.  Prineville is the headquarters of our favorite tire store, Les Schwab.

The Les Schwab warehouse complex

After lunch, we headed out of town for another seventeen or so miles and visited Prineville Reservoir.  This lake is formed from Bowman Dam and Crooked River.  Yesterday the weather was just right for boating, water skiing, and tubes pulled by boats.  The fishing is supposed to be good there, too.  There's a state park campground here, with a few full-hookup sites, and quite a few partial hookup sites.  The sites didn't look quite as inviting for big rigs, but some sites were suitable, and other, smaller rigs were enjoying the park and it was full. 

One section of Prineville Reservoir

After visiting the state park, we drove another bunch of twisty miles and reached the private Prineville Resort RV Park.  It had quite a few small sites located next to the water, but other than that it was a dusty place and not much of a "resort". 

The state park swimming area

We headed back to Redmond and enjoyed a pizza and salad dinner at one of our old haunts from our years in Riverside, California--Straw Hat Pizza. 

In Search of Warm Weather

We found it!  It's almost too warm here in Redmond, Oregon.  And now it's warm at home, too.  We had a week to go on a short RV trip.  We thought about going to Port Angeles, WA and Olympic National Park but when we were making reservations, it looked cool and rainy there, so instead we decided to go to Bend/Redmond.  Now at 5:10 pm, the temperature is 90 degrees and we can't complain about no sunshine!  The humidity here in Redmond is 13% right now, so we this is a "dry heat"!  The temperature at our home in Vancouver, WA is 80 degrees right now, with humidity 43%--not bad at all.   Summer has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest!

We never get tired of this view of Mount Hood from east-bound Highway 26, west of Government Camp.

The small village of Government Camp.

No decision needed here--we're continuing to head east on Highway 26!  east on Highway 26!

We saw Mount Jefferson

and an interesting rock formation in the Warm Springs Indian Reservation area.

Entering Madras.

The Three Sisters Mountains and the sagebrush terrain of the high desert.

We are staying at the Deschutes County Fair and Expo Center RV Park.  It's a good park, all paved, full-hookups including 50 amps, good free wifi, satellite reception, and a price of $35 per night.  A deluxe RV Park in Bend, Crown Villa, charges up to $80/ night.  No, thanks!  The Deschutes County Fair starts on Wednesday, but we were still able to get a reservation for seven nights.

We love seeing the blue sky above us in site #B7.  Fairgrounds buildings are in the background.

The RV park registration building contains a laundromat, rest rooms, and a meeting room.

In my next blog post, I'll write about our day trip to Prineville, Oregon,  and the Prineville Reservoir.