Travel: From "off the double nickle" to Central Oregon

I was sitting with my daughter-in-law last night gazing at the perfect night sky and talking about camping when we were children. We are in Central Oregon staying in a house located in the Black Butte Resort. This is about as near to camping, as we will ever be again.

Staying here is a few dozen steps above “glamping” and a little below staying in a beautiful hotel. I like it a lot.

But getting back to our stories…DIL told me about her 4H leader that took her group camping in Illinois. It was suppose to be a wonderful experience so the girls could experience the outdoors. I suppose there was a tendency for the girls to escape to places the leader could not see them so the leader told them there were bears in the woods and scared them half to death.

“I even knew where she lived and didn’t like her very much. Where was that? Oh, she lived off the double nickel south of Bloomington.”

The double nickel and bears…how does someone like me not store that away for some future story? In fact, this whole experience of talking with our family that lives very far away and getting to vacation in beautiful Oregon just begs to be written about.

I have been a life long resident of Oregon and Central Oregon is just another part of my hometown. We are near Sisters where one the largest quilt shows ever is held in the summer. The Three Sisters Mountains loom in the distance and huge yellow pines surround this house where we are staying.

Cascade Mountains, Mt. Hood in the distance. This is the beautiful
drive between Portland and Central Oregon.

If you saw the picture of the bride being married with the forest fire looming in the background that went viral on the Internet earlier this summer, you can picture where we are. Golf courses, pools, tennis courts and walking trails surround us. The house we are renting was $1300 for 4 nights but there are many others around. AIRBNB and For Rent by Owner are sources for that sort of thing here.

Dropping down on the eastside of the Cascades into Central Oregon.
The air is thick with smoke from a distant forest fire.

I will buy a new swimsuit here and spend the day swimming and walking. My granddaughters are keeping me company. The rest of the family is golfing. Tonight we will barbecue, drink a little wine and watch the night sky filled with satellites and shooting stars. Don’t try to tell me life is not good…you would be very wrong.

Have a wonderful day.

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