We ended up staying at the dunes later than expected, on the way back to Mapleton we stopped, got gas, aired up our tires and BR made a trip to Safeway. I hung out in the parking lot and talked with a retired guy that was on a fishing trip, he spotted my camper and wanted to chat. He had a newer Chevy truck with an also newer Northstar popup. He talked my ear off and then we took off. The guys were asleep when we returned (around 8pm), we rolled into the "Man Cave" and gobbled down some of their home made chili looking stuff. The sun from the dunes and long day wiped us out so we crashed out early as well. In the morning we got up around 7:30, apple fritters and coffee as usual. The gang was anxious to get out fishing so we said our goodbyes and took off.
Bob, Me, Bobby, Perry, Babe (Babe is the one "posing")
BR and I took off out of Mapleton headed East bound on the 126 towards Eugene, our destination for the day was Bend. A shortcut to Bend is the McKenzie-Santium Pass byway (state road 242). We stopped at Alder Springs campground on the way for burgers and a quick IPA snack. A very nice rest from the road. A volcanic crater/rock formation was between the campground and Bend. We snapped a shot in front of (what we think) is two out of the three Sisters mountains.
In the late afternoon we arrived in Bend, we searched for a close-to-town campsite as we were planning on heading downtown to a brewery and wanted to take a cab back. The campgrounds are few and far between so we opted for a high class RV park, Crown Villa. We got the upgraded, usually $80/night site for $35. It felt pretty weird there. Our rigs were dirty and a bit rugged compared to the $100K+ outfits that were there. We fit in the same spot with plenty of room for maybe two more rigs. We got WiFi there so we dorked out for a bit and headed downtown to an Ale House.