We woke up to nice temperatures (mid 50s), but that was the best part of the day. A storm front is moving in, and temperatures are going to get much colder over the next few days. We figured we had better get moving on our next scenic drive. The problem was there were so many clouds we couldn’t see a lot! We drove right by Mt. Bachelor, and all I could see was the bottom of one chair lift. Sigh. There was some natural snow left from last week’s storm in the shady spots, and the ski resort was obviously making snow too.
We did enjoy one detour on the route. We went to the historic Elk Lake Guard Station from 1929. It is owned by the Forest Service and serves as an interpretive center these days. Sadly it was closed for the season, but we took the old road around Elk Lake anyway.
The big thing today was definitely lava. There were lots of cinder cones and lava fields everywhere, either huge flows or fingers that snuck in here and there.
We do some productive things in Bend like going to the grocery store and pharmacy. Great fun /sarcasm. But it has to be done. We have been having bad luck with grocery stores, but I picked up some good ground beef and some salmon. I made meat loaves in individual silicone cupcake holders tonight. The pound of hamburger made 10 cupcakes. I used the combo setting on my convection/microwave to cook 5 of them, and they were yummy. I am freezing the remainder for a later meal. Tomorrow night I will bake the salmon. I have discovered I am much better with baked salmon that I ever was cooking it in a pan or on a grill. Even Kevin, not fond of most fish, likes it baked.
It is going to be cold enough tonight (25 degrees) that Kevin put the water and waste hoses away in the bay. Those freeze easily since they are narrow. The motorhome itself will be fine to 25 without doing anything else since the wet bay is heated by the same furnace that is used in the living space. It never gets as warm since it is only one vent, but is does fine with a low in the mid 20s. However it will be much colder the next two nights (15 and 19) so he also put an incandescent trouble light in the wet bay. We keep a remote thermometer in there to monitor, and that should be enough to keep the water flowing. The daytime highs will be 50 or above, so that helps too.
I think we are just staying close tomorrow. Hopefully I can get a quilt cut out. Oh, and I got a request for some toys from my daughter, so I may do some there too. It might even let my back recover some. It has really been killing me since I got a bad back spasm a week or so ago.
