This Memorial Day we found ourselves again on the road for a pleasant holiday over the long weekend.
On the first day, we left in the morning and drove south on I-5, where we got off in Salem heading up into the Cascades into the valley of the Santiam River.
We stopped for lunch in the unrepentant old mill town of Stayton, specifically to dine at one of the extant A&W drive-in franchises located there. Like almost everything else in Stayton, it looked unchanged from at least three decades ago. True to our liking, the waitress put an old-style tray right on Red's driver-side rolled-down window, and brought us the root beer in frosty bugs without ice, as is proper.
After lunch we followed the river up into the mountains, into the thick wet forest, past several more forgotten mill towns and multiple picnic grounds around the roaring river. Then we went up through the gorge called Little Sweden, winding along narrow curves until we came in sight of the dams of the Detroit Lakes. From there one ascends upwards to the spine of the Cascades, which was denuded by a recent forest fire, giving it the pleasant appearance of a high pass in the Rockies above the timber line.
On the other side of the pass, we came down into the flat volcanic plane, with trees beside the road much thinner and more sparse, such that one could see well into the forest. We passed through the chic hamlet of Sisters, with its Sotheby's real estate signs for out-of-state buyers of ranch properties, and rolled into Bend, where we navigated the crazy thicket of exits and streets into downtown to find our motel.
Red's surge through a yellow light brought a local motorcycle cop on our tail, right as we turned into the parking lot of the Three Sisters Inn, named after the nearby triplet of volcanoes that dominate the skyline of Bend. Red sweet-talked her way out of the ticket, getting off with a warning, while I went inside and checked us in.
"Someone's having a bad day," said the woman at the front desk, looking out at the cop standing beside Red's car. Evidently she hadn't seen me get out of the car and come inside.
The room at the Three Sisters Inn was decent and clean for an inexpensive one along the main highway through town, In the evening we dined at the Pine Tavern downtown by the river. From what she read online, the place is somewhat of a local landmark, with a tree growing right through the dining room.
The steaks at the Pine Tavern were good, but the service was a bit erratic. Our waiter was very enthusiastic and interactive to point of reminding us starkly that despite the hoopla about the money and investments supposedly coming into Bend, it is still old school Central Oregon rustic. It is not yet the next Aspen.
We finished up with desert at a local soda fountain on main street staffed by high school girls who badly botched both the chocolate malt I ordered (no malt, way too much ice cream), and Red's ice cream soda (extremely week and watery).
But everyone's got to learn. The first day of a road trip is always like that, somehow.
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