We spent the morning driving further along Hwy 20 across a very arid plain that lies in the middle of Oregon. Who would believe this photo was taken in Oregon.
I thought we’d finally driven out of the forest fire smog but it turns out we’ve driven into a new forest fire zone. There is a huge blaze south of Sister, Oregon.
The above photo was taken at a rest stop in Brothers, Oregon. Americans seem to have a love hate relationship with their dogs. At many of the rest stops, dogs are only allowed at either end of the rest stop grounds. It’s usually a pretty inhospitable area for human or canine. For instance, I feared we would run into rattlesnakes when I took Eliot here for a whiz.
I have driven through so much lightly populated country over the past two weeks that it’s always a bit of a shock to drive into a town or city of any size. After two hours of desert, I was not quite prepared for the traffic congestion in Bend, Oregon (pop.65,000)
Up until now I have not said much about how the old 1984 VW has been performing. No point in tempting fate. But it has been doing remarkably well. I’ve been careful to keep an eye on the oil and coolant levels and so far we’ve put more than 20,000 kilometers on the overhauled engine. But as we entered Bend, Oregon I put my foot on the brake and my foot went all the way to the floor. Yikes! A little pumping of the brake pedal and the brakes came back only to disappear the next time I needed to stop. At least if we were going to have a problem, I could easily find help.
So I finally found a Les Schwab(?). Their staff had been really helpful a couple of years ago when I needed a new tire in Townsend, Washington. They didn’t make faces or snide remarks when they saw what I was driving and took old Helmut into a bay to check out the brakes. About a half hour later the guy (Barry) came to me looking quite serious. But it turned out not to be ... serious, that is. He said that everything about the brakes seemed fine and that there were no leaks. He suggested that perhaps the braking fluid has gotten too hot and ‘boiled’ creating air in the brake lines. He said it might be worth draining and flushing the ‘old’ brake fluid since as it gets old it’s boiling temperature gets lower. But he didn’t think it would be dangerous to continue on my way. So I did. And lucky me. They were having free brake inspections that week.
Since there was an oil change place around the corner, I took Helmut there for some new oil. Usually I change the oil once or twice a year but we’ve really been racking up the kilometers so it seemed like a good idea.
From Bend, Oregon, Hwy 20 goes over a couple passes in the Cascade Mountains. They’re not high like some of the passes further east but they are no less brutal.
It’s amazing how much the landscape changes in just a hour’s worth of driving. Up one side of the mountain where it looks as if it hasn’t rained for years then down the other side into a more familiar landscape of forests of ferns and huge trees with moss hanging from them. The temperature also dropped and as we descended from 4,000 feet we were in cloud for the first time in many days.
We’re spending the night at Cascadia State Park. It’s a tenting park where Helmut fits in quite nicely. They’ve built new shower buildings but they’re not open yet. The sign says opening 2012 but the park closes for the season at the end of September so it looks as if they’re not going to make it.
Tomorrow off to the coast.
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