Day 7: in Bend, Oregon at the Northwest Tandem Rally – we decided to make this a full rest day since we will not have another one until we get to Missoula, so we drove over to the Westside Café and met Rick and Vicki for breakfast. They had scouted out all the good eating places and we are just following their lead and enjoying every bite!
Back of our condo and looking down from the back of our condo
We took a driving tour of Bend and found a drug store to get some mosquito repellant—it will be worth the few ounces of weight should we get attacked again! Today I will get the laundry done and make sure the website is up-to-date and finish my book and that will lighten our load a bit!
This evening we will enjoy Social Hour and Banquet Bar-B-Que under the stars and a tent in the Old Mill District adjacent to the Deschutes River. Plenty of time to visit with old and new friends and hopefully get some more good photos. ----- And now it is after 9 p.m. and I can tell you that the banquet was truly a success.
They reported that there were 916 people registered at the rally and that included 426 tandem/triple/quad bikes and 64 single bikes. We had not been to a Northwest Tandem Rally since 2000 and did not realize how much this event has grown. It was a wonderfully planned and managed event and we were especially impressed with the efficient handling of the banquet. The food was delicious and enough to satisfy all those hungry people and though there were serving lines it was no long wait at all. Truly well handled!!
The Deschutes River by the Old Mill District Walking across bridge to Old Mill District Ready to partake of some liquid refreshments
We did meet several new couples and had a chance to visit with a few and share experiences and get some photos. We had wanted to meet Dave and Lynn Sievey from Minnesota who are friends of Jim and Joanna Gregg from Edmond, Oklahoma and as we got in line for dinner they were right in front of us in the line. What luck! It is no easy task locating people in a crowd like that.
David and Lynn Sieving from Minnesota Sydney and Jim Wild from San Antonio Linda and Eric from Georgia
Jack and Susan Goertz from Alabama part of 916 people at banquet Ian Sholz and his wife from Eugene, Oregon
We sat with Sydney and Jim Wild from San Antonio and enjoyed visiting with them and look forward to seeing them at future rallies. They were at the Southwest Tandem Rally in Fredericksburg too but we did not meet them there.
We said goodbye to Rick and Vicki tonight. They will be heading for a rendezvous with a new BMW motorcycle and then will be traveling through some of the same towns as we are so we will probably get to see them again in a week or so. Such fun!!!
Bend has been a wonderful place to visit and recommend it to everyone as a great vacation spot. They say any time of year is wonderful.
Since we rented a car and the place is closed on the holiday, we have to turn the car in at the airport up by Redmond tomorrow morning—so I will have to drive it up there carrying the trailer and Dennis will have to ride solo on the tandem about 18 miles to the airport. Then we will go on over to Prineville for the night. We will probably miss most of the festivities in Prineville but from what we have read they have a really big celebration for July 4 th . We shall see.