Flexibility and creating a Plan B and C are always important when living the nomad lifestyle full time or for several months at a time. However, if you have certain obligations or appointments that you need to work around, it can make it a bit more challenging, but there will usually still be options.
Early morning (6am our time), June 25, 2021, we got through to a live person at customer service/reservations for Thousand Trails, to figure out why we couldn’t make an online reservation for Mt Hood (Encore) yesterday. We had decided that we would forgo trying to get two more days at Crater Lake in exchange for going to the Mt Hood Encore (Trails Collection), so we could visit Mt Hood’s SkiBowl to ride the 1/2 mile dual alpine slide, and likely do the zipline. We forgot you have to be out of the Encore (Trails Collection) System for 7 days between reservations, even if you are only in one Encore park for 1 night. We were only going to stay at Mt Hood for two nights and planned to go to another Encore that we already had reserved (Fairview RV Resort near Portland). Since we needed to keep our reservation at Fairview, we chose to make a reservation instead at Bend/Sunriver TT. Maybe we could just stop at the SkiBowl on our way to do the alpine slide a couple of times before heading on to Portland. There was no need to rush to Portland since our site was already assigned. 🙂 No go! SkiBowl put on their website today that they were closing Saturday and Sunday due to the extreme heat predicted!
To Bend we went! We got a great site. It was only 30amp, but we were careful to make it work in 108 degree heat. Barry carefully watched the voltage as the demand throughout the park increased with the heat.
AND Bend TT has pickleball!! Barry and I went out after dinner and played one easy game. BUT–No pool available. They were all bone dry awaiting resurfacing! Seriously? With the heat this week!?! You’d think corporate Thousand Trails would have used this whole last year of closures due to Covid-19 to get things like this done, while also assisting other local businesses. TT kept getting everyone’s dues.
The next morning 12 people showed up at 8 am to play pickleball! Sweet!! I got some really good games in for two full hours!!
Other pictures from the park:
The main lodge for activities (although closed still due to Covid) has awesome window panel garage doors used on both sides to open up the building during warm summer months. It was a nice, airy look that most TT lodges do NOT have!
Lodge 
Horseshoes 
Mini golf & frisbee golf 
This little village is up front between the park check-in and the RV/guest coded entry gate. It was cute, but the actual buildings are closed (you guessed it…because of Covid).
That afternoon Barry and I headed into the town of Bend. We went first to the Bledsoe Family Winery. We were going to do a tasting of four wines (2 white, 2 red), but we only drink reds, so that didn’t make sense financially. If we just ordered one glass of each of the different reds they had, it would be cheaper, but was $36 was still more than we wanted to spend right now for two glasses of wine. Ryan suggested we check out breweries. Bend has 42 breweries! It is a beer town not a wine one. We took his advice, and went to Monkless Belgian Ales. Ryan praised the pairing of their beer with their outdoor deck, and food options. It was the perfect choice for us.
We had lunch here and it was awesome. The grilled Brussels sprouts were delicious with thick chunks of bacon, and the steak tips were so tender, and perfectly seasoned that they melted in your mouth.
Added the steak tips later–almost forgot to take a picture. 🙂
Views from the back deck.
Check out the bathroom at Monkless…
Upon leaving Monkless, we decided to check out the Old Mill shopping area along the river that we saw from the deck. A little walk along the river might be nice after that lunch (and beer). We hoped it might be cooler along the river…if there is some shade. While on the bridge, Richard called me to recommend a couple breweries for us to visit. How sweet. Unfortunately, having just finished up at Monkless Belgian Ales, coupled with the triple digit temperature today, our energy was being zapped quickly.
The Deschutes River is almost bank to bank with people enjoying the water as they try to stay cool today. While the river may not be quite as busy as it is today, I expect this area is a main source of recreation all summer long.
Bend seemed like a fun town. Too bad we didn’t know about these “cycle pubs” when we first got here today! Fun way to go from one brewery to another. We might have made it to more than one via one of these. Next time. 🙂
The one in the video below is the one we saw first. I liked how it manuevered, but the pictured one above has a nice canopy to protect from direct sun. That would be Important in the high heat today!
Video – FUN group on a Cycle-Drink Trike
Tomorrow’s destination is Portland.
Looks like you are seeing alot, and enjoying it.
Yes. We are trying to make some good decisions so we can enjoy what we are doing without trying to do too much. It is interesting the difference between the traveling lifestyle mindset and the vacation mindset. Often those who begin full-timing jump in with the vacation mindset, and find themselves burning out within a year because they were constantly moving and cramming everything they could into each day. That’s exhausting physically and mentally. At our age we appreciate (and need) a more relaxed pace. LOL
(Thank you for taking the time to leave your comment.)