Monday - July 27

Back on the road at 9:35 this morning heading to Burns (142 miles) on Route 20.    The road was great and mostly straight with NO civilization almost the entire way.    We did see signs for some little towns (Brothers and Hampton,) but really nothing there!   Lots of scrub brush for miles and miles - this Eastern part of Oregon is known as high-desert country and as someone wrote....it's like being back in pioneer days.    Burns and its sister city, Hines make up 60% of the population (4200) for Harney County yet the land mass is huge!

 

                                                            High desert country

Reading about this Burns RV Park and the area, we saw that they have their own espresso and wine bar right here at the park!    Yeah.....sounds like something we would definitely enjoy having close by.     We checked in and the lady said, "It's closed - I haven't reopened it in several months - that machine is very expensive".....I guess she is taking all precautions.   Arghhhh.    She then went on to say that the Oregon governor, Kate Brown is shutting down hotels, resorts and B 'n B's in certain parts of the state where there are high numbers of Covid.   She is asking the owners to please issue refunds for all upcoming reservations.    As I said, Oregon does NOT want tourists!

Mark did something to his knee (twisted it) just before we were leaving Redmond this morning - he was fine to drive, but really hurts if he tries to kneel, which he does enough of when setting up Flo.    So between me with the sore shoulder and him with the sore knee, we managed to get the job done!!   We went into Burns and got a knee brace at Rite Aid.    And, there are 3 little coffee shops in this town - so enjoyed iced drinks from "Jitters Revolution".  

I was reading about the huge increase in RV and camper sales.     With "rona", people are wanting to travel, but not on airplanes, stay in hotels or eat in restaurants, so......hitting the road with their home with them is the perfect solution!     We sure have enjoyed this trip despite all the restrictions! 

It got to 95 here today, but again, just 12% humidity.   Not a whole lot to do in these parts and of course, a few things are closed.    So we may just enjoy some real "downtime" these next few days.  

Walked around the park tonight - just 57 sites but the majority were from California and then Oregon.   These 3 teepees are fully furnished (along with a gas grill) and rent for $45 a night.    That's Mark checking them out -