Oregon

For the second time in a year, our rental car was upgraded to a convertible because of over-booking. Sweet. Here we sit above Bend after driving across the desert with the top down and XM radio blasting.

It was a beautiful day,
the sun beat down
I had the radio on,
I was drivin

Yeah runnin down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin on a mystery,
goin wherever it leads
Im runnin down a dream

The only thing that kept us from pushing the gas pedal to 110 mph on the straight stretches were the livestock lurking along the roadside.


We recalled Newton's 2nd law from 9th grade science class:

Momentum= mass x velocity. Acceleration = GM/r^2\ propto M/r^2\propto Mass/Surface\Area.

Let's do the math: an object weighing 3,487 pounds accelerating to 110 mph collides with a stationary object weighing 1,200 pounds. That would make for one heck of a science expiriment, eh? We choose not to try it.

Old wrangler cabin near Frenchglen.




Lava fields south of Bend.











A dead pine sits perched above the barren volcanic moonscape.