Idaho to Bend

Yesterday was the most boring day of our whole trip. Compared to the drive from Ontario, Oregon to Bend, Oregon, the trek across Iowa or Nebraska was exciting. The scenery was the same monotonous semi-arid desert mile after mile.

Finally, we were able to see the peaks of the “Three Sisters”, and Mount Hood off in the distance and we knew the scenery was going to change to beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful, Bend, Oregon is a beautiful town. The Dechutes river snakes through the middle of town. The downtown is so very picturesque, with a small town feel and what appears to be a thriving, growing economy. All of this quaintness is displayed against a backdrop of snowcapped mountains.

I was unsuccessful again at finding a place to play poker. Apparently, when I saw articles about tournaments and advertisements about Poker in Bend, I failed to notice it was referring to North Bend! Well, you might think North Bend would be just north of Bend like I did. However, North Bend is about 250 miles to the south-west of Bend on the Ocean just above Coos Bay. Duh, in Oregon the term “bend” is more about naming places because of a “bend in a river”, as opposed to a specific place name. I haven’t checked yet, but there is probably a south bend, west bend and east bend somewhere in Oregon too.

I looked in the local phone book and found a reference to an Indian Casino about 100 miles north of here and a another reference to Casino Productions in Bend. So I called the Casino Productions number and talked to a gentleman who runs charitable casino events and he told me there are no card clubs in Bend. However, he did say some of the sports bars do offer a table or a tournament at nights, but he didn’t know which ones.

I was actually feeling like I needed a poker fix.

So resourceful guy that I am, I began looking for motels that advertised that they offered wireless Internet. The last few days I have found out that by parking near some of these I can connect on their wireless service and upload to my blog, and check e-mail etc.

So, I pulled in next to the first one I saw and sure enough I was able to get on Party Poker and play an hour of poker. I only have about $70 in my PP account and I wanted to play a little so I played 2/4 limit for about an hour. I was able to run it up to $130 and then back to $68 when it was time for me to make dinner. I logged off still wanting to play live, however, Party Poker took some of the craving away to play.

We stopped and filled up with gas and found out a Wal-mart was about a mile north. So we planned on spending the night there. On the way I saw a “sports bar” that advertised live poker. I stopped in an found out they stopped offering it a few months ago and hadn’t taken the sign down yet. They did tell me another bar they knew had a game going 24/7 according to them. It was back about 5 miles and I decided I would wait until tomorrow or Tuesday and I would drive to “Spirit Mountain Casino” about 30 miles from Salem where Caren will be visiting her family. “Spirit Mountain” has the largest poker room in the state of Oregon and I am planning on logging some poker time there.

So instead of a spending a night in a poker room, I have made pistachio, pudding and we are tucked in bed in the RV eating pudding and watching the movie, “The Gift” a scary, supernatural, suspense movie with a litany of big starts. It is pretty good, and so is the pudding.

Well, good night from another of many Wal-Mart parking lots to come over the next few weeks.