Six Months on the Road and Counting

more grass
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"Skill comes so slow, and life so fast doth fly, We learn so little and forget so much. (Nosce Teipsum)"-Sir John Davies.

I can't believe it's been 6 months since we left NH on the rainy, snowy day in March. We've been so fortunate in the last 6 months meeting new people, seeing the beautiful sights of this country, living in new parts of the world, but thankfully NOT forgetting so much as Sir John Davies would have us believe. (This travel blog will also help in that regard) None the less, it goes fast. In fact, we are 2/3 of the way through with this assignment here in Pendleton, Or. Currently, I'm looking into positions in Colorado so as to be able to spend the holidays with family. But in the meantime, we've enjoyed Pendleton and have been able to travel to other parts of Oregon while here. Recently, we traveled to the center of the state and visited Bend, Sisters and the John Day area of the state. While there we traveled west out of Sisters driving through the Mt. Washington Wilderness and along the McKenzie pass you come upon a lava field that is truly amazing. It looks like someone just dumped truckfuls of lava along the roadway. That someone was "mother nature".  Go to: http://www.tripcheck.com/Pages/SBmckenzie.asp for some other beautiful details about a potentially gorgeous drive. Unfortunately, that day we had showers and some fog, but that just added to the mystique of the photos.

Ok, enough photos of my grassy body already!
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Bend is too built up/too busy, but has beautiful views of the cascades. Sisters, small community west of Bend would be a good choice if it weren't for the high cost of land (again due to beautiful view of cascades). The John Day area ( south of Pendleton) is also beautiful but too far from any work. So, we continue our journey.  Rich has been busy with his CamTrakker camera(motion sensor camera for the field) check out the bucks roaming the MacKay resevoir--no hunting allowed :(

Had a little scare with Bear recently as she came down with a "flu". Gave us pause as we didn't want to say it but thought, "this is it." (she's nearly 12 now and shepherds don't live a long life...)Thankfully through some wonderful care by our local vet(see the photos in the last post; It's Round-Up Time for his picture),she's out of the woods and back to her typical mooching self. The arthritis seems to be under control as she hasn't had any more painful spells like when we first got here (phew). Unfortunately, though, the kids' recreation/exercise program came to an abrupt halt this week when the gate to the resevoir where they would take a daily swim was shut and locked. It is a nature area so I believe they don't want boaters in the resevoir perhaps for bird migration purposes. So we go on a frantic search for alternative swimming holes. That has been Scooby and Bear's only tolerable form of exercise of late. Anybody got a divining rod?

How dry it is, a lake/resevoir outside of Bend, Or.
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Enjoy the photos of the kids and scenery.

Until next time,

Dee, Rich, Scooby and Bear