Two days off.

By Saturday night, Lakeview can tend to start filling me with the dread of Sunday. Lakeview isn't a bad place if your out of town working 12+ hours per day. But having to spend your day off in this town can be really depressing. You can judge for yourself based on this picture of downtown that I took last Sunday. I'm sure a lot of people love this town. Not me.

You can always click on the pics to make them bigger.



So Saturday after work I didn't waste any time on washing my truck before I drove the 3 and a half hours North West to Bend.



Bend, Oregon is one of my favorite cities in the country. I seriously love this town. Its a bit pricey and it is really hard to find a job here because the main industry I believe is tourism. But every time I come here, I get the vibe that this is a place that I could easily call home and be 100% happy with that decision. Rebecca has yet to visit Bend, but I am kinda thinking she is gonna feel the same way. Unfortunately for some reason I don't have any snazzy pictures of Bend, I will work on that tomorrow. I did take a picture of some Geese that I saw on my run this morning.




Being that this is a holiday weekend, Bend is packed full of people right now. On the way back from my run, I stopped at The Crepe Place.
On a typical Sunday morning, I order, they make my Crepes and I leave. Today there was a pretty big line and it took over 30 minutes. It was a little embarrassing because I was wearing running cloths and I was drenched in sweat but I think people around here are used to seeing that though because it seems like this is the land of the uber fit. After getting my order (it is worth the wait!) I walked next door to Starbucks to get myself 2 large coffees. No, one isn't enough. The line was out the door! Bend really gets a ton of people coming in for holidays I guess.

I did make a wonderful discovery today. Bend has an outdoor Olympic 50 Meter swimming pool!! It should go without saying that after I finished my breakfast I headed straight for the pool. It was nice to get in the water. Its been about a month since I last swam and I could really feel it. I'm gonna try and get here every Sunday, at least until I end up at the Camp. That way, I can possibly maintain a shred of fitness.

Since I now know for certain that it will be several months before the camp will be built in Vya, Nevada I am moving from a hotel in to a house. Housing in Lakeview is very hard to come by given that its a small town and it only has a couple of motels. A lot of people are trying to figure out ways to make money off of this pipeline project which is going to bring approximately 800 workers to their small town. I found an older couple that is renting out two rooms at their house. They own a small restaurant in town, and they raised 6 children so I think I will be fairly comfortable living there. I talked to them for a little while and they seem really nice. Its about $1200 a month cheaper than the hotel I was staying at, so hopefully its a win win for everyone. It will be a little weird, but I guess I will get used to it. I will just be waiting for Saturday night to roll around so that I can head back to Bend!


By the way, I saw that train wreck again on Thursday, still there but with a fresh coat of snow!

Inspiration.

This morning I thought I was in the middle of nowhere. I took a picture of the last sign that I passed. It wasn't referring to the direction that I was heading. If it were, it would have said "No services next 200 miles" I was heading in the direction of Winnemucca, 200 miles East but the sign referred to Gerlach, which was 100 miles South.



Sometimes, when you think you are in the middle of nowhere, a shark jumps out at you. I was kind of looking around thinking to myself that probably very few people have been here

and THEN...




I guess I wasn't too surprised. It's very hard to find anything in nature that hasn't in some way been touched by man. It is pretty cool looking, and the fact that it is where it is adds to its charm. Its probably 20' tall, so whowever did it put in some time.


I did see something that was a little more interesting this afternoon.



I haven't seen a derailed train before. I don't know why they left it laying there. I guess out here it is just too much trouble for them to clean up.


So I did it. I hope this will inspire me to actually start posting with some regularity. My goal is every Sunday. I think its a good way to sort of keep in touch. I have no idea what communication will be like when I get to the camp. Right now I am using a satellite phone for the majority of the area on this project, but I have heard talk of installing some sort of cell tower at the camp. But nothing is for sure. No one even knows when the camps will start being built for sure. No one even knows when this project is going to start for sure. The only thing I know for sure is that I am going to be here for a long time.