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New Website, New Blog, but the Old Blog Archive remains: September 28, 2023

After many years of wanting a real website, this month I finally have a website designed by the very knowledgeable Rey Rey Rodriguez ( TheMindOfReyRey ). My old blog,  Vacation-Travel-Adventure .com  continues with the same address but it is located in the "Archives" tab on my new website  https://www.ceciliaclark.com/ . The new blog which is a continuation but with much better resolution for 4K screens is now at  https://www.ceciliaclark.com/blog .

Home At Last: September 26-29, 2017

Mt. Hood
The skies were clear and we were able to see all the volcanic peaks as we headed south on Highway 97 through Washington and into Oregon.

Mt. Adams 
Mt. St. Helens

We expected Tuesday (9/26) to be our last night on the road before reaching home on Wednesday. Unfortunately, it was not. At about 6pm, we were almost to our night’s lodging in La Pine, Oregon, when the passenger rear tire sensor showed we were again losing air pressure. We got off of I-97 and watched the pressure continue to drop. We tried replacing the air with our little air compressor, but the air was coming out faster than the air was entering. We used the car’s roadside assistance button in our car. The representative told us we could drive on the tire. We insisted we didn’t feel comfortable doing that so he contacted and roadside assistance company that eventually arrived to tow the car to Mercedes Benz in Bend, Oregon.

We were about 16 miles south of Bend. The driver dropped the car at the Mercedes dealership and took us to our night’s lodging. Every motel I contacted had no vacancy so we ended up renting a room on Airbnb. The next morning (Wednesday), our Airbnb host dropped us back at the Mercedes dealership. When the service department was finally able to assess the problem with our tires, we were told that we needed a minimum of two tires and preferably four. He said all were shredding and that these “Run Flat” tires usually last only about 20,000 miles. He also said he hated “Run Flat” tires—a sentiment I share. We had 36,000 miles on our tires.

The tires would not be delivered until Thursday so we had a day of exploration in Bend. This time, there were vacancies at the hotels. We got a room downtown at the luxurious Oxford Hotel. We checked in very early and went exploring. We had lunch at a tapas restaurant called Barrios and walked toward the Old Mill District and the Deschutes River trail. Dinner was fabulous at a Lebanese restaurant called Joolz. We’ve crossed our fingers that the tires will arrive early enough to get installed and get us back on the road to home. We’ve been very lucky so far that our tire failures have happened without disasters and in places where we can be comfortable. Bend is a beautiful small city!

Deschutes River near the Old Mill District with a distant view of Mt. Bachelor
Hiking along the Deschutes River Trail, Bend, Oregon
Thursday at the Bend Mercedes dealership we waited, and we waited for our car to be ready to travel. Finally, about 3:00 pm we were able to continue south. Unfortunately, we were so tired by the time we reached Anderson, California, that we had to spend another night on the road.

Mt. Shasta from I-97
On Friday September 29, we were up early and ready to get home. About three hours later and after 8289 miles/13340 kilometers, 2 jars of peanut butter, two flat tires, four new tires, over 900 photographs, and so many great memories we were home at last!

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