Day 43 – Bend and Mount Hood, Oregon again

We had, at this point, decided to head back to Whitefish, Montana. After a typical breakfast of sausage, eggs, oatmeal, and coffee, we headed north once again. From the Prairie Campground, we made our way through Bend one more time, stopping in at Spoken Moto, like last time, for some work and more coffee. We also grabbed some lunch in the food truck court, before hitting both the New Ponderosa Skatepark, and the Rockridge Skatepark.

Of course we’d been the the New Ponderosa and Old Ponderosa skateparks, with the New Ponderosa being one of our favorites, so far. The Rockridge Skatepark was described as a “flow” skate park, and we were looking forward to trying it out. It’s new, it’s pretty cool, and it seemed dangerous to me. It looked like a great place for collisions. It reminded me of the slot car track from my youth: Criss Cross Crash. Unfortunately, all good lines seem to cross in the middle of the park. In fact, Alexander and a full grown adult collided, and both went down hard. We thought Alexander broke his leg, and left, prepared to head to the hospital. The adult apologized profusely, though it wasn’t really his fault. He couldn’t see a kid in the bowl he was entering. He looked like he was suffering too. It’s a super cool park, but I wouldn’t want to be there when there were anymore than one or two others. I had to wait a long time before I could do anything, as someone was always in the way.

Fortunately, Alexander wasn’t injured severely, and we headed up towards Mount Hood to find a place to sleep for the night. As luck would have it, the Toll Bridge Campground had space once again, and we pulled in for the night. The temperatures were a lot higher, and the hornets or wasps were out, making for a little less enjoyable stay. Just like last time, however, we were happy for a decent place with showers.

Distance: 154 Miles

Time: Most of the day. We had two skatepars, and a work session along the way

Vanlife Reality: Hot weather, wasps, possible broken leg

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