ROAD TRIP!! - Vancouver to Washington & Oregon - part 3

Hi,

So now, having spent too little time in Eugene, I had my final destination, Bend, on the radar, a short 130 miles east over the Cascade Mountain Range.

My 2.20pm, $1.25 bus took me along Highway 126 all the way out to McKenzie Bridge, some 50 miles. Now that's a bargain!! I'm loving all these super-cheap 'local' buses that take me miles and miles in the direction I'm headed. En route, I had as my theme music on my Discman the most recent Death Cab For Cutie cdee 'Transatlanticism', getting hyped and pumped up for the show the next day. I'm truly getting excited about this gig. The trip so far has gone pretty much 100% according to plan, with no dramas or hiccups to throw me off track. Fingers crossed it stays this way.

Dropped off at the Willamette State Forest Park Ranger Station, I was briefly in the company of hikers, fisherman, kayakers and all sorts of other outdoorsy type people.



This spot is the Gateway to all manner of nature-based sports, a spot I could easily spend endless amounts of time. But instead of registering my presence at the Ranger Station, I walked the opposite way to the highway, made my sign "East - Sisters, Bend", stuck out my thumb, and waited. I was getting to be an old pro at this by now!!

It was another hot day, above 30 degrees Celsius, and was thankful to be picked up within 1/2 an hour by Eric and Crystal, 20-something first year newlyweds on their way to another wedding, by a lake in the forest.



I love hippie weddings!!

Ride Distance - 40 miles

After being dropped off at the Suttle Lake turn-off, I spent just barely 20 minutes waiting before an old 1980's Chrysler convertible pulled over the side of the road. This I call my "Thelma and Louise" incident. Two sisters in their 40's, Emma and Barbara, cruising the country in a convertible pull over to pick up an itinerant hitch-hiker. Now, I ain't no Brad Pitt, but these two girls were no Geena Davis or Susan Sarandon either. That's as close as the Thelma and Louise comparisons get.







Anyhow, these two drove me right (around the!) into Bend, arriving just in time for me to disturb my next host with a phone call right in the middle of making a Spanish Rice dinner. Mmmmmm. Mike and Tamara, a couple in their 30's, live outside of Bend, on a property of 5 acres, with their 10-year-old son Kody, boxer dog, Amigo, 3 chickens....and Lulu the camel! I remember getting an email saying that they'd love to have me stay and help train a camel and was very intrigued. Now, I was face to face with her.





Unfortunately a combination of events prevented me from doing this - Mike's hernia operation the previous week, my short stay, and of course the gig the following day.

They are also avid extreme sports fanatics, and Bend is famed as the perfect location for hiking, biking, skiing, snowboarding, skydiving, kayaking, you name it. So it came as no surprise to me that they have all sorts of toys in their garage, including a homemade penny-farthing bicycle!! This sweet little ride is painted hot-red and is tricked out with flames on the leather seat and fat tyres. If only the crew back in Vancouver could see me now, riding this thing around the front yard!!



The people I meet - I tell ya, it's awesome!!





So, it's now Saturday August 6th, the big day of the gig. I have completed my mission, achieved my objective of getting down here by only thumb and local bus and free beds, and come in at under US$150 expenditure - waaaaaaayy under budget, sooooo, I got some play money!!!



Jon and Tabitha from Portland are coming down to this gig as well, so the plan is to meet them at the gig around 3-4pm, just before it all kicks off. It's another scorching hot 30+ degree day, perfect blue skies with just a touch of a light breeze to take the edge off the heat. Perfect for a festival.



The venue is the Les Schwab Amphitheatre, an outdoor grassed area right by the banks of the Willamette River, a sweet, serene spot, and as we arrive there is a real picnic-y light and easy vibe in the air.



Surveying the crowd, you could tell there was a definite college feel about the place. Lots of grunge-y obscure band tee's over long sleeves, ripped jeans, skate shoes, wacky hairdo's, and a distinct 'green' scent in the air. This is the audience for these bands without a doubt.





The gig wasted no time in taking off, the first band Viva Voce actually starting 5 minutes early! They're a husband and wife 2piece act, and ala Jack and Meg White of The White Stripes produce quite a big sound for two members, altho in quite a sonically different style altogether. This 2 piece are more fuzzy-pop than dirty blues, and in their 30minute set did a very good job of it too. This was the one band on the bill I had never heard of, and was prompted by the set to buy one of the 3 cdee's they'd put out.



Pedro The Lion were next. Another two-piece, I'd seen these guys support Low back in March in Vancouver, and were impressed with them then, and I was impressed with them today. Nothing's changed. They didn't have any merchandise for sale then, and they didn't have any today either. This is Tabitha's favourite band in the world, and as we sat 1/2 way up the back on our rug she was bopping away to her hearts content. Just a shame their set was only 30 minutes as well. I was made to promise I'd send her copies of the pics I took of them. Yes, as per usual I had my camera out, snapping each band, and getting some sweet crowd shots as well. I love people watching!



The band I was most curious about was The Decemberists. Their cdee 'Picaresque' had pretty heavy airplay on KEXP earlier this year, and I came to know the album pretty well. I just wanted to see if they could cut it live on stage. They have quite a big, carnivalesque, dramatic sound which can sometimes fall flat live. This wasn't the case here - they were brilliant! Everything worked a treat - they had the usual guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, and were rounded out nicely with violin, double bass and piano-accordian, giving the band a kind of creole gyspy-ish sort of sound. The boppy, fun aspect was not lost on the crowd, and the audience participation section of the show during "The Mariners Revenge Song" was second to none, and had me up dancing a merry little jig. I even got a crowd round-of-applause!! Fantastic. Cdee purchase #2 right there.



In between bands I noticed a number of hacky-sack games going on. I shouldn't have been surprised. This is pretty much a given at an event like this, as its also a given that I'm gonna join in on a hacky sesh when I see one. I love that shit!! The fact that I'm actually reasonably good at it helps - I'm not very skillful at many things, so when I get good at one, I'll take it!! :-)

Built To Spill were up next. I'd seen this band live just 2 months ago as well, and had to leave early as it was the day before my Juan De Fuca hike. This time I'd get to see them in full. This is a band that had been in and out of my musical radar since the mid 90's, one of those fringe bands that you hear about, and then nothing, so you assumed they'd broken up, only to put out another album when you least expected it. Altho they didn't have any new material to tour on, Built To Spill seem to be a full-time touring band nonetheless. It shows - they know their music, and were tight as hell, their jangly, fuzzy-distorted indie rock sounded as good as ever, especially on thier wig-out extended jam sessions. Their set was on just as the sun was setting as well, and the sounds seemed to fit quite nicely with the scene. Alas, they had no merch for sale either.





Finally, the headline act, Death Cab For Cutie. A long-time staple of the U.S. college indie scene, this band have broken thru to the big time, in no small part due to getting feature airplay on "The O.C." TV show, and their last release "Transatlanticism" being absolutely brilliant. Oh, getting signed to a major label like Atlantic for the first time can't but help either. This band only came to my attention earlier this year, once again KEXP being responsible, but they've been around for 6-7 years and developed a very strong and loyal fanbase on the college circuit.





However, checking out the crowd right down the front this night, I'd say the fanbase for this band has expanded somewhat and would be more the 16-20 year old girlies now, due to the O.C. coverage. Nevertheless, they were brilliant. There is that certain geeky charm about them ala Weezer that appeals, and they write the perfect indie rock-pop tunes. They had a tour DVD on sale, so bought that, as well as a T-Shirt. Like I said earlier, I had play money!!



Okay, so now the gig's over and it's time to go home and altho hyped and excited about what's just passed, the post-gig deflation sets in. When you've been waiting for something for so long, you just don't want it to end, and that's how I felt then on the drive back to Mike and Tam's. Jon and Tabitha also had the invite to stay, so there was a bit of a couchsurfers gathering in the house. It's great when things like this come together so nicely.

The awesome thing about being way out in the middle of nowhere was just how many stars you can see in the sky. All 5 of us stepped out into Mike and Tam's backyard to lie down on the trampoline and star gaze for an hour or so. The Moon wasn't up yet, so there was even more than usual. Trying to spot Mars, which apparently was passing by, proved to be a futility. What a fantastic way to end a fantastic day tho! I went to sleep that night with a smile on my face. Life was good!

August 7th. Time to go home. Tabitha and Jon had a friend in Bend to catch up with for breakfast, so the awesome Westside Bakery was the first port of call. Next stop, Portland and a 1.35pm Greyhound bus, which would get me back to Vancouver at 11pm that night. Midway thru brekky tho, I realised I'd left my phone at the house and we had to kill 20minutes driving out there to get it, which meant leaving it very touch-and-go indeed as to whether I'd make the bus.

Driving thru central Oregon, over the mountain range and thru the forest by the stunning Mount Hood, despite Jon's best efforts, I missed the bus by 20 minutes.







Damn that 20minute detour! From here I had two options: wait 3hours until 5pm for a bus terminating in Seattle, one that stopped in every two-bit town along the way, and then kill another 3 hours in Seattle waiting for the connection to Vancouver; or, sit in Portland until 8.30pm for a direct ride, via Seattle. Either way, I'd get into Vancouver at 5am the next morning.

I opted for option 1. I spent my time in Portland checking out the coolest records shops and bookstores in town. I even found Pedro The Lion and Built To Spill cdee's to purchase, as well as a couple of other local efforts. The Greyhound bus to Seattle was pretty uneventful, altho coming down the I-5 into downtown from the soutside at night provided the immensely pleasing to the eye spectacle of Seattle's skyline with the distinctive Space Needle dominating the vista.

Killing three hours in Seattle wasn't a problem, and the 12.30am bus was on its way before I knew it. Sleep on the bus was rudely disturbed by Customs and Immigration at the border. It's a pain in the butt having to ask all these silly inane questions while your wiping the sleep out of your bloodshot eyes.

5am, August 8th, we pull into Vancouver, and I'm looking forward to getting home - but I don't have my keys! So, I sit around the station for a bit, then take a nap on a bench in the park like a local bum, then at the more reasonable hour of 7am, call my housemate Ceri to let me in the apartment. What a way to finish off the trip. I can't believe it took me 19 hours to get from Bend to Vancouver!!

All in all, I call this trip a spectacular success. Everything went according to plan, with only the extended stretch looking for a ride out of Salem, and this last stretch on the bus being the only minor hiccups. I had an amazing time, being out on the road, sampling a new way of travelling, and meeting loads of new people, making a bunch of new friends along the way, while graciously accepting the kindness and hospitality of the good people of the USA (they do exist!!)

I hope this wasn't too long an entry - it's hard sometimes when so much is going on!

Cheers,

Tony