Day 27: July 2, 2021 Taking It Easy Comment via blog

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This pleasant bit of two-lane is on an old alignment of US-20 just a little past Lebanon, OR.

These are all from the route's current alignment. Driving through the Williamette National Forest, I had been catching glimpses of the South Santiam River and finally reached a clearing where I could snag a picture. It was then almost immediately hidden again.

I paused at an overlook, still on the current alignment, that allowed a clear view of Mount Washington and, if I read the sign right, its little buddy Cache Mountain.

This the Deschutes Brewery Bend Tasting Room. Deschutes also has a Public House in Bend which I assume is like the one in Portland. There is a third Deschutes site in Bend which I believe is the production brewery. The beer on the right is their standard Black Butte Porter which I included for reference, the one in the middle is Nitro Obsidian Stout which I included pretty much based on a cool sounding name, and the one on the left is Black Butte XXXIII. It is their anniversary beer brewed especially to celebrate Deschutes' thirty-third anniversary last Sunday. It is brewed with maple syrup, chocolate, and vanilla beans, then aged in bourbon barrels. I included it because I'm not the sort to spoil a birthday party. Yeah, they were all great.

You may have noticed that there has been just one picture from one old alignment today. I did. As I headed out of Bend, I realized that that was going to be it. "Turn left in 130 miles", the woman inside the Garmin told me. Those words would normally horrify me but today I didn't mind. Driving on even the best gravel roads can be tiring and I had recently been on some that were several notches below middling. The same is true of following an old road's twists and turns through cities more crowded than the road's originators could have even imagined. I was ready for a couple hours of cruise control and a little music. Patrick Sweany, Willie Nile, Dirk Hamilton, and Steve Earle got me to my motel in Burns, OR.

Of course it wasn't all straight and level.

As I often do, I queried my phone for nearby breweries once I reached my motel. I got a hit with Two-Bit Hooker Brewing just a couple of miles away. The beer is quite good but the story behind the name isn't nearly as interesting as I'd hoped. One of the two owners is a fisherman who ties his own flies. He might even sell a few now and then. One of his most successful provides both the brewery's name and the image on its logo.

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