Scoundrels

Oregon Cascades Travelog #11
Bend, OR - Wed, 2 Jul 2025, 9:30pm

Our Day 2 of this Oregon Cascades vacation has been a very full and fulfilling one. Yesterday was only a part day of vacation because it was also a work day (for me). But today we spent the whole day on leisure, leaving our hotel around 9am and not returning until after 9pm. In the middle we did 3 hikes, visited 6 waterfalls— or maybe more; I lost count— and drove 187 miles.

We left our room at the Days Inn in Bend around 9am. Yeah, we slept in a bit today. I swatted the snooze button until almost 7:30 then took my time getting ready after that. A curious thing is that when we were loading our car just before 9 we saw what late risers we were. The hotel parking lot, which was full last night, was now 75% empty, and half the remaining cars had doors and trunks open with people buzzing around them, loading bikes, coolers, etc. I'll add that to my notes about the Days Inn brand: this one, at least, is popular with the outdoors activity demographic. Unlike, say, the tweaker and drug dealer demographic.

Our first hike of the day was Tumalo Falls, not far outside of Bend to the west. I'll save my notes about the trek and pics of the waterfall for when I write a full blog about it. For now it's added to my backlog so I don't fall further behind in writing about this trip. Long story short, though, Tumalo was amazing. The main falls was almost 100' tall, and there were additional waterfalls higher up on the trail.

After hiking Tumalo it was lunchtime. Being not far from Bend was a plus because we could drive back into town to eat some real food instead of protein bars and water from our trail rations. We found a frou-frou burger place on the west side of town. Hawk got a custom burger made to her specifications with avocado, while I enjoyed a lamb burger with feta cheese and tzatziki sauce.

Fueled up for the next several hours we headed northwest on US 20 over the Santiam pass. Our destination was Downing Creek Falls. The trail description I found on a blog written by a local gal said it was hard to find. She did not lie. We overshot the unmarked dirt road twice. Then, once on it, it was a narrow two-track with no signs of where to go. Between her blog and notes on AllTrails.com we found the right place and enjoyed a stunning falls all to ourselves.

After Downing Creek we headed south back toward the pass and then down into the canyon of the headwaters of the McKenzie River. We then turn back east and headed back uphill toward the McKenzie Pass. Along the way we stopped to hike Proxy Falls. Proxy Falls has both an upper and lower falls on a loop trail. The lower falls is the bigger of the two but is hard to see from the trail. We made up for that by scrambling down a hill, off trail, then walking on logs across a creek, then wet-footing it out into the creek at the bottom of the falls to gaze up at it. Wow. I hope the photos I'll share soon turn out as amazing as the falls did in person.

As we finished hiking at Proxy Falls it was already getting late— almost 6:30pm. We thought we'd just drive up over the McKenzie Pass and down to Bend for dinner. Or maybe stop 20 minutes early in the small town of Sisters. But when we got to the top of the pass the views forced us to stop. Atop the pass, the winding little state highway traverses a lava field. There's nothing but lava rock visible in any direction— except for the tall volcanic peaks in the distance on all sides! And, at the top of the pass, there's an observatory... that's made out of volcanic rock. We couldn't resist stopping and seeing that in the golden light of the setting sun.

Somehow the stark beauty of the McKenzie Pass sated our appetites just long enough to drive back down into Bend. We picked out a Mexican restaurant for dinner and enjoyed plates of enchiladas there. Afterward we ran a few errands: buying groceries for the next day and filling the car with gas. We're back late this evening, but we're planning to get out early tomorrow for a big hike.

Oregon Cascades Travelog #5
Bend, OR - Tue, 1 Jul 2025, 10pm

We faced in choice in how to travel for this trip: whether to fly or drive. As you can tell from what I've written so far, we drove. But it wasn't simple choice. Both flying and driving had both pluses and minuses.

The biggest issues were in the time-money tradeoff:

• Flying would've meant less time in transit overall, even with flying to PDX and then having to drive 3 hours to Bend. By flying, we would've left home about the same time on Monday afternoon and then gotten to Bend around midnight— the same time we got to Klamath Falls driving. And from Klamath Falls it was another 2.5 hours of driving today to get to Bend. Flying would've held a similar time savings on the way home.


• It's worth pointing out also that time in the car is "windshield" time— meaning I'm actively engaged in the act of driving. I can't relax with a beer or scroll on my phone, like I can at the airport and aboard a flight.


• OTOH, flying would've been more expensive. The flight outbound I was able to get on points for a reasonable rate, but the flight home was a cash purchase— a "hard" cost. The rental car was also a hard cost. These two cash-out-of-pocket costs were nearly $1,000. The outbound flight cost something too, but I got it on points, of which I have a bazillion (okay, approximately 650,000) on Southwest Airlines, so it's a soft cost. Likewise there's a cost for wear and tear on our car— but it's also a soft cost, as the car is 14 years old with 129,000 miles. It's not depreciating anymore, so the soft cost is just the cost of keeping it running.

There were also convenience factors, all of which argued in favor of driving:

• Driving is our car, so there are no surprises at the rental lot. In particular, a rental could be more or less comfortable than our own car. Hawk especially prefers comfort parameters she knows vs. the crap-shoot of renting.


• Driving gives us more latitude to change plans if we feel like it, including visiting things elsewhere in Oregon or in California on the way home Sunday— which we already plan to do.


• Driving our own car means we have known, solid 4x4 capabilities. Some of the hikes we're considering require driving on forest roads to get to them.


• Last but not least, driving our own car means we can pack whatever the hell we want. It doesn't have to fit neatly into a small number of suitcases. Among other things we wouldn't take while flying, we packed an insulated bag with cold drink and cheese. That plus crackers and dried sausage makes good breakfasts for me.

So far I'd say driving has been a slight win. Yes, only slight, because despite the significant number of pluses that favor driving over flying, that first one—saving hours of time— is a big one favoring flying.

Oregon Cascades Travelog #2
Klamath Falls, OR - Tue, 1 Jul 2025, 9:45am

Woohoo, the first day of our vacation, amiright? Haha, not exactly. After driving 8 hours to Klamath Falls, Oregon, last night today I'm working from the hotel room in Klamath Falls. My day started with responding to some urgent requests at 7:30am.

"WTF are you doing working on vacation?" you might ask. "Aren't you always writing about how you don't work on vacation?"

The fact is I'm working today because it's not vacation. It's a workday!

One of the benefits of working remotely is that remotely means anywhere I have a good internet/phone connection and the ability to focus on work. It's not just working from home. I'm working from a hotel today because having left yesterday afternoon— and knocked out those 8 hours of driving— means I'm that much closer to starting my actual vacation later today.

It's been a while since I checked in with my blogging stats. To be particular, it's been two months since I posted March and April stats. Two months seems about the right frequency for this meta-blogging.

• In May I nearly hit my stretch goal of 2 posts/day. I came in at 1.97 with 61 entries in 31 days.


• In June I slowed down but still achieved my intermediate goal of 1.5/day, with 47 posts in 30 days (1.57/day avg).


• I thought June would be another 2-a-day month like May— and March and April— because I was still catching up on my trip to Italy and had other items, including catching up from earlier trips, in my backlog. Instead, many of those things remain in my backlog because I ran out of steam for blogging. From the middle of June on I struggled to post even once a day.


• But I did keep up with my baseline goal of posting something every day. That streak's been unbroken since February, and if I overlook that one off day my streak of writing daily goes back over a year at this point.

So, what's still in my backlog as I go into July?

• I have a scattering of blogs from hikes from a recently as a week ago Sunday (Alviso slough) to a few months ago (e.g., Pinnacles National Park).


• I still have several blogs stuck in backlog from our trip to New Zealand— which is now 14 months ago!


• This isn't backlog yet, but I'm about to leave on a vacation trip to Oregon, so I'll have a lot to write over the next week-plus.

Weekend goal: accomplished! ...No, it wasn't "clean the house" or "sweep and pull weeds on the patio", though I did wash a load of laundry each morning. My goal for this past weekend was to spend both afternoons at the pool. I already posted about "#PoolLife" for Saturday. Here's Sunday.



Years ago my father would critique my photos, "Son, the picture's empty. You need people in it." Well, aside from the fact that landscape photography is a thing— and it's always been my thing, whereas his was portrait photography—there are people in this photo. Two of my neighbors are sitting in the deep shade off the left, and those are my feet at the bottom center. My feet are in the frame on purpose because this is a photo I made while floating around on my back in the pool, barely a care in the world on a warm weekend afternoon.

I seized the opportunity when I saw the weather would cooperate with us this weekend to lounge around by the pool all afternoon each day. I cleared the schedule and said, "Let's plan to stay home and enjoy the pool." Still it took a smidge of effort each day to get out, versus lounging comfortably inside the house, but I'm glad I did it.

I didn't just float around on my back sipping margaritas all afternoon. I mean, I only had one cocktail, and it wasn't a margarita. 🤣 Before floating around lazily I did aerobic exercises in the pool. I got my pulse rate up for 30 minutes or so then treating myself to lounging around. Oh, and I didn't drink alcohol in the pool. That was for after, while sitting on the deck. I'm responsible that way. 🤣

We faced a choice for this weekend. A week ago we were deciding how long to make our July 4 vacation. Would I take the entire week off from work so we could travel 9 days? Honestly I didn't feel like it. I looked at the weather report and saw that Saturday and Sunday were forecast to be beautifully warm days— with afternoon highs of 84-86°F (29-30° C)— and decided I'd rather stay home for the weekend and enjoy some #PoolLife. Plus, I had too many meetings on my work calendar already to feel comfortable taking off the whole week, so I'll work Monday and part of Tuesday.

Friday evening we had dinner with friends and I shared my totally un-ambitious weekend plans. "We're going to take advantage of the warm weather and enjoy some pool life," I boasted.

"Ah, #PoolLife!" Bobbi replied, pronouncing it as 'hashtag pool life'.

I had a moment of "WTF?" wondering if Bobbi is reading my blog. I introduced 'pool life' as a tag about a year ago. Meeting someone who might have read my blog is weird because I have, like, maybe ten followers... and at least 2 of them are bots. 🤣



So how was it? It was glorious. The temperature was already up to 85 or 86 as we drove home from dining out for lunch and running a few quick shopping errands. Later in the afternoon it hit a high of 88, according to the weather app. We splashed around in the pool for a while, doing exercises going back and forth, then floated to relax in the warm sunshine, then soaked in the hot tub, then laid out on the lounge chairs.

I wiled away the afternoon mostly in the shade, as you can see in the photo above. Hawk took a spot mostly in the sun (not in the photo). I had my laptop with me, and Hawk had her tablet, so we kept ourselves quietly occupied for at least an hour while drying off and enjoying the warm weather.

It was satisfying to spend this day by the pool. I've been waiting for the weather to be warm enough to do this for a few months. This weekend isn't the first legitimately warm weather we've had this year, but it is the first we've been here for. 😅 I think there were a few warm days in April when we were traveling in Georgia and then a few in late May when we were in Italy. I hope now that we're really into summer we'll have plenty more like this, so I can enjoy more afternoons by the pool.

Oh, and the next afternoon by the pool? Today. (Sunday.) The weather's similar to yesterday's, and like yesterday, I've kept my schedule clear of commitments so I can relax and enjoy some... #PoolLife.

One of the enjoyable things about June is the days are long. Sunset the past few weeks has been around 8:30pm... which means there's still light in the sky until 9. Sadly, the past few weeks I haven't always been able to enjoy it. Half the time I've been tired early and gone to bed while there's still light in the sky. Thursday evening I even laid down for sleep at 8:30, before actual sunset, I was so tired.

Curiously it reminds me of a snapshot memory I have from my childhood. I remember one night I was going to bed at my 9pm bedtime, and when I looked out the window it was still daytime! There was light in the sky with which I could see across our yard, to the street beyond, to the houses across the street and the woods behind them. "How was it still daytime at 9pm that one time?" my child brain wondered for the next few years as I never caught the same perfect alignment of date and time again. Well, now I've seen it again. And sadly it's like I've come full circle. As I'm getting older I'm back to needing a 9pm bedtime some nights. 😔

This week a few colleagues and I ran a booth for our company at a small trade show. I say "small" because it wasn't even a trade show, per se. It was a "Developer Day" at a major bank that's one of our customers. This "Developer Day" was like a trade show, though, in that it was an exhibit showcase by multiple vendors, plus various internal teams that platform our solutions. We had table on the exhibit floor.

Here are Five Things:

1. Like with most trade shows, the most common question we got was "So, [Company Name]... what do you do?" But unlike most trade shows, once we gave a one-sentence explanation identifying how we're used in an internal platform, almost everybody was like, "Oh, yeah, I use that daily. Cool." Thus the challenge I put to my team internally was, How can we increase our brand awareness within the bank?

2. We had a good spread of swag...at least to start. We had logo hats, logo socks, USB charger/adapter cables, logo air fresheners (like for a car), and the old trade show standard, logo stickers. I quip at least to start because we sold out of the hats pretty quickly. They were gone within the first hour. The socks went next. Then the charger cables. The air fresheners were a dud until all we had left were those and the stickers, then everybody at least took a whiff of the air fresheners to decide if they like them. 😅 We had, like, a bazillion of them, though, so we packed most of them to send back. I took two home thinking Hawk would like them, since they're lavender. She was skeptical at first but then noticed they were lavender— and purple. She took both.

3. I was bemused at how fast attendees scooped up our merch. I've written before about how all trade shows have a certain class of attendee, the "swag hound". These people cruise from booth to booth, not really interested in what any of the vendors do but feigning just enough interest to hoover up all the free giveaways and enter drawings for big prizes if there are any. Typically, in my experience, swag hounds match one of two stereoptypes: students/very entry level tech workers (i.e., people who are still impressed by getting cheap things for free) and, oddly, mid- to late career government employees (who maybe also are still tickled to get cheap things for free 🤣). But the attendees at this show were all software developers well employed by a major bank. You'd think if they wanted ballcap or a pair of socks, they could afford to buy them.

4. Yes, socks. They're the "it" thing for trade show swag right now! I was very much 🙄 when I saw this fad emerging two years ago— like, really, socks? People can't buy their own socks?—  but it works. Socks are just enough different from the trade show standard of t-shirts that they attract an extra dollop of attention. And my company's socks are actually pretty good quality. Plus, the logo design is just subtle enough that I can wear them with business casual/business dressy outfits when I'm visiting clients. When people at the bank were skeptical about our socks, I stretched my leg out alongside the table to show them I was wearing a pair.

5. Getting colleagues to stay in the booth was a problem, as always. I get it, most people hate standing in the booth waiting for questions— or waiting for real questions instead of people feigning the minimum interest level required to bag our swag. It frustrates me when colleagues who are supposed to be there with me wander off the moment there's a lull... because "Just text me if it gets busy" doesn't work. When it gets busy it gets busy. And when I have a crowd of people in front of me all trying to ask questions it is NOT the time for me to ask them all to wait while I pull out my phone to frantically text people. This show was like many, where I often found myself in the booth alone— because I have a stronger "This is the job I'm here to do" ethic than most of my colleagues. But this time I kept my frustration at bay by choosing to believe that my colleagues who skipped out of the booth were having high-value conversations out in the hall. Were they having high-value conversations? I'm sure they had at least one or two. For the rest of the time that's simply what I chose to believe while I was manning the booth, and facing the crowds, solo.