After getting a few hours less sleep than I’d like, we headed North towards La Pine.  It’s a lonely road, but in the end we reached Bend where we picked up a few things at my first ever visit to Harbor Freight.

Once we turned onto 218, it was pretty lonely, and we soon reached Antelope, that dying town with its tragic history.

At last we reached the sign that I had been waiting 20 years to see again:

I had staffed here for three summers in the 90s, and attended programs as a student for a half dozen years before that.  It was good to be back!

After getting everything set up, I went for a quick ride.  On the way, I passed through the town of Clarno, population 2 or so.  The abandoned grange hall had been repainted and fixed up.  There were a number of RVs parked there, so I asked what was going on.  Turns out it was a Clarno family reunion, and Grandma Clarno had purchased the grange hall from the BLM and turned it into a family museum. 

Crossing the John Day river:

The climb out of the John Day River valley was brutal, here are the stats:

I’ll be doing some Photography and Astronomy instruction this weekend.  It really is great to be back!

We drove 193 miles today.   See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.