W’ere on the road again. Sorry, Willie Nelson, you weren’t invited.

My wife and I started by visiting and spending the night at Cultus Lake. It rained most of the night but was nice enough in the afternoon prior so we got in a good hike to whet the appetite. It’s a great lake for most water sports and near good trails for hiking. The lodge and cafe are both top quality for high lakes country.

In the morning we hit the road early for a fine breakfast in La Pine’s Red Rooster, a great mom-and-pop shop that is very popular with locals and visitors alike. Then we went on to Chiloquin and a first-time (for us) stop at the casino. Not bad, even won a little moola.

Our next stop was Klamath Falls to book a room and just before that we caught a good look at pelicans and a bald eagle. Then we took a drive to see Lake of the Woods. It was a sunny day so the campgrounds and beach were full of people. If you don’t know, the lake itself is between Klamath Falls and Medford, so there’s easy access for those lucky folks.

We had good breakfast at the motel and then we hit the road for Lakeview. We saw some really pretty country and were surprised at how much of the land we saw was cultivated and sprinkler irrigated. There were lush, green fields most of the way.

We arrived in Lakeview, the highest city in Oregon at 4,800 feet, as it was just starting to do its Saturday-morning stirring. Merchants were setting up on the sidewalk, a small market place getting ready for the hoped rush, and there was just generally a busyness that fit in with the small city. After a bit of searching, we found a coffee and goodie shop to break up our driving and to see what we could see. Surprise, surprise! The owners of the shop and nearby variety store and women’s clothing store were former Redmondites. As was the clerk in the women’s store.

The coffee and pastry stop dragged out to an hour or more with friendly visiting and lots of “Do you know so and so?” and “Do you remember when Bend and Redmond were just small lumber towns?” Finally we took off to see Burns, a place we hadn’t seen for many years, and had a chance to do a first-time run past Abert Rim and Lake. But first we had to make a stop at the junction north of Lakeview for gas. And then the fun continued.

The proprietor and gas pumper was a bearded 30-or 40-something transplant (three years ago) from L.A., enjoying the solitude of this southern end of the High Desert. After telling us our destination took us past Abert Lake and Rim, which are very lovely to look at, he also explained that the rest of the trip was going to be pretty boring. He asked if we planned to stop at the Refuge, site of the recent brouhaha. “Maybe,” we replied, and then he proceeded to tell us the following story: When the outside agitators (my description, not his) took over the federal buildings and law enforcement became involved, a barricade was set up, as we all know. But our new friend told us that a second barrier was there, too, beyond which one should not go because you might be detained. “Now that word has potentially lots of different meanings,” said I. Said he: “Yes, and you know that you never heard about this in the news because there were Russian Soldiers there as part of the blockade. And they were there because some Canadian company called Uranium One had a mine near there and they were selling uranium to the Russians thanks to something Hilary put through.”

Well, we edged away and out of there as politely as we could because this conspiracy theory was just too far out in left field. But, I had to ask him where he got this information. He said he looked it up — I guess through the internet. If it was such a big bad secret how the heck could he find it but not the news networks? We’ll never know.

As promised, most of the trip to Riley was indeed boring, nearly straight as a string, but a chance to utilize the new speed limit of 65 most of the way. We then motored into Burns, saw the sights and found out that the Piaute Reservation’s casino had closed two years ago. Shucks, I wanted to give them my winnings from Kla-Mo-Ya in Chiloquin.

Instead of spending another night on the road we headed home, speeding past Riley, Hampton Station, the ghost town of Millican and skirting around Bend past its airport and taking the back road home.

The High Desert has many thrilling sights, not the least of which is Abert Rim, rising abruptly 2,000 feet from the valley floor thanks to ancient volcanic upheavals. We still have the Steens Mountains, Frenchglen, Paisleyand other forlorn areas to see — not to mention the more inhabited area around the Wallowas in the northern corner of our state. But that is another story for another time.

— Miles Hutchins is a retired Redmond resident who grew up in Central Oregon. Contact him at milesredmond@gmail.com.