There was nothing special about today’s drive. I spent the morning in Boise, eating breakfast and running/walking/nearly crawling up a steep hill to get a photo of the city before sunrise.

The drive from Boise to Bend was nothing like I expected it would be. For what it’s worth, I expected lot of pine trees and towns filled with smiling Oregonians. Or something. Instead what I got was wide open space and very little civilization. Eastern Oregon fits the bill of what I enjoy geographically. Wide open spaces, distant mountains, and steep inclines opening up to panoramic views. That said, after driving for 3500 miles and just under 53 hours, even my favorite landscape couldn’t satisfy me.

I was very lucky to be able to randomly pick up a Westwood One signal over the only (I’m not exaggerating) AM or FM station I could receive. Unfortunately, that game was the Steelers/Jets game.

A common thread over most of my trips in my life is that I fall off the sports grid. I have a general idea about what’s happening in the sports world, but there’s always some stuff I miss. For example, I had no idea Stanford lost to Utah yesterday. To most of you, that’s not very important to know. To me, though, not knowing that kind of stuff is just weird.

I’m in Bend, Oregon tonight and will be here for the foreseeable future. I get the impression that my aunt and uncle would be perfectly okay with me hanging around here for as long as I want. Bend is an interesting town. It strikes me as having been built six months ago to provide overflow space to those who couldn’t make it all the way to Portland. Of course, this is an assumption based upon being driven around town for 30 minutes. I’ll have a few more days here to really experience “this town” (lowercase).

I don’t foresee posting much while I’m here. Once I get back on the road, wherever that takes me, I’ll start updating again. If you care for these things, you can follow me on twitter @midatlanticbias and on Instagram @jasonbotelho (formerly @midatlanticbias).