Of sagebrush, deep space objects, and yarn, part 2

After staying up half the night on the mountaintop observatory, I was sure glad to be able to sleep late the next day. Which, as it turns out, I didn't -- I don't know why, but my eyes went "sproing" at the usual time, and while I tried to doze for another hour, I eventually got up well before I intended to. I brewed a good strong cup of tea and armed myself with iced tea to stay alert the entire 133 mile drive home over the mountains. It is not wise to nod off on winding mountain highways with steep drop-offs on one side. Nope.

On the way out I took a swift tour of the yarn shops of Bend and Sisters. I started with Gossamer, an upscale yarn shop in Bend:

Or at least, I tried to. I got there about a quarter after 10:00, since the website said they opened at 10:00, but alas, I missed the bit about summer hours. They wouldn't open until 11:00. Not wanting to sit around for 45 minutes, all I could do was get a shot of the fibrous wonders inside through the glass window:

I did find my way to Juniper Fiberworks, after a couple of false starts. I've got the DH's old GPS, and the GPS map has an old address for the store, which took me to totally the wrong end of town. Last time I'd been in Bend, Juniper had been at a different address from where the GPS wanted to take me, so I dashed back to the hotel, got a good wireless signal from my car, looked up the address (that, I guess, is the 21st century version of finding a telephone booth -- anyone remember those? -- and looking up an address in that old analog device, the telephone book), and discovered that Juniper had moved again since I last visited. And after finding the busy street where Juniper lives, and making several false turns on the way, I finally arrived:

Mmm, plenty of yarny goodness as a reward for all of that effort!

It was hard to choose exactly what to bring home as souvenir yarn, but I finally settled on a gold and silver skein of silk and cashmere from Artyarns:

That did it for Bend's selection of yarn shops, so I hit the highway west toward home.

As lovely as any trip out of town can be, sometimes the nicest part is coming home. And with views like this on the way, heck YEAH, the drive can be the best part of the trip:

That jagged peak on the left is Broken Top, and the snowy peak on the right is the South Sister. I was tooling along the highway between Bend and Sisters, thinking, "Ya know, with a view like that, it would be really cool if one of the ranchers around here would donate a few hundred square feet for a viewpoint pull-off..." and about that time I saw the blue sign saying, "Viewpoint, 1/2 mile." Wish granted! Unfortunately I couldn't see Mt. Bachelor from that spot, but I did have a gorgeous view of all of the Three Sisters:

Continuing the view from south to north, next comes Mt. Washington (the locals have other, more colorful names for the mountain based on its distinctive shape, but let's stick with the official name for now):

Then comes small, jagged, Three-Fingered Jack (I couldn't get the telephone lines to stand to the side, sorry):

Then Black Butte, and majestic Mt. Jefferson:

There's "Jeff" on zoom:

About 30 minutes of driving took me to the town of Sisters, originally a logging town which saw a terrible economic downturn in the 70s, but which rebuilt itself as a tourist mecca by doing all the store fronts in "Old West" style, installing upscale shops, and putting in hotels and such. The shop I homed in on was The Stitchin' Post. (Is that Old West enough for y'all?)

Originally a quilt and fabric shop, they've also added a nice selection of yarns:

Like this Rowan Lima alpaca blend that I came home with:

I stopped for lunch at a small park at the north end of Sisters, where I had a nice view of, well, the Sisters:

Then I pointed the car west and I was on my way home. I wish I could have gotten shots of the drive over the mountains, up out of the pines, up into the firs, over the alpine meadows, down toward Detroit Lake, but there weren't many safe places to pull over. Suffice it to say I took rest breaks and made it home safely, with new yarn to play with.