After our magical explorations in Idaho, the final state line crossing on this cross country repositioning would be into Oregon. We were excited to be exploring new territory to us, entering Oregon from the western desert side.
Hot Springs in Burns, OR
Our bodies were aching from sitting way too many hours at the keyboard working on The Mobile Internet Handbook and driving too many miles. Using the AllStays app, we spotted a hot springs campground not too far off our route. Our friends Forrest and Mary were all about it too.
It was ironic then that our friends Nikki & Jason posted about this secret gem on their own blog. And that totally locked in the destination for us!
Crystal Crane Hot Springs (our review) is definitely a must stop for hot springs lovers. It’s out in the middle of nowhere. 20 miles from nowhere to be exact.
The campground is pretty basic – a few side-by-side pull through spots with electric/water hook-ups. And a few scattered about full hook-up spots, which we snagged one to dump our tanks after several days of courtesy parking. We loved that such a barebones campground has a great online reservation system!
But, as their signs say – ‘It’s all about the water!’.
Their springs are situated in a large deep pond suitable for full body emersion. The temperatures varied from 92 degrees to 103 during our 2 night stay. People on a day pass are asked to leave by 8:45pm, however campers have access to the pond 24/7.
And gee golly whiz, is that ever a delight to these night owl nomads!
We soaked as much as our bodies could stand it. The temperatures were ideal for extended soaking, and watching shooting stars over the Milky Way while floating on your back.. it just doesn’t get much better than that.
The WiFi was weak, we couldn’t get a solid AT&T signal.. but we got enough Verizon to make it manageable. Which was perfect, because water was all the connectivity we really needed.
The Hostest with the Mostest – Bend, OR
When our plans to route this way started to emerge, we got an invitation from a follower who said ‘We have WiFi, and we’d love to host you guys when you come through Bend!’.
Hey, WiFi is a great lure for us. We started up a conversation with Chris & Cliff, who are considering at least seasonally RVing once they retire.
Then they noticed we were caravanning with friends from our Facebook posts, and invited them too.
When we arrived, I’m not quite sure we were prepared for how awesome this courtesy parking invitation was. See, they own on a pond. Or a small lake, depending on how you want to define it. They gave us several options for where we could park, depending on how accessible to electric we wanted to be.
We of course selected the scenic peninsula that reaches out into the middle of the pond, and opted to use our solar panels for electricity. It. Was. Divine.
But it gets even better.
During our correspondence, they proposed us joining them and some friends for dinner, and asked if minded if they asked us some questions about RVing. Seeing as we had gotten a couple invitations to meet up in the area, we proposed hosting an open invite Q&A meet up in the area.
They offered up their place.
Using RVillage to list the event and the nifty ‘invite everyone within 10 miles feature’, we ended up with over 30 folks stopping by for the afternoon.
What a meet-up! Lots of great questions answered, new friendships made and just a wonderful event all around.
We really enjoyed our visit to Bend, and look forward to returning in the future and getting to know it better. This place seems like our kinda place.
We also used the opportunity to provision at Trader Joe’s for our two month out at Cape Blanco.
Solar Geeking at AMSolar – Springfield, OR
Our next stop was over the pass into Springfield, where we accepted an invitation to courtesy park with our friends Deb & Greg of AMSolar.
We’ve been corresponding with Greg for a while about our eventual solar setup, and been comparing research and notes on flexible panels.
AMSolar’s business has been booming lately, and they have back-to-back installs lined up months in advance. A well earned place to be, because these guys really know their stuff and do it right. It was just a quick stop in, but we’re so delighted we got to geek out with them a bit on panels and add one of their glass panels to the mix to test out in our solar challenge.
During our quick stop there, we also launched the Kindle & iBooks versions of The Mobile Internet Handbook, conducted two live video chats (archive of the Caravanning with RVing friends now available, and a Mobile Internet Aficionados exclusive on an Overview of WiFiRanger products) and finished our provisioning for heading out to the remoteness of Cape Blanco!
Whew… it was a hectic and quick stop over. But we were anxious to get out to the coast!
What’s Up Next? We’ve arrived early out to Cape Blanco State Park, finally completing our cross country repositioning. We will have our volunteer lighthouse host orientation on Monday. We’re looking forward to settling in for the next two months in a gorgeous location, with awesome neighbors and some much needed down time! I’ll update next on what we’ll be up to out here.
Great Post…..I am really interested in the place where you “hot tubbed” it …If you ever get to the western side of Oregon , near Steens Mountain, you will find more hot springs and some beautiful scenery especially the fall….
enjoy Cape Blanco, I look forward to reading amore about your adventures there…
Star-gazing in the hot springs sounds pretty much like heaven to me!! Your Bend hosts have a lovely place and were so sweet to share it with you and 30 of your friends – I know everyone had a great time :-). Can’t believe you’re already back at Cape Blanco – seems like the four of you just pulled out a couple month ago. Looking forward to seeing what trouble you can get into 🙂 !!