Adventures in LuLu

The final hours of our nine day road trip were on “the loneliest road in America.” The road was indeed lightly traveled and we saw almost no one. We pulled into Bend at 630 pm, tumbled out of the car, and raced each other to a hot shower. I won.

We are now setting up house for five weeks in Bend. The thing I have already figured out about this place is that they really don’t want anyone else to move here. I first experienced this when we stopped in Fields, Oregon where there is nothing except a cafe that serves milk shakes. A must stop in other words. There a car sported a bumper sticker that said “Bend Sucks. Don’t Move Here.”

This morning on a hike on the river trail, there was Sharpie-created graffiti on the trail map that advised Cali people to ‘go home and stay out of Bend’.

This led me to think about the concept of belonging. Why do people who are themselves transplants then resent others who want to follow their path? Why do some people enhance a place and others are seen as ‘ruining it?’

When we walked around downtown, we started to get the sinking feeling that we are not hip enough to live in Oregon. A shopkeeper asked us if we were moving to Bend. I laughed and said “easy, we are just visiting.” “But,” I added pointing to David, “he was born here.” The shopkeeper gave David a serious show of respect and said, “Man, no one is born here.” And that is how we got immediate street cred.

Belonging. It is a weird thing.