Great nights sleep in the motel room the four of us shared. Not in any hurry, I got some of my entries out and then we headed downstairs to grab some of the motels continental breakfast. Afterwards I packed up my gear and said goodbye to the others. They wanted to do their chores in a different order than I did, and also they would hitch back to a different part of the trail, 50 miles south of where I’d gotten off. On todays to-do list was laundry, groceries and REI. 
Because I only had twenty-dollar bills I got stuck with a ridiculous amount of quarters after changing one of them in the quarter-machine. I got rid of a part of them by buying some Vitamin I at the nearby pharmacy. Time for real breakfast. There was a nice diner in the neighborhood and I feasted on meatloaf, eggs, hash-browns and blueberry waffles, yum yum. After finishing a great phone-conversation with my buddy Peter, I got to talking some of the locals who were all very friendly, asking me a bunch of questions.
I got my groceries done at Safeway and sat down in the Starbucks cafe area to get rid of all my excess packaging and put all my food in ziplocks. When I was checking out a the counter I was really pleased with the amount of food I bought; it looked like a pretty light carry considering it was 4 days. When I’d fit everything in my pack, I got my head out of the clouds real fast; it was crazy heavy still. Time for REI. Yesterday I’d taken a look at their options and I decided on getting the Thermarest Zlite Foampad, a durable reflective mat to place underneath my non-isolated inflatable pad. When I got there though, they’d sold out of the item, but were kind enough to direct me to a different nearby store which might have it. I walked over, enjoying the lovely scenery of downtown Bend for the final time and manage to buy said item at the store Mountain Supply. It was getting pretty late now, because as always chores took way longer than anticipated. Time to get out of here. 
I tried hitching out from the nearby freeway, but there wasn’t a real convenient spot for cars to pull over. Also I was still somewhat in the center of Bend, so cars would have several options to go different directions. This did not help my cause. I decided to uber to the outskirts of Bend, to highway 20, from where cars could only go one way, in the direction I needed to go. Turned out I hadn’t used the uber-app for so long, that my phone (to save storage) had stored its contents in the cloud. Means I needed wifi to get access. Means I needed to hike back to the Brewery Crux, before I get wifi and could use it again. So I walked some more. Finally I found myself in the uber, and then at the junction to Highway 20. By now it was 1900 and I’d have only an hour left before it would be dark, to get a hitch to the trail-head almost 50 miles away….
Cars drove by and by and I started to thinking about alternatives in case I wouldn’t make it out of Bend.
But once again, the trail provides.
A large camper-van honked its horn repeatedly at me, and the driver signaled me where he was going to pull over. As I gladly walked over towards them, the gentleman stepped out, introducing himself as Jim, who’d hiked the PCT in 1989! I told them that I would love to get to Sisters, if possible even to back to trail-head at Santiam Pass, which was quite a bit further, and he immediately responded that he would take me all the way! I was so happy! I got introduced to his wife Jane, and we had wonderful conversation about the PCT and other travels. They had been taking in, and helping out PCT hikers for years. I was so fortunate to thread the needle and make it all the way to the trail-head in the end. When Jim dropped me off, it was already pitch-black out, but I’d gotten new batteries for my headlamp and was ready to get to a campsite. We said goodbye and I hiked out into the dark. I found a campsite after a little over an hour of hiking. Tomorrow I’ll continue with the stretch leading up to the Oregon-Washington boarder. A little under 150 miles to Cascade Locks. Also, Jukebox, Pops and Photo-op shouldn’t be too far in front of me. I hope I will catch up with them.
Life’s like a road that you travel on
Then there’s one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend and sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind
There’s a world outside every darkened door
Where blues won’t haunt you anymore
Where brave are free and lovers soar
Come ride with me to the distant shore
We won’t hesitate
To break down the garden gate
There’s not much time left today
Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long
If you’re going my way
I wanna drive it all night long
Life is a Highway – Rascal Flatts
