If you draw a straight line on a map from Boise to Bend, Oregon and mark the center of that line, you would put a dot on Burns, Oregon. We had been in contact with our great college friend, Ted Maas, and had plans to hang out with him in his hometown of Bend, Oregon the following day. We had a day to kill so we figured, why not drive halfway there? And that was Burns.
Back in the state that kicked it all off.
So close but we still have a few more stops.
We were not surprised to find out that the amount of bars in Burns outnumbers the libraries 8 to 0. We checked into a shady motel in downtown Burns called The City Center Motel and hit the town. It must be noted that there were several meth deals taking place at the motel and the lady that gave us the key to our room had more armpit hair than Sasquatch.
The beautiful City Center Motel.
We headed down the road to the first bar we found. On our way to a bar, we received this email. Hope you enjoyed the 3 Busch Lights, 1 8oz Michelob Ultra, flask worth of Evan Williams, and skipping stones from Glacier National. See you soon Tim to get that back.
We walked a block and made it to Central Pastime Tavern. We were welcomed by a deep sigh from the waitress and the typical, "Ahhh, what do you guys want?" attitude of a server in Burns. I think she was thrown off by our smiles. Nonetheless, the food was good and the Mirror Ponds were better.
With a hop in our step, we headed down the road to Morgan's.
The mother-daughter bartender combo here was full of life. We played some shuffleboard over a couple more beers. We played against a recently married couple who informed us of the local nightclub. We followed them there after a quick game of pool with a different dynamic duo. The two guys, dressed in cutoff t-shirts displaying their barbed wire tattoos, told us stories of their days living in Vegas. They told us, with pride, about how they used good-looking girls to con tourist into giving them money. They told the girls to use stories about car trouble, getting robbed, or getting stranded by friends. They would pull in hundreds of dollars a night. I guess they got what was coming to them... unemployment in Burns.
We headed with Justin and Brittany to Showtime Bar, the local nightcap.
There is something very uncomfortable about loud music and flashing lights in an empty bar. We didn't stay long. Back to the City Center Motel for a decent night sleep for the ride to Bend in the morning. We did feel like we made the most of that wretched dump.
"Rich Man, Poor Man" - Groundhogs
