Central Oregon again!

 Hello everyone out there following where Vincent Van Goes! It has been awhile, but that is life sometimes, and life has been full of everything recently, both good and bad. So, here is a short recap!

After we left Big Lake Julie and I headed up to Washington to the Bridgeport State Park, which is just upstream of the Chief Joseph Dam (which, for those of you who were wondering, is the 2nd largest producer of hydro energy in the US! More on that later). We were there camping with Julie's family for a week. The water was chilly, but the weather was warm, and we had a great time. And at the end, we were exhausted, which is how all good vacations go I hear.

On our last day at Bridgeport we were lucky enough to be offered a tour of the dam! One of the rangers happened to be driving through the camp, stopped by, and connected with Julie's brother. He invited us to take the tour the next morning, so we did! It was SO cool for me (as an electrical engineer) to see the inside of a major hydro power plant. The tour was supposed to last between 1 and 2 hours. We somehow managed to get a 3 hour tour! I had an absolute blast, and definitely could have stayed longer. But all good things must end. It was a highlight for me, and hopefully some of the youngsters learned some things!

After the vacation was over we headed back to Central Oregon (by way of Salem to swap out some of our gear). There was a lot of work for me to do that had been on hold for almost a month. Also, we wanted to be around Central Oregon for family reasons.

My mom was diagnosed with cancer in her lung (there is a name for the cancer that Julie could tell you... I however can't remember it). She went through a bunch of tests and from all the results it appears that it has not spread or anything, so that is great news. She is going in for surgery on Monday, they will remove the cancerous area, get a couple more biopsies on some lymph nodes, and then see how things look from there, but as of now there is great hope for a full recovery. Also, during the last few weeks my parents have been moving from one house to another, and since Julie and I can be anywhere, we decided to be here in the Bend area so we could help! It has been a huge blessing to have the flexibility we have.

We have been able to help my parents get settled on their property in their tiny house (the garage is the living room) and they are ready for the journey that lies ahead. Julie and I have been working as normal in the morning, and helping get stuff cleaned up and moved over in the evenings! It has truly been great to be able to help my parents out. Hearing that my mom has cancer helped me realize that the time I have with her (and my dad) now is valuable beyond measure, and it is just good to be here with them!

Also, last night I got to connect with 2 of my old teammates from the days of working at ESI in Sisters! Adam, Mark, and I met up at Bevel in Bend (super cool place, brewery with food trucks and a disc golf putting course) to catch up and hang out. I haven't seen them in over 5 years, so it was really good to reconnect. Also, I once again discovered that my disc golf skills are average at best, but that's OK!

As for the future travels of Vincent, we are, as of now, planning to be in the Northwest for awhile, there is a lot of family here, a lot of beauty here, and we want to explore it! We are thinking of checking out as many Oregon State Parks as we can before the summer is out!