Big disappointment at Deschutes County Fair - Highway 126 Nightmare

July 30-Aug 3.   Redmond, OR.  This whole week was one big nightmare... beginning to end and then trying to move on to the next fair was one big nightmare and might just qualify for one of my 'Tales of Woe' stories.  Please read my review of the Deschutes County Fair, which is a log of daily mishaps, etc.  I don't think I have had a week of such disappointment, anxiety, mishaps, etc., as what we went through.  We were able to load up our things and pull out of the fairgrounds by around 6:20, giving us a little over 2 hours before darkness and before the werewolves would be attacking.  Had it all planned out....  take Highway 126 to Eugene and connect up with Highway 5.  Sounds simple, huh.  Can't be too hard.

I even had programmed my GPS for the trip out and figured that nothing could go wrong.  Well... actually everything went fine until we reached the community of Sisters.  I recognized this route as being the one we took on the way out here to begin with.  Just reverse direction.  So, we drive through town and the GPS tells me to turn left onto Highway 20 or something like that.  But that is not the way we came in.  I saw a sign saying "Eugene" in that direction, but that just wasn't the way we came in before.  We continued to drive. When we were about 5 miles out of town, my GPS kept telling me to turn left.  Seemed wrong, so we decided to turn around and head back into Sisters. We drove through town and made sure that there wasn't a turnoff that we missed.  Went all the way to the end and decided to turn around.  Is this cock-a-many or what.  I turned left into the entrance of an RV Park.  Was something telling me that this is where we were supposed to spend the night?  I knew that these parks here were expensive and I decided to back up and head down 126 again.  I began to imagine a great idea for a book....  a couple lost in a motor home come across an RV Park in a mysterious town and can not leave and spend the rest of their days there.  I'm sure stories like this have been scripted/written several times before.

We turned around and got out, passing through town once again, making sure that this was the right road.  We continued through Sisters and on out. My GPS kept advising me to turn left and finally convinced me to try it.  I really needed to make good time and darkness was approaching in another hour or so.  I went about ten miles and figured that the GPS would correct itself.  But it told me to take my next left.  Oh gosh...I was 90 percent sure that I was going the right way, my wife was telling me to go another way and now the GPS was telling me this.  Think I'd be going nuts?  Nah not yet.  Haven't seen anything yet.

So, against my better judgment, I turned left onto Toll House Rd, just Like Mr. George Pakowki Slomboni (GPS) told me to do.  Turn left 100 yards, turn right 1/2 mile, turn left 200 yards.....  through these beautiful homes in a forest area.  I zigzagged for the next 10 minutes and realized that I was actually going in circles.  I had thought that it was going to take me across to the highway I had decided not to take.  So finally, I decided to turn the GPS off and try to find my way out.  I took a left and then another left and passed a sign that said 'exit'.  I wasn't able to turn in time so I had to drive farther and find a wide area to turn around the motor home.  And I suppose you would think that this would be the only time I would have to turn around?  Especially using a GPS?

So, I turned around and took that road and finally got back on Highway 126 and decided to reverse direction and go back into town.  I drove the ten miles back and tried to figure things out.  Yes, this definitely was the way I had come earlier in the week and we decided to turn around and go back in the direction we had been heading.  We went about 12 miles this time and turned on the GPS and it told me to take a right... into another forest.  The sun was going down and I really had to figure things out.  SO, I tried it and drove about 4 miles down the road and the GPS then told me to take my next left. I slowed down and just as I prepared to turn left, I saw a metal locked gate at the entrance to some house or farm or something.  Oh gosh.  Off goes the GPS again and I have to go farther down and turn around again.  I retraced my route and then headed left on Highway 126 toward Sisters again.  With all this extra driving, I realized that I had better just drive back to the Chevron station on the edge of town and fill up and ask directions.

So, off we went.  Sun getting lower in the sky and I knew that a lot of mountain driving was coming up.  I went back to the Chevron station and put in more gas.  I asked the attendant about getting to Eugene (highway 5) and he told me to take the same road which I had just been on.  Twilight Zone material?  Rod Serling would have fun with all these quirks.  I told him about my GPS problems and he informed me that a lot of people had told him about similar GPS problems in this area. "well you can add this one," I said.

He told me that 126 would veer off to the left and I should follow it.  He told me that it was about 40 miles away. 

  "thanks a lot," I said to him as I drove off into the sunset, thinking that I was finally going to leave the Twilight Zone... or should we say 'The Sisters Zone.'

So, with the sun getting lower and lower, we continued down Highway 126 and of course the GPS kept telling me to turn left, etc., which I most certainly was not going to do.  We drove up and down several mountain areas, which I recognized from our trip in the other day and I kept my eyes on every sign, waiting to see the turnoff for Eugene, etc.

It was now almost completely dark and I wondered if we should pull over to one of the many campgrounds which we passed by.  I didn't see a symbol on the signs showing that RVs could camp out so I just kept driving and driving.  Finally reached the turnoff and thought that we were 'home free.'  Came to a fork in the road and thought I saw a sign (in an odd position) that pointed to Eugene off to the left.  The GPS said nothing, so here we go again.  Do I listen to this thing or go back.  Just how reliable could this thing be?  After a few miles I decided to use my better judgment and turn around.  It was pretty dark by now and I knew that it would be extremely difficult finding someplace to turn around.  I did manage to find a spot on the right side and turned around again and headed back.

By this time I am regretting not having stayed at that RV park in Sisters and was starting to wonder if we would ever make it out of the forests.  I drove back the 5 miles or so and looked carefully at the sign...sure enough  This was the right way to Eugene, so we went to the right and continued.  I turned the GPS back on and it began telling me to turn right, etc., which pretty much were instructions to turn around.  Gosh, it's dark out there and I just want to make it to a rest stop out on Highway 5.  I keep thinking about turning onto a side road and hunkering down for the night.  But then visions of the movie, Race with the Devil starring Peter Fonda and Warren Oates dance through my mind... where they go on a trip with their motor home and end up parked near a group of devil worshippers.  Not like anything like that would ever happen but it does make you think.

Once again, I turn off the GPS and penalize him 15 minutes while I keep my eyes on the bright solid white line on the road and follow it at varying speeds.  When somebody passes me, I quickly get behind then and follow for several miles.  This road just never seems to end.  On and on and on through small communities, etc and along dark, open road.  My eyes stay focused on the white line.  Driving at night on an unfamiliar two lane road with cars approaching you with their high beams, going around many curves, etc. is no easy task and seemingly takes forever.

I just keep on going and going.  I turned on the GPS and everything seemed okay.  Being dark, it was quite hard to find a safe place to pull over and take a breather.  However, I did pull alongside a couple stores to check the GPS, etc

Pretty much assured that we were on the right highway, all we had to do was to continue all the way and not make a wrong turn.  However, when you see mileage signs that do not show the miles to your destination, but do show the mileage to other towns...Corvallis, etc., in a different direction that you are heading, it really makes you think.

We kept on going.  No argument with the GPS and we just kept on driving and driving.  No gas stations out here, people.  We are out in the boonies.

If I had never turned on the GPS I probably would never had all these problems, but many times it had come in handy and sometime I relied on it to heavily.  We've been all over the country without one of these and we did fine.  A good map will get you anywhere.

However, I pretty much assured myself that I was on the right highway.  These people do not believe in highway markers and you aren't totally sure until you've gone some distance.

So we just kept on going, knowing that sooner or later we would reach Highway 5.  Finally after what seemed like days of travel, I heard my GPS say 'Prepare to enter highway in one mile.'  That was indeed music to my ears.  With the highway in sight, we stopped over in a parking lot and ate dinner.  Lucy had been holding my tuna fish sandwich fr the past hour or so, as I had need to pay 200 percent attention to the road.  After a 15 minute rest, we drove out and got on the highway....however, it was not Highway 5 yet, we still needed to go something like 6 miles to it.  So I followed the directions given me.  I saw Highway 5 north - Portland exit first and got in the lane for Roseburg and points south.  However, I no longer saw any sign for Highway 5 south, but rather just a plain ol Exit 242 sign, which confused me.  So I did not enter, but I instantly knew that I made another mistake and drove down a mile and did an up and over and returned to the exit and got on Highway 5 South.  What a day...what a nightmare.  We were perhaps only 50 miles or so from the Douglas County Fair, but we decided to hit the next rest stop and spend the night.  Fifteen miles down the road, just south of Cottage Grove, I spotted my favorite sign of the day.....Rest Area 2 miles.  With my luck it would be closed or filled with trucks. 

Finally, we enter our place of residence for the remainder of the night and I chose a parking spot and moved on in.  Thank gosh.  Nightmare over.  I shut down, walked around and came in the side door and grabbed a large cup and filled it with ice and poured in some lemonade.  So thirst quenching.  I then fired up my computer and tinkered around for an hour or so to unwind....Get it....after all those curves, I had to UNWIND.  Finally around 12:30, I turned out the lights, the party was over and layed down on the sofa bed.  No more room on the bed because bags were piled several feet high.  Took a little while to doze off because we were close to the highway and large trucks came rolling in.  I woke up around 630 and then just dozed on and off before finally leaving around 7:45 for Roseburg and the Douglas County Fair.