This is the sunrise this morning from our over-night parking spot at K-Mart in The Dalles. It was a great send-off for us for leaving to drive home this morning. K-Mart was a great place for us to night park, which we did for two nights. Unfortunately for K-Mart, business is slow, but that makes for a large quiet parking lot. Kentucky Fried Chicken is just across the street, so dinning needs are covered. Cell service is good, so the Internet works well, and there is TV coverage if we park in this direction. Originally we didn't know how many days we would be gone, but we arranged our schedule so that we could be gone for eight days. But yesterday looking at the weather forecast with the promise of rain, we decided we would take advantage of the last dry morning and head for home, hopefully ahead of the rain. We made it by an hour.
All in all we had a pretty good trip. We birded in a number of different counties, Clark, Skamania, and Klickitat in Washington, and Wasco County in Oregon. We spent four nights out and never spent a penny on campground fees. Actually it's not just about the money, it's our preference. We love the freedom of parking lots and rest areas, and in fact they are in general much quieter than campgrounds and no reservations needed. Perhaps our biggest joy was retracing our Honeymoon bicycle trip in May of 1993. We were self contained in those days too, with our tent, sleeping bags, cloths and cooking gear on our bikes. On this trip we could only marvel at the miles we peddled then. The days of youth are oh so fleeting.
Glad your home safe!
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