Home again, home again, jiggity jog...

Jill loves the Columbia River Gorge. Click on the photo to see why. The two dams are The Dalles Dam and Bonneville Dam.


We are home! It is hard to believe that these past four weeks are gone, kaput, history. We got up this morning and realized that this was the final leg of our journey. The wicked weather of yesterday afternoon had abated, but it was still overcast and breezy.

I checked Weather Bonk to see what the wind forecasts for the gorge might be. The prediction was for 23 mph in The Dalles, 15 in Hood River and 10 in Troutdale. I decided we could tolerate such winds, although not without some trepidation.

We secured the coach. It occurred to me that there was no reason to make up the bed. That made me a little sad. Jill secured the inside of the coach, while I did my usual "pre-flight" inspection: checking tire pressures, checking oil and coolant levels, visually inspecting the coach and the toad, cleaning the windshield.

We hit the road about 8:35 AM, and although the winds were troublesome at times, we had no real difficulties. As the winds decreased, the weather became grayer and damper the closer to home we got. We finally arrived at our driveway at about 11:55 AM.

Reflecting on the trip, I have a few observations:

1) Sadie performed like a champ. She didn't give us one lick of trouble along the way. Every problem we had with Sadie was one I created; to wit, accidentally switching off the house power on the second day out, wearing out the light cord for the toad, because I neglected to check what "that noise" was all about when we bottomed out in Fillmore. Other than those two episodes, we did not have any problems with Sadie. She didn't even use a quart of oil in 3,000+ miles!

2) Towing a car is not as problem free as one might think. I am very glad we took Daisy Mae along, but after we blew out the right rear tire, I was less enthusiastic about towing. All things considered, having her along made the trip more enjoyable.

3) Living with your soul mate in a 240 square foot space is not only doable, but quite enjoyable. Jill and I never had a conflict during the trip. We were both sad when it was over, and we wonder what to do with all this space at home!!

4) This is a wonderful way to see the countryside. I think we both realized that we tried to cram a lot of sightseeing into a month. We agreed that we would like to make a trip to a destination, park Sadie for a week or two and just enjoy the serenity of a simple existence. Our trip to Hood Canal in August should be more like that.

5) Apparently, we spend more money at home than I thought we did. We actually did not withdraw any money from savings to cover our expenses on the road. It all came out of our day to day living money, even the fuel expenditures. I conclude that living this way, is pretty economical.

6) My wife is a magician when it comes to packing the coach, especially where food is concerned. We ate out of the food she stowed for most of the trip, only replenishing perishable items and some naughty little snacks. I can count the restaurant meals we ate on the fingers of one hand.

7) Would I do this again? I think we can be repacked by tomorrow afternoon!