Days 126 & 127: Camping by the Hood River

We spent two half days getting back to Talent in Oregon.  I don't actually have much to report from this trip because for one reason and another I haven't had enough sleep lately and am going around in a kind of daze.  Mike decided he was going to do half of a 12-hour journey on the first day by hook or by crook, but since we didn't really pull out of Sandpoint until 3pm we found ourselves looking for a campsite halfway along the Hood River at 9:30pm in the dark.  The Hood River is the border between Washington state and Oregon.  It's a very attractive area with great views of snow-capped Mt Hood and lots of dams (which I like, despite the ecological problems they create)  A guy at a gas station sent us across the river into Washington to a state park where the campground turned out to be full and the offices closed down.  I had seen more caravans on the other side of the entrance road so we went to see if it was a private campground.  It was mostly empty and there seemed to be only two people staying there, but they told us it was tribal fishing lands.  I was surprised to learn that there are lots of tiny tribal areas that are too small to appear on maps as well as the big reservations like the one we drove through in Montana.  Anyway, the lady who was there gave us a detailed list of all the possible campgrounds in the area.  Eventually, after a lot of detours, we fetched up in a kind of rest area where camping is tolerated and free.  There were just a lot of caravans in a car park, a toilet block and a load of windsurf boards scattered around the grass between the parking and the river.  Most people are here to windsurf.  We were here to get about 6 hours of sleep.  Mike made us get up early ; ), so that we would be at his Mum's by lunchtime.  That was another 6-hour drive that I got through in a daze.  I've been asleep most of the time since.