Okay Sista, WAL-MART

:)

Here's to Wal-Mart...

Thank you Wal-Mart in Walla Walla, Washington. I appreciate you allowing people to spend the night in their cars in your parking lot. I appreciate you allowing me to wash my face, brush my teeth, and change my clothes in your restroom. And thank you Wal-Mart in Vancouver, WA, removed from Portland by two rivers and two bridges. Though your parking lot patrol did make me nervous and I didn't sleep well, I still appreciate your hospitality, and your open restroom for the morning necessities as well. See mom, I am keeping clean. But Wal-Marts, I'm still reluctant to spend a dollar in your stores. That's for people who are too lazy to go more than one place when they run errands, or who would rather save a few bucks here and there instead of supporting local businesses. Ouch. Hopefully the rumors about how you treat your employees isn't all true, or how when you show up in town and all the mom and pop stores go under isn't all your fault. Maybe those tales are exaggerated. I will continue to use your parking lots and restrooms when convenient and necessary, but that doesn't mean I have to like you.

I'm in Portland now, been here since Sunday. Traveling alone leaves only opportunity to make new friends, and the friends have been good, and so has Portland. I'll be staying here longer then expected, so my timeline in exploring the area has been slowed a bit which is nice. Cities and people in them are calling and when I out-stay my welcome here I'll be moving on. Portland is better than I expected. I expected to be disappointed, that the trendiness of this city from a Southern California perspective was overkill, but it isn't. There's great big tree forests surrounding the downtown. People are fresh and creative and unique and plentiful, which is intimidating at first after spending the summer in small towns in Alaska and Montana, but once immersed within the flow here it becomes the norm.

To maybe Corvalis, and maybe Bend, and maybe Astoria, and very likely Seattle, and very likely Bellingham, and who knows where in between and after, off in a few days I'll go.